Highlight: Visit to Iguazu Falls on the Argentina side. The most magnificent natural thing I've ever seen. Also the Boat Ride INTO the falls where we got soaking wet!
We woke up early since we are leaving today for Iguazu Falls. Breakfast in the hotel cafe at 7 am and then our driver took us to the domestic airport. Lucelia was our guide again. Check in went smoothly but the plane was slightly late. It was a 2 hour flight to Puerto Iguazu, Argentina and we arrived at noon.
Francis - a young 22 year old Brazilian man - met us and was our guide for this part of our journey. We went off to the park immediately and completely skipped lunch. We saw that today they were celebrating having 1 million visitors to the park - we laughed about it being US. Francis knew that a train would be leaving the visitors center shortly so we dashed there and took the train to the furthest stop to go to The Devil's Throat. It was a 20 minute walk out over metal grated walkways but well worth it. The falls were mesmerizing - water crashing in a horseshoe formation and creating so much mist that you couldn't see the bottom. Rainbows appeared all over depending on how the sun was shining through the few clouds in the sky. A magnificent panorama. It was hard for me to believe that I was finally actually here.
We then walked back to the train and went to the next stop back and got off for our walk throug the Upper and Lower areas of the falls. Butterflies, birds, and even a huge snake were everywhere. Francis knew a lot about the wildlife. We also had a 'Boat Ride' included in our tour - little did we know that the boat ride would take us directly under some of the falls and we got soaking wet. Francis had us buy plastic raincoats that helped a little but we were still pretty wet. At least we were able to take off our shoes and put them into a water-tight bag and they were dry. I was laughing so hard the entire time. These women behind me kept yelling 'Otra - Otra - Otra' - meaning another - and the boat driver would take us back under the falls for another soaking. It was fun and exciting. (Needless to say - Tim was not a happy camper and he was all bunched up in a ball trying to stay dry - that in itself was hilarious).
We took a truck back through the forest to the visitors center. Our driver saw that we were wet so put plastic down on the seat for us. They dropped us off at the Grand Iguazu Hotel which is right on the border with Brazil and we checked it. It is an upscale hotel with a casino but there weren't many people there. Since we hadn't had lunch, we went to the bar and had a snack and drinks - I did a Pesco Sour. We decided to make the short walk into town (about 10 blocks) for dinner. Along the way the bugs and frogs and other animals were making all kinds of sounds - amazing! The town of Iguazu has only about 4,000 people and was a typical small town in a developing country.
We had dinner at La Rueda and it was great. Tim had another huge steak - filet this time - and he ate it all.
We walked back to the hotel and it was dark by now. Since it is summer, the days are long so the sun is up about 5 am and sets about 8:30 pm. On the way back, we passed several groups of locals. Tim leaned over to me and announced: 'If I take off running, just stay there, and I'll send the Policia back for you!' Gee thanks. This now makes me think that I should heed the advice of my children before I left. They told me: 'Dad, just hold on to the door when you are in the water, and just let GiGi go!' (:-) Funny!
Back at the hotel, we were exhausted after so much walking all day so we went right to sleep.
Larry and Tim
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