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  Puerto Iguazú, Argentina
Saturday, November 1, 2008

Why do waterfalls seem to fall on borders? Here we are in the Argentinian version of Niagara, Iguazú Falls. Just as the U.S. and Canada begrudgingly share Niagara and wage petty disputes over whose side is most worthy and beautiful, Brazil and Argentina duke it out over Iguazú. While neither the tallest nor the most powerful in terms of water flow, Iguazú falls are certainly enormous in scope and variety. Guarani legend has it that an angry river god created the most turbulent section of the falls, Garganta del Diablo (throat of the devil)while upset about a woman. An extensive complex, somewhere between a national park and six flags, is constructed around the falls system, which stretches over to Brazil. Many tourists visit the falls through both countries, but, being Americans, we needed an expensive visa to visit Brazil and and decided to stick to the Argentinian side.
Easily the most visited attraction in Argentina, the falls are HOT and CROWDED. We of course arrived on the first day of high season, accompanied with a ten dollar hike in admission fees and the expected surge of people. I don´t want to think about what it might be like when there aren´t well-publicized, devastating floods in the area. We quickly discovered, however, that some peace and quiet can be found among the teeming multitudes by walking to various sections of the park, rather than taking the sweaty sardine tourist train. Amazingly, considering the heavy human traffic they must endure, some wildlife still lives in the park. We were lucky enough to spot a few toucans (no pics, sorry, consult cereal box if confused), some seriously big lizards, and adorable coatis (look a bit like raccoons with long noses). Unfortunately, we didn´t get any good shots of most of these creatures, given that the moment we had them in our grasp, a gaggle of noisy tourists would come tromping down the path and scare them away.
Iguazú is one of those rare tourist attractions that make it worth putting up with the tourists, though. The town of Puerto Iguazú isn´t bad either, I just wish someone would tell them to quit refrigerating their tomatoes. Knock it off guys.
Here are some shots of the falls (Nathan managed to keep all the other folks out of them, miraculously). Iguazú Park
Now, we´re about to get on a 20+hour bus to Buenos Aires, the big city, real deal. I hope I can dig some decent clothes out of my bag.

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