Iguazú Falls

After Paraguay it was time to find a bus and head 300 km south to Encarnación, a Paraguayan border town near Argentina. I didn't really take any pictures of it, but it was pretty nice for a border town. Fairly "secure feeling" as well... most border towns have barred windows all over the place & a lot of seedy people on the street corners but Encarnación was pretty nice over all. When I walked around downtown at 10:30 PM or so it was kids and old folks galore.

The next day I crossed the border with my ultimate destination being 250km away in Puerto Iguazú (at the spectacular waterfalls that form "the triple border" of Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil). I have a bazillion pictures of them so it'll be hard to figure out which ones to post here.

But to summarize, they're almost 2 miles long, drop down over 200 feet, and during the rainy season (when I was there) there's nearly a half MILLION gallons of water per SECOND going over the falls. Or, if you're a fan of the metric system, 1800 cubic meters of water... which means nothing to me. I had to 'Google it' for the conversion.

There's an Argentina side and a Brazilian side to the falls. Brazil has the best panoramic view but you get to 'experience' the waterfalls on Argentina's side. But I did not go on the Brazilian side for reasons that I've already ranted about in months past (least of all spending $100 USD for a stupid one day visa!). Plus I'd already seen it 3 years ago. And Argentina has a really impressive national park that costs $30 or $40 pesos, depending on low or high season.

It's huge with 3 different levels to view / walk around things, so you end up doing at least 5 miles of walking on the trails and catwalks themselves (if you see the entire park). Plus you can ride a boat down by the falls and get soaked, take a jeep through the jungle, paddle a canoe, and who knows what all else.

Officially, it was winter (and in the upper 80s) while I was there. Summer temps have to be brutal! But some people are prepared for the weather, no matter what comes at them as my favorite tourist of the day proves. This sassy little emsemble of a T-shirt, pink flowery shorts, and black socks will be all the rage in Paris next fashion season... so I assume, since I heard him speaking French.

Plus I was lucky to be there on a sunny day this time around. The last time I was there, it was overcast and rainy so the sun really made a major difference in the experience. Especially when it came to the wildlife.

"I call the big one Bitey" (someone reading this will get my obscure Simpsons reference!). Anyhow, here you can see some of the coatís... I don't think we have them in the USA but they're sort of like long-snouted raccoons. And they're really cocky and try to mug you for your lunch at the snack bar.

Besides the coatís (that were all over the place, not just the food- intensive areas), there were monkeys, crocodiles, exotic birds (allegedly toucans, which I never saw), and who knows what all else was hiding in the jungle. But at the bottom right is a good reminder why to not go into the water... besides the potential of going off a 200 foot cliff in 1800 cubic meters of river water.

And I guess that's it for this little trip. On the heals of it, next week I'm headed for a completely opposite experience, in the frozen south of Chile and Argentina: Patagonia! It should be a lot of glaciars (Perito Moreno) and hiking (Torres del Paine), while hopefully ending up at "The End of the World", Ushuaia!