An entry in the TFS Travel Journal
Finally, a nice night’s sleep, on our military-style mattresses. We went to their breakfast buffet, which, as usual, looked far better than it tasted. The fruit was juicy and flavorful, though.
We then went down to the lobby and met Irio, our taxi driver for the day. His father had come here from Poland in 1931 as a farmer, and in fact there’s a large Eastern European population in this area. He drove us first to the point where we took a 2-minute boat ride to a walkway which led to an overlook of The Devil’s Throat — an enormous horseshoe-shaped maw of a waterfall. We observed, listened to, and marvelled at the awesome spectacle, then sat for a few minutes waiting for the next boat back. Boy, was it hot and humid while we were waiting! Fortunately, Irio’s Peugot station wagon was nicely air conditioned (so nice that we contracted to have him drive us to the airport tomorrow), so we rode off to the next stop in cool comfort.
After a 40 minute drive, we arrived in the Argentine Iguazu Nat’l Park and the superior and inferior senderos (upper and lower paths). We walked both, as each was about 1 mile round trip, made more enjoyable by the lime and strawberry popsicles we savored. Again, words (especially ours) could never adequately describe the magnitude, quantity and breadth of the myriad waterfalls. The paths really allow for a thorough viewing of the area, as they - with their many catwalks - go over, under, near and far from the falls, all set amongst this lavish and lush green jungle. We spent about two hours soaking it all in (one moves slowly in these tropics), then had Irio take us back to our hotel in time for lunch.
We each had a salad, then we shared some grilled turkey and a plate of steamed broccoli. We also continued to devour the Brazilian specialty of pan de queso - little rolls with cheese baked inside. We’d been introduced to them in Buenos Aires (where we were told that they were Brazilian) and then became really good friends with them once we got here. It was then time for the next activity, our 4:00 safari.
The little bus picked us up (little in that the seats were obviously set for children) and we drove a few minutes to the roadside starting point. A group of 20 of us boarded some open air jeeps, then drove through the jungle for 20 minutes or so with some stopping for tri-lingual commentary on the local flora. (It should also be mentioned that the earth here is a deep reddish brown, giving the green jungle an even richer appearance). Mention must also be made of the many butterflies of all colors and sizes that we’ve seen, which this area is known for. We all then hopped off and walked to the river, stopping to frolic in and under a small (by these standards!) waterfall. We got to the river where we boarded a large motorized raft which then set off toward the base of some of the larger falls. We motored up for some photo-ops, then the driver warned us to protect our cameras, and we drove right up into the cascade and spray of one of the big falls. Needless to say, we were deluged by the water and noise. Thus soaked, he sped away, turned around and did it again! We were offered a third time, but we all were drenched and laughing, and we passed.
We got back to dry land and walked back up to the jeeps. The two of us spent the ride back to the starting point chatting with Victoria and her sister, 15-and 13-year-olds from BA. Their english was pretty good, and Victoria told us that she’d love to get to Italy and the U.S., but that her more immediate goal is to meet, or just to see, the Backstreet Boys, who will be in South America in the next few weeks.
Then it was back to the hotel, where the two of us went on the walk that Milton did last night. Along the way we came upon a whole extended family of coatis — the ocelot-looking native creatures with big beautiful ringed furry tails and snouts like anteaters — scrounging in and around all the garbage cans, not a tad bothered by anyone’s presence. We savored the beautiful walk, especially the end, where we went out and over the falls on the long catwalk.
We strolled back through the palpable late-afternoon humidity, then took long, cold showers. We dined in the hotel’s indoor restaurant, on chicken soup (not bad), grilled chicken breast (ok), and ravioli (bad). The dessert buffet was mostly forgettable, except for the two differently flavored creme caramels, which were good. Then it was back into our (barely adequately) air conditioned room for the evening, where we reflected on our three weeks in South America before tomorrow’s overnight flight to Capetown, South Africa.