The Road to Iguazu

  We hightailed it to one of Buenos Aires' many airports, and caught a flight north to the Mata Atlantica- specifically, Puerto Iguazu. Puerto Iguazu is in the Misiones province of Argentina, a little finger that sticks out of the top of Argentina and pokes between Brazil and Paraguay. It's bounded on the north by the Iguazu River, across which is Brazil, and on the west by the the Parana River, which forms the boarder with Paraguay. 

This point where the Iguazu River joins the Parana River is the junction of Argentina (where we're taking the picture from), Brazil (on the right), and Paraguay (on the left).

  We took a taxi from the airport to our AirBnB, and paid in a very novel way. Instead of paying the taxi driver 700 pesos directly, he stopped at a gas station so we could buy him a gas station gift card loaded with 700 pesos. I guess this way we're cutting out Uncle Sam, or as he's known here in Argentina, Tio Samuel.  To be fair, we asked if we could pay with card instead of cash so this was the compromise.

  We dropped off our stuff at the AirBnB, and headed into town to get dinner and some smoothies. It's nice and warm/humid here. We got some helpful tips for seeing the Iguazu National Park, and went to bed early to rest up for the next day- but not before getting some chipas (cheesy bread sticks) from a bakery next to our apartment.

Iguazu Park

  6:30AM - wake up

  7:00AM - out the door

  7:10AM - at the bus stop

  7:25AM - on the bus

  8:00AM - at the entrance to the park

  8:00AM - the park opens

The first batch of park visitors

  We stopped by a stand to ask about boat tours, and low and behold there were still 2 spots left on the first tour of the morning, so we joined. We enjoyed a casual walk through some greenery to get to the meeting spot (and saw a tucan!). At first the tour seemed to consist of only us and 6 other people, but soon enough we picked up enough tourists to fill a large open-roof truck (and later a boat) and were driven down to the Iguazu River (and saw a tucan!). We all piled into a boat and began cruising upstream, where we got out first glimpse of the falls. We don't have a picture of this because we put our phones away so they wouldn't get wet. This was a good decision because the boat got right up into and under two sections of the waterfalls.  Everyone on the boat gets soaking wet, but it's a lot of fun.  The tour guides warn you ahead of time so we stripped down to our swimsuits and put the rest of our clothes (shoes and all) into a dry bag.  The boat goes *really* fast, so we kind of felt like we were in a hairdryer on our way back and were completely dry in no time!

Obviously we didn't take this photo from the boat, but that's one of the waterfalls our boat went under.

  When we were back on solid land, we took the free train up to the Devil's Throat! Well, we took a number for the train, but had to wait nearly an hour before it was our turn. In that time, we ate some empanadas and snacks. We chose to eat inside a large caged area so we wouldn't have to fight off nosy coatíes. Other people chose to eat outside the cage, and at least one person paid the price- we saw a coati run by with an entire burger. We also saw a family of small monkeys.

The monkeys ranged from the size of a very small cat to the size of a small cat.

Who is really in the cage: the coati, or us? Correct answer: us. We hid in the cage to escape the coatis.

Our empanadas were branded. This one is HUM for humita. There was also JQ (jamon y queso), P (pollo), and more.

A flock of butterflies congregated around the puddles of the potable water station.

  We took the train at a blistering 5 km/h up to the trail to the Devil's Throat waterfall (and saw a tucan!). The trail leading up to Devil's Throat is a series of bridges between small islands. The water in this area is surprisingly calm and glassy looking.  You can even see coy-like fish meandering under the bridges in the shallow, clear water.  Some cormorants also wade through.  A few minutes into the trail, you can see mist rising in the distance from the falls.  

At first, the waterfalls look like a huge hole, coming out of nowhere!

The Devil's Throat was Karen's favorite part of the park.

Turning away from the main waterfall, you can see this corridor of smaller waterfalls.

  Photos really do not do it justice. We spent about an hour watching the massive torrents of water plummet over the falls. The water is mostly white, but green in some places, and there are a lot of different kinds of texture on display as different sections of the falls crash or merge into each other. It's unlike anything we've ever seen, but unfortunately does not photograph well since everything is an ever-shifting shade of white-green.  The Devil's Throat is the most dense section of the falls, and it looks powerful and intimidating. Looking the other way, the corridor of mist-shrouded waterfalls looks like some kind of mystical jungle vista. 

  After the Devil's Throat, we walked around the Upper Circuit, which had some impressively beautiful views.

Impressively Beautiful View #1

Impressively Beautiful View #2

We asked someone to take this photo and apparently they are a bold, innovative artist who isn't afraid to break the "rules".

And we saw a tucan!

  That's pretty much it. After the park we visited the area where three borders meet. Karen has been searching for yerba mate ice cream ever since she tried it in Uruguay and we finally found it- we had to come here to the source to get it. The mate plant only naturally grows in this region (although it is now grown elsewhere on mate farms). Karen actually bought some mate tea bags and, assuming they would be weak, since bagged mate usually is pretty tame, put three in her water bottle this morning and accidentally created a mega-mate.  The stuff they sell here is POTENT!!!

Some other wildlife encounters:

For dinner, Karen was so hungry she ate a whole boat!

  We picked up some more chipas at the bakery near our apartment. The first time we went, the woman working there let us try some chipas for free before we bought them. This time when we walked in, we asked about a cake-like thing, and she immediately handed us a full slice and said, "try it." We're not sure if she's just tired of explaining what things are to tourists, if things get thrown out at the end of the day so it was going to go to waste anyway, or if she's just friendly. We bought a pastry (she threw in an extra one and wouldn't let us pay for it) for tomorrow and more chipas. As we were ordering she suddenly asked us where we were from, and we spent a nice few minutes chatting with her before heading home... We have a friend in the pastry business!