The Cataratas Hotel is ‘hacienda style’ with open courtyards, gardens, and dining areas. After a lovely breakfast buffet in the gardens by the pool we caught an early shuttle to the park gate for our 7:30 pickup by Raol (driver) and Rodrigo (guide). Today we toured the Argentinian side of the falls. Per Rodrigo, it’s important to get to the park as soon as it opens to miss the tourist hordes and it’s about an hour drive to the falls. We’ll also need to pass through immigration(s) again.
Rodrigo was right. The entrance to the park was pretty busy by the time we arrived. Getting to the trails overlooking the falls requires a short, but timed, open carriage train ride. After not too long of a wait, we boarded the train and hit the trails.
The name ‘Iguazú derives from the native words ‘water’ and ‘big’. Yep. That’s some ‘Big Water’ – ‘Devils Throat’
The falls are amazing. They make up the largest waterfall system in the world. There are 45 rivers that combine upstream to create the massive flows into between 150 and 300 distinct falls depending on the water lever. We’re in luck as there was heavy rain in the area most of the week before our arrival. An upper trail route leads to seven of the major falls. We spent the day hiking to each. One of the most impressive viewpoints was of the ‘Devil’s Throat’, a huge set of falls.
Water is the main attraction, but we also saw some interesting critters. Toucans are rarely seen in this area and we were fortunate to see two. Pics not so good. The racoon-like ‘South American Coati’ were everywhere – including at our hotel and especially where park visitors gathered. Butterflies followed us all day and often landed on us or folks nearby. They are attracted to the salt from sweat. A few small caiman hung out below one of the walkways. A rather macabre sight was the number of circling Black Vultures waiting to feast on unfortunate animals swept over the falls. Jaguar and Puma reside in the area but are night creatures. No viewings by us.
At one of the park pavilions was a buffet restaurant serving a wide variety of dishes, including traditional Argentine barbeque. It was quite good.
Our final excursion of the day was a speedboat tour below the falls which included getting totally drenched underneath several of them. This wasn’t originally part of our package but ended up being good fun.
As our lunch in the park was later in the day, we didn’t need a big dinner. And, dinner in Brazil and Argentina is typically eaten after 7:30 at night – a little late for us. Back to the bar for a few beverages and a sunset watch.