Iguazu Falls

The Iguazu Falls are located at the juncture of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay ( http://wikitravel.org/en/Igua%C3%A7u_Falls).  For the most part access is gained either on the Argentina or Brazilian sides.  We were on the Argentina side.  Iguazu means “big waters” in the Guarani language.  The number of waterfalls depends on the time of year.  During the “wet” months there are up to 270 waterfalls and during the “dry” months about 150.  The falling area is about 2,700 square meters.

We started our adventure by flying (Noreen’s favorite activity) from Buenos Aries to Iguazu.  About 90 minutes.  No jet ways to slow things down.

About a 30 minute ride from the airport to the falls area.  Yes, I see the different spelling on the bus.  We seen it spelt 10 different ways between the three countries.  I’m using the spelling from the park layout map you get when arriving.

This is a map of the majority of the falls showing the Argentinian side in detail.  The Brazil side is to the left of the river.  No idea where Paraguay is.

We started with a small gauge railroad trip to the Devil’s Throat Falls which are located at the top right of center.

It is about a 2,000 meter walk out and back from these falls or about 1.7+ miles.  They are located deep in the rain forest.  By definition it rains in a rain forest.  The fun of walking through the rain and mud to get to a waterfall was not lost on Noreen.  Here she is thanking me for making this side trip possible.

Getting ready to start down the trail.

Some views of the river approaching the falls.

First view of Devil’s Throat.  The haze is actually rain and falls mist.

Hard to see but gives you an idea of size.

Noreen wishing we could have down this sooner.  The spots are raindrops on the camera lens.

After a while the sun came out and things got drier…..and hotter.  After a train ride back we passed the headquarters for the area with the symbols of the national park service on left and the Falls park on the right..

Then we started our next walk to the lower falls by the Upper Trail.   Government naming around the world doesn't have to make sense.

As I said, the sun was out.

Noreen told me how happy she was that she had done her hair that morning for the trip.

After the upper trail to the lower falls, we took the lower trail to some other falls.  Remember there are up to 270 waterfalls and I think 80% of them had a name.

These are known as the Sister Falls.  side-by-side and very similar.

Looking down a waterfall.

The area was full of these cute little critters called Coaties.  This is a mom and her babies.

They had no fear of humans as seen by this guy at the train station.

However, there were some cautions on trying to pet or feed them.

And with that look at kind Mother Nature we’ll bid farewell to Iguazu Falls.  After a return flight we arrived back at the ship 16 hours after we left, tired, wet and a bit bedraggled.  However, the ship had late dinner set up for us so we survived.  Hope you enjoyed the trip.