Iguazu Falls, Argentina 2-13-09

We have been to Niagra Falls and to Victoria Falls. Iguazu Falls is the most spectacular of them all. Iguazu Falls is situated on the border of Brazil and Argentina. We did not go to the Brazialian side of the falls,as the border control situation is difficult there. However, I can't imagine it being more beautiful than what we saw. These falls are twice as wide as Niagra falls, being 1.7 miles wide and has 275 different water falls! The big daddy of them all is The Devil's Throat (La Garganta del Diablo). The amount of water that gushes over these falls would make you think that there are jet engines propelling it down the river and over the falls! It just does not seem real, but it is.
Our day began at 5:00a.m., breakfast in the room. We had toast,juice, coffee and a banana. In hind sight, we should have eaten a high protein breakfast, as our day was wonderful but quite taxing. We left the ship at 6:00a.m. and went to the domestic airport. We whisked through and boarded our plane and settled in for our one and a half hour flight. The flight was easy and we were all excited about what we were about to see. This airport is in the middle of the sub-tropical rain forest/jungle. We only had a 15 minute ride to the hotel, where we prepared to go into the jungle and go into the falls!! Yes, into the falls. We left things in a room at the hotel that we did not want to get wet. Off we went. As soon as you reach the back of the hotel grounds you can see the falls and the mist rising up from them. We knew then it was going to be wonderful. We walked about 2 miles into the jungle. (I never should have read about the snakes, pumas, jaguars, etc...) They have ants as big as your cell phone, spiders bigger than the palm of your hand!! YIKES, we were not in Kansas anymore!! As we walked and kept one eye out for the 6 or 7 different poisonous snakes, we saw swarms of butterflies. They have hundreds of different species, 700 to be exact. God did good work here. The colors were brilliant. If a butterfly was black and red, it would be black and RED. We even saw one butterfly that was black and PINK! Who knew? Shocking really. You could stand in the middle of a swarm of butterflies and they would flutter around as if they were checking YOU out! Spiders, does anyone love them? Scary creatures. Here, they have webs as big as condos and they sit in the middle of them as if to say, "Go ahead, make my day"! We had to walk down about 200 rock steps that were uneven at best, slippery and small. Along the route, there were Impatiens growing wild in all colors and boy they were big. At the end of the summer months at home, Impatiens get about a foot and a half tall if you have good rain or watering system. These were about 3 feet tall. Just gorgeous. When we reached the river, the guide handed out ponchos (really didn't need them) and life jackets, we needed those for sure! We went up river headed directly into the falls. The man navigating our small little vessel must be a direct descendant of Charles Bronson, as he was inviting us all into his latest death wish! We went full speed ahead into the falls, not just the mist from them. That is exactly why we did not need the ponchos! They were useless. It was like having an umbrella in a Category 5 hurricane! We looked like white hooded soaking wet rats! As for the experience, very glad we did it, screamed like a newborn baby, and would wear nothing BUT a poncho if we did it again! Our clothes were soaked. Charles and Nicky brought a change of clothing. Kathleen and I only had extra jackets. Boy scouts really do teach good things I guess!! After the first set of falls, our captain went full throttle into a larger set of falls, was he nuts?? No, he was just trying to make sure we got our money's worth, we did and got some change! Charles was doing his best impression of a turtle, I was screaming and the kids wanted to do it all over again. Fun times!! Would I do it again? Probably not. Am I glad we did it? YES, YES, YES. The stories we have to share will last a lifetime.
After we defied death, we went back to the hotel for lunch. Along the way, we saw the giant ants, some animals that look like a cross between a raccoon and an anteater, got some sun(the blistering kind) and started thinking about how nice it would be to be dry. Had a nice lunch, girls ate wet, boys dry. They had some shops, imagine that, we bought a few things, I went looking for a cute sundress or the like to change into, Charles got shorts, Kathleen got shorts, Nicky found his pin he had been looking for, me nothing. Still wet we continued by foot 2 miles into another direction of the jungle to catch the eco-train into the deep jungle and to get to La Garganta del Diablo. Nicky managed to sit to wait for the train with a wonderful man, Coach Don Shula. Coach Shula is on board doing lectures this segment. This was the first we had seen of him. Nice? More than nice. He was funny, engaging, encouraging,...he even let Nicky try on his Superbowl ring!! He told us the whole story about that game and it was wonderful. Being football fans, at least 3 of us, it was like going to Rome!
The train arrived. It runs on propane gas, as to not emit too much pollution into the jungle. The quite ride into the deep jungle was blistering hot, GREEN, and sounded like the woods at home in the late summer. Crickets, frogs, birds all sounding off at once. We arrived into swarms of butterflies. This time, mostly white and YELLOW ones. Hundreds of them. There were also many people there looking HOT, tired, out of breath, wishing they had worn more sensible shoes..why? We were about to walk out about 2 and a half miles more to get to, THE THROAT, of the falls. On the way, we passed many people that had their shirts pulled up, exposing all sorts of bellies. It is the thing to do here in Argentina it seems when you are overcome by the heat. We saw tummies with " a lot of real estate" (to quote a friend in Louisville), even pregnant ones. One thing exciting to some, crazy to others, was stopping on the catwalk to watch an alligator (cayman) as he made a kill right underneath our feet! The catwalk you see, was about wide enough for a golf cart to go over it without scrapping the sides, it is made all of metal, the handrails are not nearly high enough to make you feel comfortable that someone wouldn't jump over, about 42" high and the flooring was metal grate like with joints that made you wonder if it was going to hold up! We passed a sign along the way that pointed out the "old" catwalk that was destroyed by flooding in 1992!! YIKES, and here we were, by then we were almost to the end of the road so to speak, so we pushed ahead. You can hear it before you see it. The Devi's Throat is where the Iguazu River falls about 260 feet down. The water is thundering and crashing down right under your feet! I do not think they would ever build anything like this in the USA. When we got out there, all fear left the room! It was an experience of a lifetime. It was cool, loud, and holy like all at the same time. You knew while standing there that there is nothing else like it in the world. You have to see this to believe it. Of all the wonders of the world we have seen, this is very close to the top. It is one of the seven wonders of the new world and should be. After soaking in all we could and taking about 1,000 pictures, we started our walk back to the train. Along the way, we stopped to see if our friendly alligator was still around, he was. However, while looking for him, a really mean African bee decided Kathleen was lunch! He stung her and left his stinger in her leg! Yikes!! I pulled out the stinger and poured bottled water over it. I keep various drug store items in my "lifebag" and had half of a pain pill that was for Charles' back if he got "stove up". The powderlike edge was great, I rubbed it on her sting,(as she was in tears) made a paste of it and it numbed her sting. A really nice man handed me a band-aid and we were back on the trail! She was stung as a 2 year old by some nasty yellow jackets so I felt sure she would not have a reaction and she did not thank goodness. A gal with us had Benadryl, so that was comforting. I have to re-pack my lifebag for our next adventure though! Kathleen is fine. Don't know why those African bees have to hang out in Argentina anyway!! We made it back safe and sound. All was good. We got back to the ship right at 9:00p.m. our 16 hour day was over and we were exhausted. However, we showered, had a light supper and went to the welcome party on the ship to greet some of our old friends onto this segment of the trip. Stu and Bill from NYC that Nicky became buddies with in 2007 and Sondra and Hank. It is nice to have some old friends with us. As you look at these photos, I hope you can see the beauty of it all the way we did.