Argentina - Iguazu Falls

We headed back from Punta del Este to Colonia and took the ferry back to Buenos Aires.

From here this stops being a cycling trip and turns into a bus trip. The distances were too great for us to do much cycling in the week we had left, so we switched to buses. We headed from the ferry straight to the bus station, wanting to get north to Iguazu Falls, the biggest tourist draw in Argentina. Fortunately, bus travel is cheap and convenient in Argentina, as well as luxurious.

The buses were pretty good, but they had this thing about wrapping up our bikes before stowing them in the luggage compartment. This only happened in Buenos Aires - the same bus lines had no such rules when we started elsewhere.
We arrived back in Buenos Aires in the morning, but the bus it Iguazu left in the evening, so we had a bit of time to stroll the main tourist street - Avenida Florida.

This is daytime busking with style.

This couple had a boom box and did demonstration Tango in the pedestrian mall.
At the end of each set the young woman worked the audience with hat in hand.

I can understand tourist like us watching, but this crowd is mostly locals.

The tango is a sport here - not a dance. When the dancers made a particularly audacious move the could would cheer or applaud.

Heading back to the bus terminal, we passed the park dedicated to Argentinian armed forces veterans. There is a memorial a little like the Vietnam memorial in Washington, D.C. just behind the banner.

Happens that the current president of Argentina is in a little trouble with domestic economic problems. To distract attention he has started to beat the drums of war over the Falkland Islands again. The islands are called the Malvinas here. The sign proclaims Argentinian sovereignty over the islands.

Iguazu Falls

Iguazu Falls cover a huge area at the border between Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil. The river drains a large area of southern Brazil, an almost flat area, then drops over an escarpment at Iguazu. April is not a particularly rainy time of the year, in fact we were in the midst of a prolonged dry spell. A large hydro electric dam in Uruguay had so little water in its reservoir that they had shut down all but one of the turbines.

There is a huge hydro-electric dam upstream from Iguazu - the largest in the world. They are so obsessed with this claim to fame that when the Three Gorges dam was built in China with more turbines, the Argentinians added two more turbines here to reclaim the title.

Dams and national pride aside, it is quite a site. I had a lot of trouble getting shots of the falls from up close - the spray kept obscuring the camera lens before I could take more than a couple of shots.



Here is another panorama from a little farther away and a little lower down.



This area is a national park, so it is a great place for birds and butterflies.

This is a Toco Toucan

Butterflies are everywhere, including all over this page.
And frogs.
More butterflies.
And this particularly well camouflaged one.

I think it has a stinger on its tail and is threatening me.

This Plush-crested Jay showed up around tour groups regularly hoping for handouts.


Another panorama of the falls, from a different trail on the Argentinian side. The trail system on the Argentinian side is much better than that on the Brasilian side.

Iguazu Forest Tour

Aside from spending several days at the falls, just walking the trails, we spent one day on an organized Forest Tour.

We were very lucky on this tour - we were the only English speakers, so we had a guide to ourselves. The guide knew quite a bit about the plants and animals of the area, including many stories about the medicinal uses of the native plants. There are several groups of South American aboriginals in the Iguazu area - living on reservations. There is an increasing effort to integrate them into the economic life of the area, including nature tourism tours.

Another common butterfly seen on the forest tour - the 88 butterfly. Looks like the BB butterfly to me.
The first stop was at a forestry park. The owner had collected dead trees from the forest and constructed this enormous trap.

This is a huge model of the trap used by the local indigenous people to trap birds and small mammals.

The logs are all of different native hardwood trees. An inspired effort (or perhaps demented).
Some of the native trees end up hollow on the inside, somewhat like our Western Red Cedar. In this case a fungus eats the heartwood, without killing the tree.

What more obvious than to build a small hut, a hobbit house, from slide sections of some of these hollow trees. He even put a section on a rotating bar to provide a window.

From the forest park we headed deep into the forest to an area in which they had built a canopy glide.

You climb a rope ladder to a platform to start the glide. That would be Brenda almost on the platform.

Then they hook you to the cable between the trees and push you off.
Here is a shot of Brent on the cable. Notice the pointed toes - good form Brent.
At the other end of the ride, they transfer you to another rope then get you to jump off the platform - about 30 feet off the ground.

It is a bit of a demonstration of how the safety gadgets work. The person controlling your descent is able to stop you a couple of feet from the ground. This is Brent again, showing good form: legs together, toes pointed, now jump.

There were 30 people on the tour, so we got to spend a lot of time standing around while others did the glide.

Just so you don't get too bored waiting for them, here is another butterfly.

And ... one more.


Well, that was exciting. Just a little breather before the next event - abseiling.

Abseiling is a rather strange activity in which they attach you to a rope and lower you slowly down the face of a cliff. Since that lone would be boring, then spice it up a bit by always doing it down the face of a waterfall. The idea is to get everyone soaked, so they will know they had a good time.

This is a panorama of the area above the falls.

Just off to the right were a couple of soldiers. This area, near the Paraguay border, is a major smuggling route. The soldiers are the customs and immigration enforcement in the area.

Brenda decided she did not want to get her running shoes wet but only had this pair of flip flops. Our guide quickly fashioned straps out of a bit of vine. Several other ladies immediately demanded similar help.
While we are waiting for Brenda to go down the falls, one more butterfly, with the falls in the background.
Whoops! Almost missed Brenda with all those butterflies.

During this descent you are not really in control at all. A man at the bottom releases the rope a bit at a time when he thinks you are ready to move down a bit farther. The skill is staying relaxed and prepared to react to the rope going out and letting you down. The rope fastens to a harness that supports you almost like a pair of shorts with the rope connected at the belt buckle.

Most people had trouble with this. Brenda had almost none.

At this point they start pointing and shouting to you to move to your right. The innocent do as they are told and end up in the water falls and get completely soaked. Brenda did not go too far to the right and remained pretty dry.

Here is Brent heading down.
This is our adventure vehicle and the other adventurers - mostly Argentinian with a few Brasilians.
On the way back we passed through a settlement of the local aboriginals.

The bamboo is native to the area - they have 5 different varieties as I recall. The grass thatch is standard.

Just ignore the TV antenna.

This is not an aboriginal settlement - it is a shanty town occupied by people migrating to the Iguazu area looking for work.

It is right across the road form the aboriginal reserve and in part of the park, which by law does not allow shanty towns. The government has relented in this case - there is no suitable housing in the area and the government cannot afford to build any. The shanty town has in fact become official - if you build a house and maintain it for a period of time you get to own the land.

Brenda was hungry after a day in the jungle so settled down to a piece of fish with a few fries on the side.

Although Iguazu is one of the busier tourist areas in Argentina, food is still quite inexpensive.

But it is still a jungle out there. This large mushroom/fungus was beside the trail in the park near the falls.
This is a coati. They are apparently seen regularly in the area. We only saw them at the viewing area on the Brasilian side.


The falls from the viewing platform on the Brasilian side.

The middle area is the heart of the falls - the Devil's Gorge.



One more time, with Brenda looking on.





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