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Published: March 19th 2009
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Spray
From the Devil's Throat Iguazú is essentially inconceivable. Every morning I woke up there I couldn't believe that this was real. Often waking up in Buenos Aires it is difficult to believe I am where I am, but Iguazú was something different entirely.
The trip there was difficult. I woke up in the morning and had no water. I got to my parents apartment to shower and their lift wasn't working. Then once we got ready and got a cab, he took us to the wrong airport despite repeated questioning, but we made it to the park. It was worth it by far. Upon entering the hotel you can see the garganta del diablo or devil's throat in the background. After dropping off our luggage we headed for the train. There is a small train which delivers guests from the main station and trails out to the devil's throat trail. This was a walk along the upper/superior river Iguazú. The beginning of the trip over the river was beautiful and would've been well worth the trip. In the shallow river we could see swarms of fish and plecostomus holding fast in the river, which were about a foot long. The butterflies would almost swarm, and
would've been a nuisance if not for their incredible colors. We even saw a turtle swimming by in the shallows. But the entire time you could hear the building noise as we neared the falls. As beautiful as all of the previous things may have been, reaching the devil's throat lookout point was beyond belief. The noise was incredible and the bottom of the river isn't even viewable. The spray extends up to the lookout point and depending on the wind can get people quite wet. The devil's throat was amazing and conjured up rainbows for us in our viewing. But the beauty of Iguazú goes well beyond one waterfall. Along the sides streamed many smaller waterfalls, each one would've been worth a trip to see, but together they created a masterpiece. The first day we only had time for the devil's throat and took the train back. On the way we had the first of our monkey encounters, spotting one jumping in the trees.
Day two required us to wake up early and make our way to the gran adventura. It was a jeep ride for 20 minutes through the jungle followed by a boat ride up to and
then into the falls. We approached the devils throat and entered into one of the smaller waterfalls, where we got pretty wet. After the first waterfall we traveled back to San Martín waterfall, which is considered the second most important behind the devil's throat. Our boat approached San Martin(I'm leaving the accent out because it is difficult to constantly put it) three times, often times filling the boat up with water well past our ankles. We had ponchos secured around our laps, but they were useless. After the boat ride-which is a necessity for anyone making the trip-we were dropped off on the inferior trail and made our way to the isle of San Martin. I'm going to leave off describing these areas, partially because I'm tired, and partially because we have so many pictures for you to see(500 on my mom's camera and 130 on mine). Just remember when looking at the pictures to try and find the catwalks we tried to include for some sort of scale. Mind you this is often difficult because of how tiny they are in the pictures.
But the catwalks will also show where we traveled. There are three paths in the park
Falls
View of the falls from the hotel. and we walked everyone of them. Some points were already beginning to dry up, just a month out of the rainy season, but our timing meant that we had beautiful weather. During the second day we did plenty of hiking, but managed to have enough energy to go outside at night to see the stars. Even with the lights from the hotel, we were able to see numerous stars. We aren't allowed to travel far at night, for fear of Jaguars and Pumas. Luckily, despite the hotel and train, much of the park is kept to the natural beauty with only the catwalks added. As nice as being able to go places at night would've been, having the park maintained the way it is, was so much nicer.
The next morning we awoke to find a toucan sitting outside of our room on a tree. Not long after he had flown away a tree started to shake and monkeys emerged, hoping from tree to tree. Our animal adventures ended up not being few and far between, with the toucan, monkeys, and butterflies making up only a fraction of what we saw. Herds of Coatis(a cross between a raccoon and possum)
Mom and Dad
On the catwalks to the devil's throat. roamed the trails along with lizards and various other birds. But I'll leave off my stories of the place in favor of selecting pictures to put up. Obviously I'm not doing all 600+ so feel free to ask once you see us. More to come.
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Julie
non-member comment
Looks wonderful
It looks like you, Mom and Dad are having a wonderful time.....can't wait to hear more about it and see more pictures! Enjoy the remaining time while mom and dad are there! love you