Day 8 Part 2 - ¡Agua, Agua por Todos Partes! - March 6, 2013

The title means "Water, Water Everywhere!"  Soon you will see for yourselves.  This first photo was taken near the exit of the Bird Park, but it is equally applicable to both the Bird Park and the Foz do Iguaçu.  A short walk, maybe 200 yards down the road from the Bird Park, is the entrance to the Brazilian Parque Nacional for Foz do Iguaçu, the very famous waterfall.  Perhaps some of you may have been to Niagara Falls, which runs between Buffalo, New York, and Canada (south of Toronto).  I have been there and seen it from both sides.  It is enormous and truly amazing.  The power and majesty of this fall can be experienced from the Canadian side, where you can stand a few short feet away from the precipice, or on the American side, where you can get up close and personal with the wetness near the bottom of the falls, or get right in there on a boat ride.  These same options are available in both Brazil and Argentina, which border the Iguaçu River and falls on either side.  If you are anywhere near Buffalo or Toronto, you SHOULD go out of your way to experience Niagara.  You will not regret the experience.  Having said that, most sincerely, I am now compelled to tell you one thing.  Compared to Iguaçu, the falls at Niagara are like a dripping faucet.  These falls are HUGE, cascading in two levels from the river above, each level as big or bigger than Niagara.  And while Niagara is a good distance across, the falls at Iguacu go on for more than two miles.  As we hiked down the trail for 3 km (about 2 miles), we went from observing some falls, to observing more, to being totally surrounded by raging, angry, and LOUD torrents of water.  All K could say, over and over and over again, was "WOW!"  I was too amazed to say much of anything.  Let's stop the typing already and begin with a few photos, none of which come close to capturing the scale or majesty of this place.

If you were wondering, there is a 100% chance that the people in the boat got soaked to the skin, and a very good chance they were glad of it because:
1) The weather was pretty hot, and 
2) Many of them needed to wash their underwear!




 

We did see several creatures along the way...

 

These last guys with the raccoon-like tails are known as "coatis" or  "quatis," and they have been known to pick pockets, snatch anything shiny from tourists, and be quite aggressive around food.  Cute as they may be, they can do a lot of damage to dogs or people.  I captured them in their natural habitat, the trash receptacles!

Not much I can add to what you have seen, except a couple of small videos to attempt to capture the power and sound.  Enjoy!