Iguazu Falls, Argentina

January 10

The night before we moved around a few things so we could leave a large suitcase at the hotel until we returned in 3 days. We had a 7:00 AM flight to Iguazu Falls and our driver Fabian was early to pick us up.

The flight was under 2 hours and we arrived at the Iguazu Airport at 11:05 AM. We collected our 1 checked bag and proceeded to find a taxi to take us to the Sheraton inside of the Park. We were stopped by a young German couple who asked if we were by chance going to the Sheraton and if so, would we like to split a taxi with them. We agreed and chatted on the short ride to the hotel. They had just gotten off of a month long South American cruise with Holland America and they had the “drive by” of Antarctica. We told them about our expedition ship and the first thing they said was “you got to go ashore!”

Before we could enter the park we had to buy tickets. If you stayed in the Sheraton you didn't have to buy tickets each day since you didn't leave the park, any hotels nearby required you to buy new tickets each day. (reduced rates for additional days, I think)

 

They also wanted to go to the Brazilian side of the falls, but planned to go that afternoon. I didn’t say anything, but photos are best there in the morning because otherwise you would be facing into the sun looking at them. They inquired at the desk and they talked them out of going in the afternoon and told them how to do it in the morning.

We had already planned to go the next morning and were headed down to make reservations when the German couple approached us and asked if we would share the cost of the tour with them. I said no problem, but we were also going to the Bird Park. They said it was no problem. We exchanged hotel room numbers to coordinate a time to meet the next morning.

Our room was ready when we got there so we went up and settled in. We got upgraded from a garden view to a falls view, however instead of a King bed it had 2 doubles.

 

It was past lunch time so we went in search of a place to get some quick empanadas before finding the train to take us to the Devil’s Throat (Garganta del Diablo). It's about a 10 minute ride to the Devil's Throat train station.

 Southern Lapwing

 weird tree trunk

 Black-chested Jay

 there are tons of Coatimundi in the park

 The Rainforest Train Cataratas Station

 

As we made the scenic walk on the 1,203 yard long footbridge to get to the Devil’s Throat across the Upper Iguazu' River, it started to rain. We put on our rain jackets and kept going. Once we got to the end all we could do was laugh. Besides the rain, the wind was coming from the direction to blow the spray from the falls up and in our faces. So much for “the best photos are in the afternoon”. I grabbed a few bad shots with my waterproof camera, but it pretty much was a white out. We walked back and took the train back to the station. We walked some of the lower circuit before going back to the hotel to get showered and changed into dry clothes before dinner.

 the above photo was taken the 2nd day when the weather was better

 hotel on the Brazil side from one of the walkways on the Argentina side of the falls

 footbridge for the lower circuit

 our hotel from the bridge

 Cormorant that just caught a fish



We also found the stand that sells the tours to take the boats through the falls and tried to get reservations. Because of the tides they were only doing 1 of their 3 tour options. I think there was also some maintenance going on around the Isla San Martin as it was closed too. So, we said that we would do the longer tour with the boat ride. They then said it was booked up for tomorrow. I said then how about the next day? They said you can’t make advance reservations. We started to walk away when it hit me, how can you be fully booked for tomorrow if you can’t book in advance? She just shrugged. Normally it isn’t a problem to get on a boat, but with only 1 tour option I think it was totally booked up by the large tour group that was there. They said we could keep checking back and if someone canceled at the last minute they would put us one.

We were out on the balcony of our room when we saw a beautiful rainbow across the sky. It wasn’t raining so it must have been from the spray of the falls. (which the hotel has a beautiful view of) We also spotted some Toucans in the distance.

 hotel grounds

 view from our balcony

 Chalk-browed Mockingbird

 Rufous Horneo

 Magpie Tanager

 hotel grounds

 Saffron Finch

 from the balcony

 Toco Toucan

2 Toco Toucans (they were really far away so not great pics)

There are 2 places to eat at the hotel. A sit down restaurant with 2 options, a buffet or a set menu and the bar which had lighter fare. We opted for the bar and a couple of steak sandwiches with fries.

We made contact with the German couple and agreed to meet in the lobby in the morning to get the taxi to take us to the Brazilian side of the Falls.

We are hoping for a bit better weather tomorrow.