Iguazú

Argentina
12/20/2008

Iguazú falls National Park is a true adventure of a park. Upon entering the trail to main falls you are already in rainforest with a walkway suspended about 15 feet over the ground. As you walk there are many openings where you are walking over the RIo Iguazú and are able to look down into the reletively clear water. Coming closer to the falls, I look over the left side of the walk way and there is an Alligator in the water! I got very exctied. I tdidnt think it was a crocodile, but it might have been. I could hear the thunder of the fall from about 2 minutes walk away from the lookover. There is alot of mist coming up out of the hole, that you can see from the side we are at, the Argentinian side. Coming up to the falls, it is a zoo of people trying to take pictures, and they are not all polite people. Iguazú falls is a combination of many falls in the shape of large U and then there are more falls areound the corner. The argentine side has a walkway that goes straight over the falls, and a very large park that goes through rainforest. Iguazú is also taller than niagra, but only 30% the volume. The fact that you are in this dense rainforest and then come out to the magnificent fall is the most spectacular part of the whole falls. From this side, I can see the Brasilian side, further away, but with a nice view of the falls in its entirety. ITs hard to describe the impressiveness of the falls, so you are going to hVave to wait until i can upload the photos! We spent the rest of the day walking in the forest. It is soo hot here, I almost got heat exhaustion. IT is extremely humid, and around 90 degrees I think. There are many pretty birds who are trying to steal my food, and then there were also small racoon like creatures, called Coati, and they also tried to steal our lunch! The Coati looks like a raccon with badger claws, and a pig like nose. Look it up on google, they look cool. Around 5 oclock we called it a day, we were very hot and exhausted. THe next morning, we got our bus tickets to Rosario, Argentina, which didnt leave until 5 in the afternoon, and decicded to see the town of Puerto Iguazu for the day. We quickly discovered there is not much to see, and then headed to the internet cafe, whee we met to Kiwi's(new zealanders) Who were very nice, and since their bus didnt leave until 5 :45 we all headed out for a midday beer, and some food. Good conversation, some food, and 7 liters of Cervesa Imperial later, We walked back into the hot sun, headed to the bus station and caught our 18 hour bus to Rosario. THe bus ride was not that good. Too long, barley any food, too many stops, an hour late... thats enough complaining. Coming into Rosario was great, we met up with an old friend who visited us in Hawaii, and now we will stay with him for 10 days! One of the first things he said to us: " we are in for a very busy weekend!" Sweet!