Journeys in the jungle

            Been a bit quiet around here lately, eh? I got back from Puerto Iguazú on Sunday and feel like I’ve been running non-stop! I’ll write about my last days with the kids at Fundación Cor in another entry, but just wanted to give everyone a quick update about my trip to Iguazú National Park and Iguazú Falls this past weekend.

            The park is located within the province of Misiones, which looks a little like it was tacked onto Argentina as an afterthought. It juts out eastward and borders Brazil and Paraguay more than it borders the rest of Argentina! The falls themselves are shared by both Brazil and Argentina; the bulk the actual falls are in Argentina, but the best views are on the Brazilian side (which I didn’t get to, since Americans need an extra pricey visa to visit Brazil and I didn’t have the time to wait for it). The park is thankfully very close to Puerto Iguazú, where I would be based for the weekend.

            If you look at a map of Argentina, you’ll notice that Misiones province is a long way north of Buenos Aires. The most popular way to travel long distances in Argentina is by booking a seat on what are known as omnibuses or micros, which remind me of double-decker Greyhound buses. They are way more comfortable than Greyhounds though; the seats fold down almost flat so you can sleep much better, they serve you dinner and often breakfast (since many trips are 12 hours or more), there’s always a movie after dinner. In some ways it’s like traveling on a plane, but even comfier than that! But no matter how comfy the seats are, 17 hours is a long time to be on a bus – especially considering this particular bus started the journey without toilet paper. Yuck!

            My first task after getting off the bus was to sort out where I was staying, and after that to figure out what I was going to do and when. I arrived in the afternoon on Wednesday and decided to spend all of Thursday in the park checking out the falls. I also booked an excursion for Friday afternoon to go hiking, zip-lining, and rappelling in the jungle nearby the park and another excursion to visit the Jesuit ruins in San Ignacio. I spent the rest of the afternoon and the evening walking around Puerto Iguazú checking out the town and the shops.

            The next day I was up bright and early to make sure I got to the park as close to opening time as I could. I definitely wasn’t the only person with that idea! When I got to the park there was already a line at the entrance, so I got in and booked it to the first trails. I hadn’t realized that the park was made up of so many little waterfalls, probably about 20 or so – I lost track after about 10. The first trail went up above the waterfalls and the second went past the same ones, but at the base. The wildlife and the plants were absolutely amazing. I have never seen so many butterflies, some not much bigger than a quarter and some as big as my hand! There are also a lot of cool animals in the park like coatis (they look like a raccoon mixed with an anteater), capuchin monkeys, and tons of birds, including toucans. After walking along both the upper and lower trails, I took a boat ride under the Salto San Martín and got ridiculously soaked. Thankfully we were given waterproof bags to put valuables in and I had the foresight to stash my shoes and socks inside.

            After doing my best to squeeze water out of my jeans, I headed back up through the park to a different trail I had read about that was supposed to have a lot of wildlife. I got about halfway down it and was starting to think that I had seen a lot of butterflies and a few tiger ants, but nothing like monkeys. And as if summoned, I saw a monkey swing across the trail! I stopped and looked around, and noticed that there were about ten of them in the trees – climbing and jumping through the brush, pulling bark off trees and just generally being cool little monkeys. I stood and marveled for a few minutes, until the monkeys started moving away and the mosquitoes were getting to be more than I could handle. As the monkeys disappeared, a family of four coatis came out of the brush and crossed the trail as well. On my way back up the trail, I met people coming from the trailhead who mentioned that they had seen one monkey further up the trail – I felt very lucky to have caught sight of all of the monkeys AND some coatis!

            My next stop was the biggest and most famous waterfall in the park, the Garganta del Diablo (The Devil’s Throat). There’s about a kilometer of walkways out to the falls and a platform is perched right over the top. It was simply amazing, I’ve been to Niagara Falls but I think this was even more impressive and beautiful. Even better, the weather had been overcast all morning but the sun decided to come out right as I started towards the Garganta del Diablo, so by the time I got there the sun was coming around to shine on the falls and make some pretty rainbows. Pictures don’t do this place justice, it really has to be seen to be believed. Definitely worth the long bus ride!

            I finished my day at the park with a quiet dinghy ride on the upper Iguazú river, where my guide, José, showed me snoozing crocodiles, tiny orchids, toucans, and warned me about an ant with a very painful bite that was crawling up my leg – according to José, the ant is known as “pica y corre” or “bites and runs” (guess what it’s known for doing). This was the last boat launch of the day and I was the only passenger, so it was a very peaceful way to close out my day at the park. I went back to town and treated myself to a really good dinner with a passion fruit mousse at the end.

            Friday morning I went on a tour of an animal rehabilitation center, where I got to see lots of endangered and rare birds and other critters. We learned about the center’s work to rehabilitate animals that had been seized from the black market or surrendered by people who had kept them as pets and later realized their mistake. The center works to treat and breed animals to release into the wild when possible and takes care of animals that can’t be returned to the wild. It was really cool to see all of the animals so close and to learn about what they eat and how they live. It was also neat to see something that didn’t seem to be part of the “traditional” tourist experience in Iguazú. After the critters, I went zip-lining and rappelling, definitely testing my nervousness about heights! Again, it was great to be in the woods and nature, even if nature was filled with some pretty voracious mosquitoes.

            The next day I packed up and shipped out of Puerto Iguazú on a tour to the Jesuit ruins in San Ignacio. We also stopped at a mine along the way, where I got to see some enormous agates and geodes. The town of San Ignacio is about three hours south of Iguazú and on my way back to Buenos Aires, so I figured I would just stay there and get a bus to Posadas, where I could take a bus back to Buenos Aires later that evening. While waiting in the Posadas bus station, I happened to see a man get busted carrying what appeared to be 25 individually-wrapped kilos of cocaine, probably from Paraguay into Argentina. I was a little surprised that the bust was happening in a big glass-fronted border guard’s office where a crowd of onlookers had gathered and was taking pictures. When I got back to BA, my host mom was disappointed that I didn’t think to whip out my own camera and start snapping away – I told her I was a little nervous that I might get reprimanded and my camera confiscated with all of my pictures from the park. So sadly, I have no pictures of that interesting part of the journey, sorry!

            Well, that’s quite a lot of reading to get through! Once again, the plan will be to get one more entry out before I take off tomorrow evening for Mendoza. I still haven’t been able to put my pictures of the trip up on Facebook because their photo editing tool always loads them out of order, and I have no desire to reorganize 70+ photos! Maybe it’s time to switch to a different digital photo album tool, any suggestions for good ones?

            Hasta pronto!