Niagara Falls -- hahahahahaaaa!

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It was a rough (and long) trip from YYZ -ATL - EZE - AEP - IGR. But after a bunch of airline-driven drama and stress that I won't delve into (however will say that I will notbe flying Delta again), I started off my trip at one of the top sights on the entire continent of South America -- Iguazú Falls.

As an Ontarian that has been quite familiar with Niagara Falls since I was a youth, I wasn't prepared for the grandiose scale of Iguazú. In fact, in late 2011, Iguazú Falls was announced as one of the seven winners of the New Seven Wonders of Nature.

The many cataratas (falls) border Brazil at the north-east corner of Argentina. And when I say "many", I mean many. Like 275 individual falls!! And the grand master of them all -- La Garganta del Diablo (translation: the devil's throat) makes the power of nature and water quite humbling to us mere humans.

The Argentinean side of the Falls (and national park) are set up with two walkways (upper/lower) and then a separate walkway (plus a slow train ride) to Garganta. You can spend a solid day and a half traversing the various paths and taking it all in. Many people also visit the Brazilian side (it's more panoramic, vs. up close and personal with Argentina), but this involves a $130 visa for Cdns. Although it's known that it's possible to go over the border for the day without a visa, I had only 2 days before my flight out and couldn't afford to lose any time over a border snafu. Messing around with border crossings isn't something I'm keen on anyways.

The beauty of the Falls was incredible, as it was clear blue sunny skies so there were rainbows and butterflies everywhere you looked.

Another big highlight of my time in Puerto Iguazú was Güira Oga, a nearby wildlife refuge and rehabilitation centre. This amazing organization saves injured or displaced animals and rehabilitates them (when possible) to re-release them into the wild. We're talking animals from the nearby jungle that had been hit by cars; animals that traffickers (giant assholes) tried to smuggle across borders; animals injured by poachers (giant assholes), animals that people (idiots) had as pets and later thought "oh, maybe the fact that my crocodile has grown bigger than my apartment is a problem...", etc. They have birds (toucans, macaws, falcons, vultures etc), a variety of small to medium size mammals (monkeys, capybaras, lemurs, etc) and others...

Sadly, most of the animals don't make it, but Güira Oga has set up an operation where they are as self-sustaining as possible. They breed the food needed to support many of the animals, and promote reproduction for those that are unable to be re-released into the wild. They even train birds of prey to hunt and survive in the wild prior to their release.

I really enjoyed the tour of the facility and was happy to contribute to a not-for-profit that does such good work to help to make up for what many asshole humans do to innocent animals... (You don't even want to hear some of the horror stories about how the animals are recovered (or not)). So I left the refuge with some hope for humanity...

Up next: fly across Argentina to the north-western province and city of Salta

(More pics below)

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Photos

Iguazú Falls
Some of the 275 falls

Iguazú Falls
Just some of the 275 falls, often partnered with rainbow(s)

La Garganta del Diablo
This only captures a fraction of the 82 metres high, 150 m wide, and 700 m long Devil's Throat

Butterfly Meeting Place
More and more butterflies kept landing on this rail

Rescued Toucan at Güira Oga
I used the 'toucan' setting on my camera to photograph a toucan!

Rescued Turtle at Güira Oga
I think this was a sand turtle. I might be making that up though.

Rescued Capybaras
You don't get a feel here for their size, but these are the largest rodents in the world... They can get as big as 150 lbs! Aka ROUS (rodents of unusual size), but these are cuter than the one in The Princess Bride