Awesome Falls (and some ruins too)

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Culture! We need some culture! People will think we´re ignoramuses if its all mountains and no culture, so off we went to San Ignacio to see some ruins and a poets house. The ruins at San Ignacio Mini are the remains of the Jesuits attempts to instill (Emily wont let me use a stronger word!) Christianity into the locals in the 17th century, and very pretty they are too. After a morning at the ruins we took what we thought would be a short stroll (don´t believe the guide book, get a taxi!) to the house of the poet and novelist Qiroga (we´ve never heard of him either but it was the only other thing to do in town) for a pleasent afternoon wandering around his garden and admiring his insect collection. Fully cultured up it was time to head to the real reason for being in this part of the country, Iguazu.
While maybe not leaving the best till last, we certainly left the Argentinas most well known tourist attraction till the end of our trip, and managed to time it with the Easter weekend too - think Alton Towers (big theme park in England) in the summer hollidays and add huge spectacular waterfalls and your pretty close to what the Iguazu falls are like on good friday. Thankfully we were also there the day before when things were rather more mellow.
The falls themselves are absolutely amazing, not comparable to anything the two of us have seen before. On the Argentinian side metal walkways take you to the top of many of the falls and boat trips take you up close to the bottom of some (they head straight into the waterfall and let the current push them back out - everyone gets soaked and screams alot, great fun).
The area is surrounded by subtropical rainforest and we spent some time walking and on a jeep safari. For an area thats supposed to have half of all the bird and animal species in Argentina you see less than you'd expect (dense jungle is not great for wildlife spotting) but we were pretty chuffed to see two species of toucans and had great fun swimming in a rainforest pool (after checking for alligators). We´re back in the park once more for a full moon walk tonight (though it looks like raining) before heading back to Buenos Aires.

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Photos

Edge of the World
Garganta del Diablo (Devil's Throat)

Shower Time
Salto Arrechea waterfall at the end of Sendero Macuco trail