We had a relaxing day on board and departed Buenos Aires around 6:00 p.m. and entered the River Plate. This giant estuary is at the confluence of the Paraná and Uruguay rivers. The estuary is the widest in the world at 140 miles with a length of 180 miles. The Paraná is one of the world’s longest rivers and has eroded the old red sandstone of Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina to reach the northern end of the estuary where the force of the seawater makes it drop the alluvium. From the air, when we arrived, we could clearly see the brown deposits at the “top end” of the delta, which is well inland from the sea compared to, for example, the River Nile.
