After some airline frustrations, where Gol cancelled our direct flight to Iguacu and replaced that with a two flight alternative, we finally arrived in Iguacu.
Iguacu is famous for its waterfall, and it is truly stunning and massive. We first explored it on the Brazilian side. Apparently they say that while Argentina has most of the fall (80%), Brazil has the view, and that is very true! We had an 1km walk along the ridge, and pretty much the whole time we could see the falls. It stretches a long way, 2.5km in total! At the end of the walk, it took us to a platform call Devil’s throat, where you can see the main part of the falls where the majority of the water flows over. Oh, and we got a bit soaked from the falls on the way to the platform and on the way back. However the water spray created an incredible rainbow for us to enjoy.
Before we got to experience the falls from Argentina, we took a boat ride up the river to get up close and personal with the falls. It was a cool experience going up stream of the turbulent water and then getting completed drenched (even with ponchos we got soaked to our underwear). Luckily the water was not cold, and we prepared for it. With the hot temperature (35oC) it did not take that long to dry off.
After exploring the Brazilian side, we headed the next day to the Argentinian side. Normally there are 3 trails to explore but unfortunately last year there was a massive flood and it wiped out the Devil’s Throat trail. They have to completely rebuild it, including the platform over the falls. Normally there is around 1.4mil litres of water flowing per second, with the flood there was over 20mil litres per second. That is an incredible amount of water. The other 2 walks took us right on top of the falls or right below the falls. The views were very different from what we saw in Brazil, but they were no less spectacular.
One thing that the Argentina side had that was lacking in Brazil, was the wild life. We saw so much more animals on the other side. We saw many cheeky capuchin monkeys by the cafe area, including some baby/juvenile ones what kept on playing with one another and generally having a blast. Lots of butterflies and quite a few coati. Maxine decided that the collective noun for them is a “Stripe” due to their stripped tails!
Before heading back to Brazil we stopped by Iguazu town, and saw the triple frontier, the meeting point corner of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. At this point the Iguacu river joins with the Parana river. It is amazing to see the muddy colour Iguacu river join with the green coloured Parana one, and have the Parana one dominate the other as it is considerable larger (higher flow rate).
The other must do thing in Iguacu, is a visit to the bird park. The park has an amazing collection of birds, mostly native to the region (Atlantic subtropical rainforest). Over 50% of the birds have been rescued from animal trafficking or mistreatment, including a number of endangered and vulnerable species. They seem to do a great job looking after them whilst also allowing the public to enjoy them as well. We think that highlights were the Aviary filled with the parakeets (what a noise they make), the one with the macaws (Maxine calls them a rainbow of macaws due to the range to colours present), the scarlet ibis and collection of just plain strange looking birds.
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