Feb 22, Iguazu Falls

Well very early start up at 2.30 for 3.45 pick up didn’t want to chance missing flight to Iguazu. As it was too early for brekky we had a croissant half a donut and a bottle of water that we got from the coffee shop the day before. Flight was excellent one and a half hour flight and the plane was lovely, we were met at the airport by our guide and driver and proceeded to the falls. It was only a short ride out to the park and by the time we arrived it was starting to get very hot, as I don’t normally wear hats I decided today would be the day I would need one, so bought one and so glad I did. I got a ride in what they call an electric bus but it’s just a golf cart to the boarding station for the train that takes you into the park, Pete and our guide had to walk it was quite a distance so pleased I didn’t have to. Once we all met up again we waited for our train to come then off we went, it stops in 2 places depending on which circuit you want to do, we stayed on to the last stop as we decided to do The Devil’s Throat first which is the upper circuit, the train was packed would have been about 150 people, some got off at the first stop most stayed on and more joined the train. It’s 2.2 klm return walk from the station to the falls so I walked part of the way and we had a wheelchair when it was too much for the rest of it. It was a very oppressive day the temperature was in the low 40’s and humidity was 95%. There is a lot of wildlife in the park, and we saw a lot of beautiful plush crested jays which were very pretty with their yellow chests they have about 350 species of birdlife here saw some other birds but not sure what they were also a huge amount of butterflies that just land on you all different sizes and colours, we also saw Capuchin monkeys quite cute and some Coati’s which are Brazillian racoons which are a pest here they attack people for food. The walkways are above the Iguazu River and make up the largest waterfall system in the world with 275 waterfalls and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site listed in 1984. When you reach the Devils Throat which is located on the border of Argentina and Brazil it’s a huge wall of water over 82 metres high, the falls stretch in width for 2,700m and vary in height from 60m to 82m with 80% of the falls on the Argentine side, very impressive site and so glad we did this even if we were exhausted when we got back to the station to take us to get lunch. Decided that Pete would do the lower circuit with our guide as it was another long walk and it was to look at what we had seen but from lower down, and by this stage my ankles and knees had decided enough was enough. After Pete finished the second walk we went back to the airport and had a four hour wait for the plane oh what fun but at least it was cool and we had a drink and dinner while we waited. We laughed about taking our waterproof jackets as they had advised us, little did we realise once we eventually arrived back in Buenos Aires that we would arrive in a thunderstorm and would be stuck on the plane for half an hour as it was too bad to get off, you have to walk down the stairs and on to the tarmac here, then board a bus to the terminal so the jackets ended up coming in handy.  Our driver was waiting for us to bring us back to the hotel and by the time we got back we had been up for just over twenty one hours, very tired but well worth it.