We were at the park just after it opened at 0800, ready for a day of adventure... in BA we´d arranged a Green Passport, which gave us an English speaking guide, Carla, who knew where to go when, made reservations for the boats, and gave us commentary. Right away we saw a coatimundi on the path, and a toucan in a tree. Soon we were walking on steel walkways over some of the smaller waterfalls, with views of the larger ones ahead. The coatis are very cute, they walk along the handrails, and have lost their fear of people, so they look for handouts; we saw school kids giving them cookies, right near a sign saying feeding wildlife was prohibited!Next we took a little train through jungle, and then were on walkways over the upper Iguazu river going out to the Devil´s Throat - a huge thundering waterfall, where there was so much spray it felt like it was raining - luckily we had donned our thin plastic raincoats so didn´t get too wet.
Then we got in a rubber raft powered by an oarsman, a smallish fellow, and headed downriver towards the falls... hmm we wondered, is he really strong enough to get us over to that bank? Luckily Juan was indeed strong and knew what he was doing, plus he knew where to find the Anis, black birds with long tails that come here for the Spring and Summer, and then will migrate north to Mexico when winter approaches here. We drifted down a side channel and saw lots of other birds and various sized caimans.
After a lunch break Carla got us to the right place to catch the truck that would take us to the boat on the lower river, promising to meet us at the landing place where we´d disembark. The boat was a dual engine high speed outboard, seating about 40 people. We put on our raincoats, then life jackets, and set off up the river through rapids and standing waves, towards the falls. First we got close enough to take photos, then the pilot told us to put the cameras in the drybags as we were going in... we went right up to the falls, praying the captain knew how to avoid tipping the boat and where all the rocks were. B says it was like getting under the most powerful cool water shower you can imagine. It was so loud - the Devil´s Throat - we had stood at the top in the morning and now were practically under it.
True to her word, Carla was waiting for us, and led us along the lower trail; we stopped to look at the lush green plants, the flowers and a hummingbird. It was an incredible day and we really saw the falls from every angle.
Photo by vtveen (Flickr Creative Commons)
