Iguazu Falls, Brazil

All-Terrain Wheelchair

Crowded Foot Bridge

Falls From Argentinian Side

 

Jan. 21, 2009-Back To Argentina

Our local guide, Anna Paola, is a spitfire. She's small and feisty and has a great sense of humor in three languages. She's studying environmental engineering, graduates in two years, has two daughters, and is fiercely protective of the National Parks and Falls. She saw a woman throw a wrapper into the river and I thought she'd launch herself across the walkway and throw the woman after it. She did give her a good tongue-lashing.

She pointed out Paraguay as we crossed the Iguazu River back into Argentina in a more appropriately sized bus. She said it's a totally corrupt government but prices for electronics (drugs & guns too) are 1/3 what they are in Brazil. There's a legal limit of $300/month for what you can buy and she avails herself to that limit. When she told us Brazil and Paraguay built a hydroelectric dam across the river I asked if there was going to be something like a European Union any time soon. She said there's a saying that it takes 1 1/2 hours to watch 60 Minutes in South America. The U.S. invented fast food and South Americans invented slow food. There’s an agreement now among several countries (Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and more) so their citizens don't need passports to cross the borders. They still need ID cards. That’s it for a while.

We wanted to beat the big tour groups so when we got to the park she told us to walk fast and go around the crowd. David and I with our long legs speed walked ahead then waited for the rest. Four rode to the train in an oversized golf cart. It felt so good to go at top speed after ambling along for three weeks. Our destination was an open-air train that would take us to the first circuit of the Falls on the Argentine side. The train was reminiscent of the one in Frontierland at Disney. The big difference was that people here are impatient and stomped and clapped when they thought it was taking too long for the train to begin its run. As we pulled out of the station I couldn't believe I heard piped in sounds of a rain forest. There are toucans and other colorful birds to see but they didn't show themselves. The best Anna could do was pick up a dead tiger ant from the path. It's twice the length of my fingernail and carnivorous. She said she'd never pick up a live one.

Falls Finale

The entire park was so much less rustic than I expected. We were always on brick walks or metal suspension bridges wide enough for people to pass going in opposite directions. And there were people galore. It's still summer vacation here and the crowds were dense. Fortunately they're having a cool spell. It can get to 120 degrees but we were lucky it only got to the 90's.

Don't get me wrong. Iguazu Falls is spectacular. It's one of the top three falls in the world rating the widest. Victoria Falls is the highest and Niagara Falls carry the greatest volume of water. Iguazu spreads out in two layers of enormous horseshoes with the higher ones cascading onto the lower. Mist rises, rapids race, and whitewater prevails. But the roar is subdued and there’s not the kind of raging drama afforded at the edge of Niagara when looking into the abyss. I didn't get the same visceral sense of motion I do in Canada where I feel as if the hypnotic pull of the falls will seduce me over the edge.

I really had expected rope suspension bridges and was a bit disappointed they only had sturdy metal ones. It got more fun as we went to see other perspectives and the metal was wet and slippery. Some people skipped that part which was really just more of the same.

We boarded another train and went farther in to Devil's Horseshoe. We sat across from a two-year old little boy wearing Pull-Ups. He got fussy and his mom pulled a binky out of her bag. It reminded me of home and Rylee. I thought it might help if I did a little international "Intsey Bintsey Spider" but he wasn't interested and hid his head in his mother's lap. There was an all terrain wheel chair waiting when we arrived at the path to the Horseshoe. It was three-wheeled and each wheel was big enough for an ATV. By that time Linda, from Texas, wasn't feeling well. She hadn't been drinking enough. Anna stayed with her and got her settled in the First Aid Station with some water. Anna joined us later. Fernando began what was to be a mini-marathon. It was a 3/4 mile walk to the Devil's Horseshoe and the same back. He put one person in the wheel chair and started pushing her at warp speed. The other person who needed to be pushed started out walking with us. When we were halfway to the falls Fernando appeared with an empty chair, put that person who'd been walking in it, turned around, and took her on to the falls. They couldn't do it without him. In the end he power-walked the route twice totaling three miles.

We were warned that the spray in that area would be intense and we needed to protect our cameras, etc. I left my watch in the room and on Fernando's recommendation took the shower cap from the hotel. We also removed the memory card we'd been using and left it in the room while inserting a blank card. If the camera got soaked or died at least we wouldn't lose the pictures we'd taken so far. The shower cap idea worked well until we got closer to the Horseshoe. There I wrapped the cap around the camera, put it in the camera bag, and put the whole camera case into a zip-loc bag. At one point the spray changed direction and I was able to extricate the camera and snap off two shots before it was locked up in plastic again. All the time we were maneuvering around other tourists and being scolded to move out of the way by professional photographers who were standing on ladders, holding umbrellas over their gear, and taking pictures of people with the Falls in the background.

We then reversed everything and slogged back to the train, picked up Linda who was doing well, and took train #1 to the next train. We were followed by a swarm of butterflies one of whom fell in love with David's hat and rode it all the way. We de-trained and some of our group rode the cart back to the main entrance and some walked. It was time for lunch. All opted for the buffet except David and me. I was too hot to eat and settled for a salad at their slow food patio bar. David had a burger. You'd think they'd be great being made of Argentine meat but they're only so so.

I dozed on the bus back to the hotel and woke to Fernando singing. I think he can see the end of the trip and is really loosening up. David went to the pool. I wrote, then joined him. There were games for kids played to tunes from kids' shows that everyone recognized but us. Kind of a cultural divide.

We don't go to the Salsa show until 8 PM. It's a dinner show and we won't get back until midnight. I'll tell you about it tomorrow.

Toby