05/03: Iguazu Falls
Category: General
Posted by: The Agnew Family
I found this statement on the internet which I found interesting.
"Now, the Niagara Falls are undoubtedly the world's most famous, the Victoria Falls are surely the world's largest, but the Iguazú Falls are unhesitatingly the most impressive and exquisite! ... The waterfall system consists of 275 falls along 2.7 km (1.67 miles) of the Iguazú River." I have to agree that there's a definite WOW factor with Iguazu Falls. In fact I consider this to be the highlight of our trip --- the penguins were a close 2nd. The falls can be viewed from the Argentina side or the Brazilian side. We opted to just view the falls from the Argentina side.
A photo of the map gives you a better idea of the overall size of the falls. The blue dotted line is the lower trail, pink dotted line is the upper trail and the goldish line at the top of the photo is the Devil's Throat trail.
The easiest way to get to the Devil's throat trail is by train.
The Devil's Throat trail puts you level with the falls. Today (and probably most days) there was a lot of mist, which given the heat was most welcoming.
I got a little damp but it didn't take long before I was dry. The Plush Crested Jay hung around in a couple of spots along the trail.
Looking down Rio Iguazu.
There were a lot of people at the falls today --- and this was still reasonably early in the day. The majority of the trail system is made up of raised metal walk ways.
This is why the trail is a raised metal walk way. There is an egret in the photo but it's very tiny.
The falls change depending on the rain. In 2006 Iguazu Falls experienced a drought that dried up many of the falls and left some as a mere trickle.
You can do the "jungle ride" and boat cruise. The jungle ride drives down some back roads to the boat launch. The boat takes you out on the river and gets everyone wet by going under the falls.
The Coati is a very inquisitive animal. Like a lot of animals is has learned to scrounge people food. We saw one on a trail and we saw a lot of Coatis in one restaurant area,
We went out for dinner with Annie and Richard this evening and chose a restaurant close to the hotel. After we were seated the waiter came over and recited the menu to us --- at this point we began to wonder what we had gotten ourselves into. The guys wanted "meat" so ended up with a Parrilla Completa --- a full dinner of different grilled meats plus appetizers, salad, french fries and desert. Boy was it a lot of food --- appetizers consisted of heated cheese, chicken hearts, blood sausage and regular sausage. The main course was at least 4 different cuts of beef all grilled, Ed choose lemon ice cream for desert (Argentina's ice cream is absolutely amazing). It was a lot more food then the guys could eat. After we ordered the food I realized that we didn't know if the restaurant accepted credit cards or what type if they did. Oooops they only accepted Visa so good thing the hotel was close as Ed had to go back to the room to get the Visa card.
The restaurant did have entertainment. Don't know who the guy was that was singing but he did have a wonderful voice. Annie mentioned to the owner that Richard was a singer and much to Richard's dismay he was convinced to sing. He decided to sing When I'm 64 by the Beetles because he turned 64 during their trip. Everyone in the restaurant enjoyed Richard's song --- the hostess even video taped it! By time we left the restaurant I think we were everyone's friends. There was lots of hand shaking and "chau"s when we left. We had now experienced what Cerri (our guide in Buenos Aires) had tried to show us.
"Now, the Niagara Falls are undoubtedly the world's most famous, the Victoria Falls are surely the world's largest, but the Iguazú Falls are unhesitatingly the most impressive and exquisite! ... The waterfall system consists of 275 falls along 2.7 km (1.67 miles) of the Iguazú River." I have to agree that there's a definite WOW factor with Iguazu Falls. In fact I consider this to be the highlight of our trip --- the penguins were a close 2nd. The falls can be viewed from the Argentina side or the Brazilian side. We opted to just view the falls from the Argentina side.
A photo of the map gives you a better idea of the overall size of the falls. The blue dotted line is the lower trail, pink dotted line is the upper trail and the goldish line at the top of the photo is the Devil's Throat trail.
The easiest way to get to the Devil's throat trail is by train.
The Devil's Throat trail puts you level with the falls. Today (and probably most days) there was a lot of mist, which given the heat was most welcoming.
I got a little damp but it didn't take long before I was dry. The Plush Crested Jay hung around in a couple of spots along the trail.
Looking down Rio Iguazu.
There were a lot of people at the falls today --- and this was still reasonably early in the day. The majority of the trail system is made up of raised metal walk ways.
This is why the trail is a raised metal walk way. There is an egret in the photo but it's very tiny.
The falls change depending on the rain. In 2006 Iguazu Falls experienced a drought that dried up many of the falls and left some as a mere trickle.
You can do the "jungle ride" and boat cruise. The jungle ride drives down some back roads to the boat launch. The boat takes you out on the river and gets everyone wet by going under the falls.
The Coati is a very inquisitive animal. Like a lot of animals is has learned to scrounge people food. We saw one on a trail and we saw a lot of Coatis in one restaurant area,
We went out for dinner with Annie and Richard this evening and chose a restaurant close to the hotel. After we were seated the waiter came over and recited the menu to us --- at this point we began to wonder what we had gotten ourselves into. The guys wanted "meat" so ended up with a Parrilla Completa --- a full dinner of different grilled meats plus appetizers, salad, french fries and desert. Boy was it a lot of food --- appetizers consisted of heated cheese, chicken hearts, blood sausage and regular sausage. The main course was at least 4 different cuts of beef all grilled, Ed choose lemon ice cream for desert (Argentina's ice cream is absolutely amazing). It was a lot more food then the guys could eat. After we ordered the food I realized that we didn't know if the restaurant accepted credit cards or what type if they did. Oooops they only accepted Visa so good thing the hotel was close as Ed had to go back to the room to get the Visa card.
The restaurant did have entertainment. Don't know who the guy was that was singing but he did have a wonderful voice. Annie mentioned to the owner that Richard was a singer and much to Richard's dismay he was convinced to sing. He decided to sing When I'm 64 by the Beetles because he turned 64 during their trip. Everyone in the restaurant enjoyed Richard's song --- the hostess even video taped it! By time we left the restaurant I think we were everyone's friends. There was lots of hand shaking and "chau"s when we left. We had now experienced what Cerri (our guide in Buenos Aires) had tried to show us.