When leaving the hustle and bustle of Buenos Aires' international airport, you'll see groups of anglers peppered throughout the masses of travelers assembling outside the customs exit—chatting with newly arrived companions, meeting with drivers that will shuttle them across town to the domestic airport, piling and stacking bags of gear. Almost all of them are headed south. And west. In search of trout in Patagonia or Tierra del Fuego. But instead of shuttling across town to catch a flight to San Martin, Bariloche or Rio Grande, we're prepping to ride north. North to Corrientes, to the Iberá Marshlands, the second largest wetland on the entire globe, a region twice the size of the entirety of the Florida Everglades, and home to seemingly countless rivers, creeks, streams, sloughs, lakes and ponds where the golden dorado is king.
Almost entirely protected as a nature preserve since 1983, the Iberá Marshlands—or Esteros del Iberá—is known for its crystal-clear, unpolluted waters. Due to the region's unique geology, the marshlands are a nearly closed system with no inflow—other than rainfall—and only minor outflow. The region is also uninfluenced by mining or industry, due to the lack of either in proximity of the marshlands. Virtually uninhabited, there are still portions of the preserve that have never been explored.
