Thursday, February 15, 2018- Cruise Day 23; Iguazu Falls Argentina side free day

Thursday, February 15, 2018- Cruise Day 23; Iguazu Falls Argentina side free day

 

When we got up, the first thing we did was look out over the forest from our balcony, and we saw a large flock of Toucans working their way through the forest, going from one tree to the next.  They seemed to prefer these trees that have pink flowers and are nearly leafless at this time of year.  They must have some kind of nut in them that they like to eat.  When there are as many as 10 or more Toucans in one of these trees, they look like Christmas ornaments because the sun really lights up their colorful bills.  They also make a recognizable racket with their bills that is easily heard from our balconies.  

 

We had breakfast and saw that there were several large tour groups massing on the grounds to begin their tours.  We were so glad that our tour group was only 16 people because some of these groups must have over 40 people each.  Fortunately for us, most of them were headed either to the Devil’s Throat train, or the upper trail.  There were just a handful of people we ran into while we did the Argentinian lower falls trail.  On our way to the trail, we were passed by a mass of coatimundi that seemed to come out of the trees, running along the ground and then back up into the trees, leaping from one to the next like ring-tailed Tarzans.  Then ahead, we came to a tree with lots of nuts that had fallen to the ground, and there was a band of at least 20 coatimundi stuffing themselves.  It’s a good thing these coatimundi don’t have a taste for human flesh because there were probably over a hundred of them working their way through the forest on either side of the trail from us.  

 

The lower falls trail is a series of catwalks on the Argentinian side that work their way along the river about halfway up the canyon wall.  We walked over the top of several waterfalls that plummeted to the river below, which was really brown and churning like mad.  There appeared to be much more water running over the falls- a result of increased release of water through the turbines at the upstream dam to produce more electricity since the Carnaval holidays were over and people were back to work.  Office buildings need to be air conditioned and lighted.  There were a number of beautiful viewpoints with water falls nearly as far as the eye could see.  There was a lot of mist due to the increased flow rates over the falls.  There were a number of places along the trail that looked a lot like paradise, or the inspiration for the backdrops on a number of the Star-Wars and Lord of the Ring movies where they have cities set amongst waterfalls.  This was also the backdrop of the movie The Mission, where the local savages end up sending Jeremy Irons over the top of the waterfalls nailed to a cross.

 

After completing the lower falls trail, we walked up to the train station to see if it would be feasible to go back out to the Devil’s Throat.  It was certainly much less crowded than yesterday, because the Carnaval holiday was over and most people were back at work.  However, it was still moderately crowded because the local kids are on their 2 month summer vacation.  We were able to get on the first train out, and the walk out to the view point was noticeably less crowded and uncomfortable.  However, due to the increased water flow rates, the amount of mist and spray seemed to be exponentially increased, so that people spent less time at the railing.  We were able to stand back and admire the awesome power of the falls, since we had taken pictures the day before, and the falls were less visible due to the amount of spray.

 

We returned to the hotel and took a cooling break in our air conditioned room before having a hamburger at the hotel’s bar.  It was a pretty decent burger, and we ended up splitting one at the advice of another couple in our tour group who had done son the night before for dinner.  We also had some of the local lager, which tasted good in the heat.  We had beautiful blue skies punctuated with puffy white clouds today with a temperature that started around 70 and ended up close to 90 by mid afternoon.  

 

We headed down to the pool to swim and relax for the afternoon, and also discovered there is a huge jacuzzi pool inside the building.  There are 3 Lapwing birds that seem to have claimed the pool area as their own.  They hang around there all day, and take turns taking baths on the steps leading into the pool.  They seem remarkably tolerant to being around people.  We also saw a huge iguana or similar lizard about 3’ long sunning itself on the lawn near the pool.  

 

We returned to our room after 5:00PM to get changed and have some dinner.  We went down to the hotel’s restaurant, but that doesn’t open until 7:00PM for some reason, so we went back to the hotel bar, where we met a bunch of other couples from our tour.  Fortuitously, the hotel had invited some Tango dancers to put on a program for hotel guests, and Janet even got to do a few Tango steps with the male dancer.  We ended up ordering Cubanos, which were pulled pork sandwiches.  They were tasty, but not what we would have called Cuban sandwiches.  Perhaps they are the Argentinian version.  While talking with the other couples, we learned that a pair of French women had their room broken into by the gangster Kapuchin monkeys, who raided the minibar and totally trashed the room.  Apparently the women had slid the sliding door closed, but didn’t lock it.  It’s hard to imagine how those little monsters managed the strength to slide that door open to raid the room, but they managed it.  

 

 

We leave for the airport around 11am tomorrow. We might have time to do one last walk before we leave, but we’ll have to see how long it takes to get things packed up and ready to go.