Puerto Iguazú, Argentina. Hot and Humid, but really nice!

Dem Falls, Dem Falls, Part Dos! 

I really loved this long, low velocity fall. You’ll see the main flow to the right, and clearly this isn’t high flow season as the volumes aren’t present. On the left side if you look closely there are a series of vertical pools each with grind stones in the bottom which have carved impressively beautiful pools all the way down the cliff face, with water running from one to the other via gravity. It was a very tranquil place before the more high velocity falls we were to view later.

Last night we went out on the town to a really great little restaurant where I enjoyed a nice piece of the local river fish and some really nicely cooked veggies together with a mega glass of the Argentinian Malbec. It was all pretty nice, and the wine was fabulous and inexpensive. As a matter of fact when we received the bill Annemarie was a bit surprised to see that her vino blanco cost more than twice my vino tinto. She may be switching to tinto!

While this town is a place for the many visitors who come to enjoy the falls to roost at night, it’s also a small town with kind of a nice feel. We see expensive cars everywhere, but at the same time the local folks seem to live pretty simply, so maybe it’s the tourists with the nice cars? I suspect there is a very wide economic gap between the well off and the less well off here, and it will be quite interesting to watch for this as we travel along. 

Anyway, it was day two at the falls, this time from the Argentina perspective. Our hostel provided a simple but satisfying breakfast. Enough calories to carry us until well into the afternoon. The operators are lovely folk who go the extra mile to make sure their guests have a good stay and are well informed about what’s going on in their area. Really appreciate their kindness. After breakfast we wandered up to the bus depot and found the right bus that would carry us to the falls. It wasn’t very difficult with the sign on the window saying “English Spoken”! That said, I still insist on trying my Spanish and I get pretty good vibes back whenever I do. Besides, I’m finding it fun trying to expand my knowledge and with 6 weeks in front of us, what a great time to work at it. 

We arrived at the national park just after 8:30 to find no masses of humanity as was the case yesterday. No line up to pick up our tickets or get into the park. Being Monday we both felt that everyone had pretty much returned to work. As it turned out, we were dead wrong. However, we happily wandered off to sample the various walking trails. One of the park wardens advised us to first walk down the lower or Inferior Trail and then to follow this is with the Superior Trail before going out on the park train to see the main falls. He reasoned that most everyone heads off on the train first and most never walk the other trails. We took his advice and generally had both the Inferior (it wasn’t) and the Superior trails to ourselves. It was quite lovely and the top photo was the first of many falls we enjoyed and wondered at today. You may recall a similar photo taken from the Brazil side of the river.

Walking on a suspended metal trail much of the way brought us into some very spectacular places. And yes Dad, there were some very high places as well. No doubt you would have enjoyed them fully! 



The park warden hadn’t steered us wrong. It was quiet people wise and quite a stunning walk. As a matter of fact we walked a modest 17 kms today in our sandals poking into many areas of the park. Just look at this! We were there by ourselves. It was pretty magical.

One of the really fun parts of our walks were the butterflies and small animals we saw along the way. 

Hey John, do you know the name of this bird?

And at some points the Coati, relatives of our own neighbourhood raccoons, were all around us. Apparently they can be aggressive if you have food, which we didn’t. 

Back again after an interlude to find a small bar where we shared the biggest 710 lites Corona cervesa and some brochettes as a late afternoon ‘snack’. With dinner still a couple of hours away it was finally time to eat and relax for a while. Really interesting to watch the small town life as it drifted by our five way interchange. Stray dogs, sidewalk hawkers, small children asking for money in the bars and an infrastructure set up for the village, but obviously modified for visitors. From an outsider perspective it’s always interesting to watch. 

Meanwhile back at the falls...

We completed the Superior Way and wandered onwards towards the train that runs 99% of the visitors out to the main event. Though it was hot and humid we decided to do what we do and walk along side the train tracks. We always see so much more while walking and today we were treated to so many beautiful butterflies! Many were just a few centimetres across, while others like this one were quite a bit bigger. They don’t hold still very well for measuring. 

This one landed on a French woman’s camera lense. 

At the first sub train station I took a photo of this little girl playing with a small swarm of butterflies while her mom watched on. 

As we and a very few others walked along side the tracks huge numbers loaded on trains rolled past us often pointing and taking photos of us walkers. It was pretty funny, and I took revenge by snapping a photo of them!  They must have thought us a bit crazy walking in the heat, and we probably were: )

There is a long, very long suspended ramp that crosses the river all the way out to the falls. It’s actually pretty cool. At first we passed quite a few folks and many returning, but then it became bumper to bumper people moving at a most definitely subsonic pace. We sloooowly made our way out to the falls only to find a full gong show underway! This was just a small section of the crowd. Selfies and selfie sticks galore and it seemed that most people weren’t too interested in the falls, rather they were more interested in themselves being in front of the falls: )))

I was interested in only the falls. And they were magnificent! 

This is the Garganta del Diablo and it’s one mean water fall! 



Unbelievable. See the huge black birds at the bottom of the next photo? They just soar through the mist.

We managed to extract ourselves from the crowd and decided to walk back and out of the park. The city bus back into town was half full, mostly with young folks. We figure most people come by tour which nicely helps the local businesses. Most only see the main falls via the train and never see many of the other natural wonders this park holds. We had decent weather today after thunder and rain overnight. If tomorrow is ok we plan to return to the park for a lesser taken walk which was highly recommended by my friends John and Cordula from Germany. Then it’s a mid afternoon flight south to Buenos Aires where we will hang out for 4-5 days before heading northwest to the top of Argentina. 

Now time to shower and then out to celebrate our own Thanksgiving Day in a local restaurante! Probably no turkey and stuffing, but there will be wine! Happy Thanksgiving to our family and friends. We are thinking of you all.