Third Day at Iguazu Falls

The weather report last night indicated some rain this morning but clearing in the afternoon. 

After breakfast Brenda set off on foot to visit a nearby botanical garden.  Unfortunately it was closed for renovation so Brenda had a walk around the area.  She's pretty sure that she went by the settlement of indigenous Indians that Pilar the guide had told me about yesterday.

After Brenda returned to the hotel we decided that the weather would be good enough for a third visit to Iguazu, and we arrived at the park at just after 11 AM.   Our goals were to visit Isla San Martin and then do a second visit to the Garganta Del Diablo falls.

The visit to San Martin island was well worth the effort.  The trail down the cliff to the water was very picturesque, though steep.  At the jetty we were given life jackets and soon we were on the boat for the short crossing to the sandy patch of beach at San Martin.  After having a snack enjoying the sun and blue sky we set off on the climb to the top of the island. 

On the way to the first vantage point we saw our first armadillo of the day, totally focused on his foraging for food in the ground and totally oblivious of us tourists.  The view from the lookout forced me to use a word that I have to now avoided like the plague because it has been so prostituted in pop culture, but I thought appropriate for what I was seeing: awesome.  I'll have to leave it to the reader's imagination the experience of the thundering roar, spray, mist, and chaos of a wall of water plunging far into the gorge. 

We then took a track to the other side of the island and enjoyed great views of the northern end of the falls and the Iguazu river below.  Along the way we got a very close view of another armadillo also very focused on searching for food in the ground.

We then climbed back up the cliff and found our way to the train station.  On the way I took photos of the original hotel, now sadly derelict, and the water tower that was cleverly built to look like a lighthouse.  After we got off the train at the Cataratas station we decided that I should make the long walk to the waterfall alone and leave Brenda to make the trek at her own pace so that she could do bird watching along the good prospects of the broad and shallow Iguazu river surrounded by jungle. 

Iguazu River, headed for Parana River the River Plate Estuary

Brenda on typical pathway

Pathway to Garganta Del Diablo Falls

I took a lot of videos and photographs of the waterfall then stood there for 15 minutes savoring the experience of just being there.  When Brenda caught up with me she told me that she had been rewarded with the sight of 3 toucans perched then in flight.  (I felt miffed: she had out-toucaned me 5 to 1.)  She had also seen a tortoise resting on a rock, midstream. After enjoying the falls for a few more minutes we made our way back to the train station and were soon on the bus back to the hotel. 

After showers we reviewed the day's photographs and videos and then it was time for a what turned out to be a splendid meal centered around fish out of the Parana river, accompanied by a bottle of Malbec wine.