It's a Jungle Out There

Deep in the rainforest of Argentina, Kendall Hunter harvests yerba mate, paddles the Iguazú River, and connects with an Indigenous culture.

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AS I WALKED UP to the ceremonial hut, flames licked the fat belly of a cauldron, sending curls of smoke into the humid air of the Yacutinga nature reserve, in Argentina’s northeastern corner. A medicine man crushed dried yerba mate leaves in a wooden mortar, then brushed them into simmering water, before mixing in embers from the fire and a heap of granulated sugar. Unlike the mate consumed across Argentina—and served in a gourd—this version, known as mate cocido, was smoky and sweet, and served in a teacup.

Mate is a sacred plant to the Guaraní—a group of Indigenous people from the surrounding region—and is used in religious rituals and for social bonding. I accepted the drink with gratitude and sipped it as a gesture of friendship.

The ceremony was a high point of my four-day visit to the Atlantic Forest, one of the world’s most diverse and fragile biomes. Once stretching 400,000 square miles across sections of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay, the forest has been reduced to 12 percent of its original size by deforestation, cattle ranching, and urban expansion. Even so, it is still home to thousands of threatened plants and animals, including the jaguar, tapir, and harpy eagle.

My journey was organized by Yacutinga Lodge, a 21-room property located deep in the rainforest about 50 miles east of Iguazú Falls. Opened in 2000, the lodge sits on a 1,410-acre private nature reserve, and has an organic, Gaudí-inspired design: curved walls, stained glass, and natural materials that blend in to the jungle. I stayed in the Yatei Suite, which was set apart from the main building and surrounded by jungle. With its hardwood-log posts, sunflower-yellow plastered walls, and a skylight embedded with colored glass bottles, it felt like a plush, Hobbit-style bungalow.