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Published: August 13th 2015
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Today was our second time taking on the national park, and it was amazing. We did the second part of the park adventure package we'd paid for, which was the better half (the first was the ecological tour yesterday). This part was called the Gran Aventura (grand adventure), and it was grand. It started with a jeep ride through the heart of the jungle, to see the plants and hopefully some wildlife. Unfortunately, as we took it at noon, in the heat of the day, we struck out on the second part, but the jungle and the information we learned was cool.
There are a couple thousand species of plants in the jungle, which is the only real jungle in Argentina. There are 6 species of cats, the three largest of which are the jaguar, puma, and ocelot. The country has about 100 species of birds, more than half of which live in the jungle. There are trees whose wood you can eat, and new tree growth regularly. About 80 years ago, much of the land had been logged out. They're now letting it regrow, but that takes time, so it's still a new jungle. Barring a few endangered species
of plants, which they plant to help grow, nature is pretty much allowed to do its own thing.
After the jeep ride, we hopped on a boat which took us up the river to the waterfalls. We were given a couple minutes to take pictures, and then were taken into the fray. You can't actually go under the waterfall itself - the guide told us that 2 or 3 people jump off every year, and they don't die from the fall or the impact, but rather the sheer weight and impact of the water coming down on them - but we could easily get into the churn and vapor/mist coming off of them, which got us wet enough to feel like we'd gone swimming anyway. It was one of the most fun things we've done so far.
After another lunch (this time a Subway sandwich, as Subway is strangely popular here), we headed to the Macuco Trail. This is a 4 kilometer trail that heads to a small waterfall in the heart of the jungle, a few miles from Iguazú. It's a gorgeous trail in the heart of the jungle, nowhere near anything. We passed only a handful
of people on our walk, but saw plenty of wildlife. At the end of the trail, there's a split: one side takes you to a viewing platform above, and the other to the pool at the base of the waterfall, where you can swim. We of course went down, after checking out the view from above, and spent about an hour in and around the water. Although it was cold and rocky, how many people can say they swam under a 100-foot waterfall? A snack and some wine (which we carried all day) later, and we were heading home.
At the hotel, we settled for a bit, then went out for our last Argentine dinner. There's a restaurant I ran by this morning that looks out over the Tres Fronteras (3 borders) that looked quite nice, so we went there, and tried two kinds of river fish. Dorado - or mahi mahi - and pacu were our choices, and they were both (although especially the pacu) delicious. A bottle of champagne was of course necessary, and then we went back and packed. We're getting picked up at 8 am tomorrow, and head home in 24 hours!
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