Iguassu Falls, Argentina 17 January 2013

Thursday, 17 January 2013

Well my wake up call came at 5:00 am.  I was tossing and turning half the night in fear that I would sleep through the call.  I finished packing my suitcase which was supposed to be out by 6:00 am.  I actually got it out by 5:55am. I also had my carry-on ready to go.  My siddur was in my purse.  I headed down for breakfast, which as we were warned was not completely ready.  I had two rolls, coffee and juice.  The trip went reasonably well.  The luggage was loaded onto the bus and then we got on.  Carla, our local guide, was her usual amusing self.  When we got to the airport, Carla and Alex handled the luggage.  Carla also got our boarding passes so that we immediately went to our gate, which involved going through security first.  Security was a bit looser than at other airports.  The plane ride was not that long. 

 

After picking up luggage from the carrousel, we met our new local guide, Naxa (pronounced Nasha).  We were driven directly to the Iguassu National Park, where loaded on to an ecologically sound train which took us up close to the falls.  We stopped first for lunch.  I had a cheese and spinach empanada, which wasn’t terribly good as well as a cup of coffee.  I spent 50 of my remaining Argentinean pesos on two key chains. 

We then walked in to see the falls.  They have these metal pathways that you walk on.  They also have wooden rails on the side so that they feel quite safe.  There were many different falls as my pictures show.  We were told the number of falls that you see is a function of the rainfall upstream.  Apparently lately there has been significant rain fall.  After we had walked as far as you can go, we turned around and walked down to where the bus met us for the short trip to the hotel.  After checking in, I changed into my bathing suit.  I didn’t want to go swimming since I was concerned about whether or not the suit would be dry by morning.  I lounged by the pool until about 6:30 when I returned to my room to shower and get dressed,  I then headed to the piano bar where I was served the national drink of Brazil.  I was dizzy for quite some time.  

Arriving at the airport at Iguassu Falls, Argentina

Entering Iguassu National Park in Argentina

Tried for the Guinea Pig - The black spot in thepicture

Bird

Coati

Coati with pups

Brazil from the Iguassu Falls in Argentina

 Iguassu Falls, Argentina

Iguassu Falls

Me with Falls in the background

Those black spots are actually buzzards soaring on the thermals over the falls

Iguassu Falls

The rainbow did photograph despite my expectations

Looking down

Rainbow again

Iguassu Falls - the brown water to the right is sediment

 Note the boats down below

Me with the falls in the background

Description

Artist at work

Description

Falls from another angle

again

 Note small falls between the greens

Pool area at hotel Mabu

We went in to dinner, which stretched out for some time as there was more talking than eating which in my opinion is great.  After dinner, Margaret and I checked the “public” computers to see if we would get free internet.  We did.  I checked my e-mail, which was all I could do.  I wanted to get into face book, but the instructions were in Portuguese.  I decided to come to my room to update my pictures and write my blog.  I did set a wake-up call for 7:00 am since we are supposed to take off tomorrow at 9:00 am.