To go to Iguazu falls with Mayn we decided to use a travel agent. I was just tired of making every arrangement myself. The falls are a prime Argentine attraction, everyone goes there. So finding a reasonable tour wasn't hard. We flew, to save time as its a 20 hour bus ride and Mayne was only here for 2 weeks. A driver met us at the airport and took us to our hostel. It felt warm and jungley right away so I was happy. The hostel was one of the biggest we had stayed at so far. Our room wasn't ready so we left our things and took a local bus into town to have lunch. We had fish from the river and ti was quiet good.
We got back to the hostel to settle into our rooms. As we were moving our bags one of the hostel workers saw Anika and said how old is she? When we replied 13 he said , “Oh she can't stay here. We don't allow anyone under 18.” I thought he was kidding and said so. No he was not kidding. I got Dave and dragged him to the front desk. They told us we wouldn't want her to be here at night because things could get “wild”. “You wouldn't want her to see what goes on.” As they scrambled to find us a place at their sister hotel in town we argued that we had stayed at many hostels and never encountered a rule like this. We have IYH memberships for goodness sake! Finally word came down from their top administrator that she could stay because she was with us. We were relieved. But I was waiting to see what the “wild “ night they were trying to protect her form would be like.
Before the wild night Mayne , Anika and I went across the road to a Wild life refuge and rehabilitation center. We had a tour in English. It was a very interesting place. All the animals had been injured or had been pets that became unmanageable because they were really wild animals. This center rehabilitates and release them or if they can't be returned to the wild they breed them and return their babies to the wild. The most interesting program was for birds of prey. They re train them to hunt using a remote controlled “rodent” among other things. The whole place is on government land but is funded purely through donations.
The hostel had an assado (BBQ) that night with a samba show. Okay here comes the wild part. We all ate. Three dancers came and did some so so samba. People were drinking but no one was behaving badly. The show was very interactive and both Dave and I got pulled on stage at various points. Before that went on too long Anika had gone back to the room to read. We had a fun time and it was never too “wild”.
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| Dave shaking his booty on stage with one of the samba dancers |
The next day we went to the falls. The park is very big and as we were with a group we were kind of hurried along. Word sand picture can not describe the image of this much water surging over the rocks and plunging below. The biggest fall is called “Garganta de diablo” or “Throat of the devil” You walk on raised walk ways over river and swamp to see it. There are so many falls here you loose count. We saw most of the main part of the park. Then we took a boat on the river below the falls for a very different view. As we approached the boat we saw a swarm of green and yellow butterflies on the beach. This is one of those magical things you see in the jungle sometimes, a burst of color and life so unexpected and beautiful. The boat goes close enough to the falls that you get completely drenched. Which feels good because its hot enough for it. I wish we had had another day at the falls to just wander around at our own pace and explore a few less visited parts.
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| Family in front of the falls |
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| Magic butterflies |
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| After the drenching boat ride |
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| One of many afternoon rainbows |
No photos do justice to this amazing natural wonder.
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