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| Day 5: December 26, 2005 - Iguazu Falls, Argentina |
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We decided to begin the
day earlier and met Olivera at 8am for a guided
walk on the upper and lower falls circuits. We began
with the upper circuit, but before we could start
we checked out a curious cotimundi. He was sniffing
around for handouts and came right up to us. After
turning the curious coti away, Olivera had an interesting
fact for us: to escape from the clutches of a boa
constrictor, you can pour alcohol on the snake,
pour hot water on it, or try to break it's tail.
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Cotimundi |
Along the upper trail |
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Odd facts out of the way, we proceeded along the
path to the upper falls. The path was the same bridge
construction as at Devil's Throat. The upper falls
takes you along the top of the Rosetti, Bernabe
Mendez, and Mbigua falls. The views are spectacular
and for the first time you really feel the vastness
of these falls. 2700 meters of falls and they are
all amazing.
From the upper falls we moved to the lower falls.
From here, you see the same falls but they are more
impressive. It's waterfalls for 270 degrees and
the feeling is indescribable - powerful rushing
water hurling over the edges of the river and hitting
bottom with an earth shattering force. From the
lower circuit, the most powerful waterfall is the
second stage of the San Martin fall. The water is
channeled to a narrower gap and rushes it with purpose.
The lower falls were clearly my favorite view because
you can see a lot of different heights during one
walk.
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Along the upper trail |
Salto San Martin |
Salto Bossetti |
Salto San Martin |
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At the bottom, we took a boat ride that showed us
Devil's Throat, Rivadavia, the Mosquitos and all
of the other falls together from the water level.
After getting a good look, we got a good drenching!
Water from Rivadavia was much cooler than from San
Martin. It was a real treat to get that close to
the falls.
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Lower Iguazu River and falls with boat from falls boat ride |
Devil's Throat from the lower Iguazu River |
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To dry
off, we took the ferry to Isla San Martin
where you can climb to the top of the island
and view the San Martin waterfall (and the
others) from a different angle. It was stupendous
and you could almost reach out and touch the
falls. There were butterflies everywhere on
the island and Howard spent some time chasing
a few.
We headed into the hotel in the heat of the day
and rested up for the jungle safari. At 4pm, we
meet out guides in the lobby and headed out using
an old logging road where they used to haul out
cedar. We saw very few birds on the bumpy ride.
After 2 1/2 hours, we returned to the park, dusty
and bruised, and saw the petrified bird that the
guide tried to pass off as real. It fooled some
of us until Mom found out that local artisans will
carve pieces of wood to look like birds. It was
not the highlight of the day. |
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