Hola. This last leg of our trip around Argentina culminating in Iguazú Falls was completed about 4 weeks ago. So, this is a little late in getting posted. But, what an incredible area!
Iguazú National Park, a subtropical jungle, sits in a corner of Argentina that shares borders with Paraguay and Brazil. It is home to a variety of plants and animals, and after a dearth of animal sightings throughout our travels, it was nice to come across some wildlife. The park features more exotic animals like jaguars, ocelots, tapirs, anteaters, etc., however, we ran into the more garden variety.
Iguazú National Park, a subtropical jungle, sits in a corner of Argentina that shares borders with Paraguay and Brazil. It is home to a variety of plants and animals, and after a dearth of animal sightings throughout our travels, it was nice to come across some wildlife. The park features more exotic animals like jaguars, ocelots, tapirs, anteaters, etc., however, we ran into the more garden variety.
The little guys in this video are called coatís, related to the raccoon. I saw several signs warning they would bite and to keep food away from them, but unfortunately not before we ran in to this cunning pack. You can see they are ferocious as all get out and one of them ended up latched on to Nicole’s leg. Apparently it thought it had a good chance at the 5 foot long red licorice rope dangling around her neck, but to no avail. No worries, I had my wits about me and whipped the licorice rope off Nicole, quickly doubled it for greater strength, and proceeded to beat the little critter mercilessly until it released its grip from her bloodied leg. Needless to say, I don’t know if we will venture on these dangerous trails again.
In all seriousness, we did manage to see a cayman (crocodile) sunning itself about 150 feet from the walkway over Iguazú river. The park is very easy to navigate with nice raised walkways minimizing impact on ground below. There is also a small train that carries people to different areas of the park- Upper Falls, Lower Falls, and close to the park entrance. This isn’t one of those parks where you see a lot of additional trails made by bored adventure lovers who don’t enjoy adhering to the conventional design. The jungle is very dense and it looks as if you could easily become disoriented within no time. With that said, a major attraction of the park layout for us is the proximity to the waterfalls themselves. Having both been to Niagara Falls and our own Shoshone Falls in Idaho, one can’t help but contrast the nanny state in action at these locations- signs of your imminent death, cables, glass, and most importantly the great distance from the main attraction. Iguazú truly is a visceral experience. No, they don’t throw caution to the wind, barriers are present. But, they do provide a courtside seat to a fantastic spectacle and assume people will make the decision to preserve their own lives when faced with the choice of jumping from 200+ feet.
To get a better sense of all of this I am including a number of photos lumped together of the waterfalls (there are a total of 275 cascades along 1.67 miles) and a video of Devil’s Throat, rather than narrate each one individually. Also, there is a very nice panoramic picture on Wikipedia’s site which gives you a better idea of the many waterfalls to see, click and scroll halfway down:
Soaked, but still kicking and getting kicked.
We found this pretty bunch of bananas just outside our hotel. Did you know bananas come from the largest perennial herb in the world, not a tree as many imagine?
That’s it for now. Thanks for reading as always. We look forward to seeing you soon!
