This year for Carnaval we headed away from the craziness to Iguazu Falls, on the border of Brazil and Argentina. It's been on our Brazil bucket list for awhile, so we used the longer break to do it and not feel rushed with Tae. We stayed in the park at the Sheraton in the park on the Argentina side. It was a little pricey, but for the convenience it was worth it. It was so nice to go out to see the Falls and then come back for a break from the hot humid stickiness into the glorious air condition or take a dip in the pool after a long hot day.
The first afternoon we did a short little hike/walk to see the falls. They were amazing, and it was only a little portion of them. Tae was a trooper the whole time, although he didn't really like the mists of water or the loud sounds from the powerful water. He clung to me with a death grip at the parts with lots of noise or water.
The next day Anne and Jess did the longer hike and went to see the falls at eye level while I stayed back with Tae so he we could nap. This was my favorite part of the Falls because it is a straight line of water cascading over the edge. While they were on the hike they saw a sign that explained how 30 years ago the water was bright crystal clear blue, but because of all the deforestation the earth drains into the water and has turned it brown. Species of birds and fish are dying out because they can no longer hunt in the murky water.
In the afternoon we planned to go up to The Devil's Throat" the convergence of a bunch of falls, however after seeing the crazy long line for the train we decided for Jess and Tae to go hangout at the hotel and for Anne and I to brave the heat and lines. We waited in a Disneyish line for almost an hour to ride on a train to take us closer to the Devil's Throat. We were hot and sticky, but made the most of it. Once we arrived we had to walk about 20 minutes on a man made walkway over rivers and water. It wasn't scary until you were on the same see through walkways on the Falls. I think this is the strongest part of the falls because you could barely hear and the mist was so dense we couldn't even see downward after about 100 feet.
On the way back we bucked the system and refused to wait in line for over 2 hours. We walked back and I'm so glad we did because we were able to stop and check out tons of butterflies along the way. Also, we got back to the hotel in about 30 minutes, which was way faster than we would have otherwise.
There's more to come, but I figured I would do this in a couple parts: The Trails (this post), From Above, and the Bird Park.
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