Iguazú Falls

by Marc on April 3, 2009

After wrapping up our tour of Patagonia, we spent a few more days in Buenos Aires before visiting our last tourist attraction – Iguazú Falls, on the border with Brazil and Paragauay.

IguazuRiotropic

We stayed a couple of nights at the Hotel Riotropic, a nice quiet place on the outskirts of town with a little swimming pool, which was great for beating the oppressive jungle heat.

IguazuDeck1view

The falls themselves are really enormous, nearly tied with Victoria Falls in Africa for world’s largest in terms of water volume.

IguazuGargantaTop

We timed our visit to coincide with the arrival of the full moon, when the park opens up at night for special guided moonlight walks. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate – thick clouds and rain forced the park to cancel the tours while we were there.

IguazuGarganta1

Oh well, the falls were still impressive, but hard to photograph.  The pictures don’t really do them justice – it’s really a total sensory experience, being buffeted by the mist while the constant roar rings in your ears.

We got to see some wildlife, too. Besides mosquitoes the size of pigeons, there were lots of amazing butterflies. Danielle got a good shot of this one:

IguazuButterfly1

Unfortunately, I didn’t have a camera handy when Ray was mobbed by a pack of coati (really aggressive racoon/weasel-like things). Good times.

I’m not sure it was worth the 35 hours of bus ride it took to get there and back, though.

{ 1 comment }

May 11, 2009 G

I’d say you captured the Falls quite well. This is on the top of my list to visit. How spectacular! I’ve seen those Coati in Mexico. They can eat brother!

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