Amazing Iguassu Falls!

These falls are higher than Niagra and wider than Victoria Falls. After a 2 hour flight from BA, we arrived at the Hostel Inn in Iguassu City, a small town on the border with Brazil and Paraguay. We walked down a hill to the Iguassu and Parana river where you could see all three countries. We were walking with Irit, an Israeli woman who works in water engineering, who is traveling in SA for several months. She had been to Carnival in Rio but stayed on an island a bit aways from Rio as she is traveling by herself. But she got to see some of it. There were samba schools who enter contests after Carnival and then do a parade that she said was amazing!

The hostel was great, right in the center of town, but the room itself wasn´t so hot. Nice patio outside, swimming pool (didn´t see anyone in it), bar outside, computers and wifi. But the 6 bunkbeds in the room weren´t so comfortable - poor Michelle got a top bunk the first night, no ladder! And not great shower! The second night she got a bottom and a Korean guy took her top bunk. When I woke up during the night, he was putting his forearms on the two top bunks and swinging himself up to the bunk. I asked him in the a.m. if he was a gymnast. He said he couldn´t figure out how to get into the bed - he didn´t think of climbing up on the end - there was no ladder! - like Michelle had done! He was headed to Brazil.

So early we took a 9 a.m. bus out to the National Park to spend the day at the falls. Bus was 30 pesos and then 170 each to enter the park for a day, and we paid 150 p. for a boat ride under the falls later in the day. We walked along a forest path where we first encountered the coati - a raccoon like animal with very long tail and a snout pointy like an anteater. They can be very aggressive, can bite, and jump on your food so we gave them wide berth even though they looked cute! They tended to hang around food places.

The only other wild life we saw were huge black vultures circling over the falls to catch the drafts and a caiman, like an alligator, floating under a bridge and a gigantic catfish swimming nearby. Otherwise it was just tourists! We were lucky as we had a gorgeous mostly sunny day which helped later when we were soaking wet after our boat ride. It was rainy and cloudy the second day before our bus ride back to BA.

The park is well laid out and paved walks, with metal grid walkways actually OVER a lot of the smaller falls. So it was all around you! The sound of the roaring water, tons of it, crashing down on the huge rocks was deafening! And the walkway went on and on. We followed the suggestion of walking the upper falls pathway for maybe an hour, then the lower falls one until we came around noon to the steep path down to the boat dock. I donned my plastic pancho, which kept me drier than the others, they their jackets and then our life vests. We got on sort of a big zodiac with maybe 20 people and sat on the benches inside, rather than on the edge like down in Ushuaia. The boat took us near El Diablo, the devil falls, and then back out with the current. The driver told us to take pictures and lots of people posed on the steps with falls in the background. Then we were told to put away our cameras and the driver drove us further in, under the heavy mist, where we could not see too much! Then we rushed back out with the current and went to the other side of Isle San Martin kind of between the two major falls (you sometimes can hike around it but apparently the water was too high that day). Water just poured on us and only my lap and the top of my shirt didn´t get wet. Fortunately we had all worn sandals that day in anticipation of this as our hiking boots would STILL be wet!

Our last segment was the train ride up to the top and then a LOOONG walk on the metal bridges over the top of El Diablo to the end where the major part goes over. It was so full of mist and spray (we got soaked again) that you couldn´t really see where it fell to. Talk about roaring power! It was amazing just how they ever got this walkway built from rock outcropping to outcropping across this major river! Even if it hadn´t been larger than Niagra, it´s so worth seeing because you can get so close up below, above and in the Falls! Well done, Argentine! We heard this side was way more scenic than the Brazilian side. Some people had gone to both. We avoided Brazil because of another American-only reciprocity fee of $160 or so plus all the other hoops to go through to get a visa! We are the only ones who pay it because WE are the ones who charge such huge visas and restrictions (90 days tourist visas) to foreigners visiting US! So tit for tat! I don´t blame them! But had avoided the one in Chile (you only pay if you fly in internationally to Santiago - we had crossed by land into Arica) and paid the $160 one in Argentina. Up until last year we would have avoided it as we came in by boat to Ushuaia but they changed the rules and we were checked also when we came back in from Uruguay.

Food was very expensive out in the park so we had brought lunch (empanadas from the store around the corner from hostel) and we sat at the lower falls before the boat ride to eat - as I´m sure our lunches would have been soaked! Empanadas are like a pasty or meat pie rolled in dough. They are handy to carry and can have any kind of filling. Turns out in some papers that Portia, a friend who did an Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) trip to Chile and Argentina, gave me, there is a recipe including the pastry part. I will try them! I had a carne (meat) one and a spinach and cheese one. I thought they were just a Chilean food specialty but they have them everywhere in SA. We bought them again for lunch before we left on the bus for BA.

Our second day in IF, we took a 3 peso bus out to an animal refuge right on the border of the National Park. It was 75 pesos for the guided tour as it´s a private place with no public funding. They rescue animals from street accidents or drop offs of pets people have kept and don´t want or rescued from animal smugglers. We had to wait around for an hour or so before the next tour so shopped in the little gift shop. There were some lovely butterfly magnets that I got for S. and J. We had seen some amazingly colorful butterflies in the park! One brilliant purple and red one landed on my foot! I think Michelle got a picture!

Our tractor and wagon came by to take our group further back where the walk started. Our guide spoke really good English and was very knowledgeable. We walked a paved and gravel walkway around many cages where she stopped at each one and explained about the animal(s) and where they had been rescued from. If they were raised by humans, or badly injured, like broken wings that couldn´t be repaired, they would stay in their center. But mostly they were trained to go back to the wild and be released. We got close up views of many birds of prey, variety of toucans, peccaries - a kind of wild pig, - monkeys - capuchin and some black howlers. One howler was living around OUTSIDE on top of their huge cage. She was free to come and go, as our guide pointed out, this was the jungle! At one point she came down to the railing and was following Michelle and startled her! Also some HUGE spiders outside of cages!! Eeuw! I´ll have nightmares about those! It was well worth the time and money.

On the way back we chatted with a French and Spanish speaking guy from our hostel who had been on the trip. He was 40 or so and traveling for a year and a half! He had been robbed his first day in BA. They did the spill-something-on-him-and-then-the-other-one-helps-clean-it-off - while they ran away with his whole backpack! We had read this scam in one of the guide books already. So we are walking around BA with very little! We have met so many people from everywhere traveling around for months at a time!! Americans just don´t do that much!

Our last adventure at IF was taking a supposed 17 hour bus ride back to BA leaving at 3:45 pm and arriving around 8 the next a.m. We upgraded our seats to upstairs with semi-coma reclining seats for sleeping! Ended up being very comfortable but we didn´t arrive until around 2 p.m. because about 3 hours out of BA at 8 a.m. the bus broke down and we waited for another one to cram into and finish the ride. Not worth the small savings above flying round trip! But who knew! And the scenery was just rolling farmland, not particularly interesting to view! But an experience, nontheless! We arrived and took a taxi to the Ritz Hostel to explore BA for 3 days! Ida and her family live so far out of BA it´s not practical to stay there and take the long train ride in. May´s wonderful husband Christian had delivered our extra luggage to the hostel and they were waiting here for us. We have a lovely 4 bedroom with high ceilings and private bath with balcony overlooking Avenida de Mayo! We will take a round the city 3 hour tour arranged by the hostel today. More later!