First Day at Iguazu Falls

Capuchin monkeys

Garganta Del Diablo

A raccoon-like Coati

It was a great first day at Iguazu Falls.

The Tourbillon, like all hotels but one at Puerto Iguazu, are 15 or 20 km away from the Iguazu National Park.  (The only exception is the Sheraton, inside of the national park.)  However, access is not a problem.  We caught a bus at the bus stop in front of the hotel which took us to the park for 10 pesos each. 

The park had the same unusual price structure that we had noticed at the San Ignacio ruins: a low price for Argentinos, a slightly higher price for other Latin Americans, and really sticking it to tourists from farther afield.  From memory, Argentinians were charged 40 pesos and we were charged 130 pesos each.  However, I do not begrudge the price that I paid because we found the park superbly set out with excellent infrastructure, well managed, and very well staffed by bilingual personnel.  The admission price included the train rides as well as the boat trip to San Martin Island. 

Brenda and I arrived at the park at about 10.30 AM and were the only people to take advantage of the excellent displays at the park's tourist center during our 30 minute visit during which we got a comprehensive picture of the history, fauna, and flora of the area.  We expressed interest in walking the Macuco nature trail and received a brochure on the trail as well as several others describing the park, its birds, etc.

The Macuco Nature Trail is about 3.5 meters long and begins just past the train station and ends up at the Arrechea Waterfall, where water falls 60 meters into a pool that is OK for swimming then proceeds to join the Iguazu river a few hundred meters  down.  We knew that the walk would take much of our day, but we were attracted to the idea of walking through a jungle path at our own pace where we might get a chance to see some exotic birds and even perhaps a jaguar.  (The sign warns of dangerous animals and to keep children very close.)

The first thing that Brenda noticed  was the  amazing variety of colorful butterflies that seemed to be everywhere.  Along the way we saw some interesting birds which Brenda may comment on after she's done some research on their identity.  We then encountered a couple who gave us the signal to stay quiet and approach slowly.  Above was a group of Capuchin monkeys doing their thing in the canopy of trees.  We got photos of a mother with her offspring on her back, peeling an orange-like fruit in a very human-like fashion before eating it. 

The waterfall was interesting and well worth the walk.  According to the brochure, this was all that was left of the site of the original waterfall, choked off when erosion diverted the course of the river to its present spectacular set of falls.  We had lunch by the pool and while there met a young couple from Australia.  They told us that the last train for the major falls left at 4 PM, which put into our heads the possibility of doing a quick visit to the falls before we returned to the hotel.

To our surprise we arrived at the train station at about 10 minutes to 4 and soon we were on our way.  The park runs a narrow gauge train which takes the tourists to two stations: Estacion Cataratas for visiting the southern end of the waterfalls, and Estacion Garganta, much farther down the track, for visiting the spectacular Garganta Del Diablo falls.  Even through time was a bit short we decided to stay on the train to the second station and were rewarded by the sight of three toucans.  Brenda spotted a pair in a tree on the right side of the train and I saw one emerge from the trees just ahead of our car and fly parallel with the train for about 15 seconds before turning back into the trees.

We reached the Garganta Del Diablo after a 1.1 km walk from the train station over the broad expanse of the Iguazu river along a broad metal walkway on hefty concrete pillars and saw that everything that we had read about the falls was true.  I found it to be spectacular and downright stunning.   We took some photos and I took several videos before one of the park attendants advised us to start walking back to the station to catch the last train at 5.30 PM.  While we were there we ran into the Australian couple.

Before leaving the park I got our tickets stamped so that we could return tomorrow for half price. Not long after that we were on the bus which dropped us off in front of the hotel.