Iguaçu Falls, or, Sir, I'm going to need you to open your bag; there appears to be a coati inside.

I've been in São Paulo this past week, but sadly have not taken my camera out much for fear of getting mugged / murdered, or worse, having my camera stolen.  Fortunately, my first morning there, I did manage to get a picture of a quite stunning sunrise (stunrise?) during my morning swim.

No, I was not swimming with my camera - that would

be silly.  I had to run back downstairs to get it.

I did, however, happen to make it out to Foz do Iguaçu for the weekend.  And spared no expense.

Yes, that was a Jurassic Park reference, and yes, there will be more.

Leaving early Saturday morning, I caught the first flight out in the morning.  This was my first time flying LAN (a member of Star Alliance), and I didn't have many expectations at all, really.  And probably for the best.  I was under the impression that most Asian airlines had the least amount of legroom of all global carriers, largely due to the diminutive size of their usual clientele.  But LAN seemed bent on outdoing them.  Even sitting fully upright in my seat, my knees were pressed into the back of the seat in front of me.  Better yet, the woman seated in front of me seemed to not grasp the fact that object A (the back of her seat) and object B (my knees) could not exist in the same space at the same time when she attempted to put her seat back.  Oh well - all things considered, it was a short flight and my bags arrived.

I was spending the weekend at the Hotel Das Cataratas, the only hotel inside the bounds of the park (with the exception of the Sheraton on the Argentine side).  My driver - with whom it turns out I would be spending much of the weekend - was waiting and we headed off to the hotel.  He regaled me with some options for local activities, as well as some cultural fun facts about the area (size of the park, size of the rivers, local wildlife).  After arrival / check-in, I was shown to my room.  Quite nice, and very comfy, with a view of the falls just outside my window.  Only, that wasn't what caught my attention.  Something small and fuzzy did.  I grabbed my camera and ran outside (which took a good 5 minutes, given this place was the size of the Overlook Hotel and they had put in the most remote wing possible).

Outside, and around the side of the hotel, my furry friend was busy rooting around in the grass and hadn't gotten far:

This, friends, is a coati - I'd only seen them in zoos

before, but they were wandering all over the hotel

property.  They are related to raccoons.

I followed it around for a little bit, and it didn't seem to mind that I was there.  Interestingly, they make an odd little chirping sound as they're waddling around, like a little bird.  Curiosity sated, I wandered over to the falls lookout.

Not a bad view for a 100m walk from your front

door.  This is only a small fraction of the falls - they

actually run for 2.7 km.  Whoa.

I stood there amongst the day-trippers, admiring the sheer majesty of the fal-...oh hey!  Another coati!

More of them weaved through the throngs of tourists,

mainly looking for scraps of trash.  Given that it was

winter, rubbish was a large source of food for them.

Life will find a way.

Ok, back to the falls - if you look closely, you can

see flocks of birds flying among the spray.

What started only as one or two coati, eventually turned into dozens - the longer I lingered, the more showed up.

They also seem to enjoy mugging for the camera.

Say cheese!

There were also a few baby ones chirping around in the

grass.  They were a bit more shy, and tended to scamper

more than waddle.

I set my camera bag down briefly to change lenses,

which the coati immediately took as a sign that it

was full of food.  I spent a few minutes cleaning

the muddy little paw prints off my gear afterward.

Last coati picture, I promise.  A group of coati is

called a band.  Not very exciting, I realize.  But

now you know.

It was around 10 am at this point, and I had an eco tour scheduled at noon, so I trundled (I love that word, trundled - it doesn't get nearly enough use) off toward a short walking trail to get some better views of this end of the falls.

The trail was narrow, and quite packed - those who know me are aware that crowds make me incredibly tense, so I tried to stop in areas where others weren't.

Another shot of the falls - it was difficult to take it

all in, since it went off for some distance in either

direction.

That's the wonderful thing about a rainforest - even

in the middle of winter, everything is so

extraordinarily green.

Dr. Grant, my dear Dr. Sattler... Welcome to Jurassic 

Park.

The line slowly ambled along as the multitudinous masses made their way toward the view platforms.  A few things along the way captured my interest.

The first being a yellow and black

millipede crawling along a mossy

rock.

They're lethal at eight months, and I do mean lethal.

I've hunted most things that can hunt you, but the

way these things move... 

Another one of the amazing pieces of the

falls.  The water level was slightly higher

than normal, so many of the smaller falls

were out in force.

Eventually, the winding trails turned into more open platforms, and the cacophony of rushing water filled the air.  You couldn't hear much over the surrounding din.  Sans poncho, I used some of the tourists as shields from the incoming spray.  And was rewarded by this:

Positively surrounded by torrents of water.  The sheer

force of it was like nothing I'd seen, even when

compared to some of the falls in Iceland.  Also, it

really made me have to pee.

And now, for your viewing enjoyment,

portrait orientation!  Huzzah!  That bit

toward the back is Devil's Throat - more

on that during tomorrow's adventure.

Despite my best efforts, my human shields were not

providing complete cover from the surrounding spray.

As a result, I ended up slightly damp.  With a goofy

smile on my face.  I blame the falls for that too.

Here, toward the middle, you can see the walkway

heading out into the worst of the spray.

Starting to run slightly short on time, I headed - nay, ambled - back to the hotel to quickly change and meet to leave on my eco tour.  In addition to me, there was a group of 4 ladies from three generations: two little girls, their mother, and presumably her mother as well.  We hopped into the van and left for the starting point of the hike.

There were a few options available for tackling the trail: you could take a tram, similar to what is offered on the backlot tour at Universal Studios, you could bike, or you could walk.  Given the condition of the bikes available for use (they seemed to be more rust than bike at that point), and the fact that I had my camera bag with me / wanted to stop and take pictures, I opted for the walking option.  The two little girls chose to share a bike between them, which was amusing.  One of them was also not very good at it, which was also amusing.

The older of the two girls, I'm assuming she was around 7 or so, was quite talkative, and spoke rather good English.  She was full of questions, and asked me if there were snakes and things like that in the jungle around us.  Telling her that snakes probably weren't going to be a problem because they'd been eaten by jaguars likely wasn't the best choice on my part, but again, it was amusing.

Eventually, the wooden boardwalk brought us to a wider, red dirt trail leading through the forest.  I hung back and chatted with the guide, a local biologist, while the girls all walked, ran, and biked ahead.  We both kept an eye out for some local wildlife, and following a butterfly, ended up stumbling upon this:

The guide was actually baffled as to what this was,
and snapped several pictures on his phone.  I came
back and did a bit of hunting around, and discovered
that it's a wheel bug, named for the wheel-like
ridge on its back.  Cool.

Also, there were butterflies everywhere.  Of all
different sizes and colors.  I mentioned this to the guide
and he said there were even more in the summer.  This
was surprising to me since we were, at times, walking
through clouds of them.  I may have inhaled one or two.

This is one of the oldest trees in the area.  It's
uncommon for any old growth trees to still be
standing, since the soil is so shallow and also
on top of a sheet of basalt.  Most older trees fall
over after a heavy rain.

Our walking path - it was nice being out in the middle
of nowhere surrounded by innumerable sounds of
nature.  That, and the occasional plane flying overhead.

There was also the occasional cloudy river - cloudy
because of the high mineral content of the water.

Another of the numerous butterflies just hanging around.
And the regular flies - which swarmed whenever we
were near water.

Another one, showcasing its built-in drinking straw.
Oddly jealous.

The guide also pointed out a woodpecker nest in
the trees above.  We saw a couple of the actual birds,
but they were too quick to catch.  We also came
across an armadillo burrow, but its occupant was
sadly nowhere to be seen.

This became a fairly common occurrence - the guide would tell me about all the amazing animals we could maybe see, and then not actually see them.  Leopard was one such critter that fell into that category.  Ocelot was another.  But there were plenty of other things to see.

This little agouti, a rodent about the size of a small

cat, was a difficult subject to photograph, and ran off

shortly after.

As we hiked through the forest, and got closer to the water, the mosquitoes started to appear.  One or two at first - the vanguard.  Then the infantry.  And finally the battalions of flying beasts from the 9th circle of hell.  And this was actually the best they ever were - the summer would have been intolerable. I spent the best part of an hour swatting at my arms, neck, and face.  

At this point, the girls had gotten tired of walking, and took a jeep to the river - this had turned into a private tour for me.  Sweet.

Eventually, we reached the Iguaçu River - the boat had not yet arrived, so the guide took me up the trail to a lookout hut raised 10 meters off the ground, which was a great place to view wildlife.

A heron in the distance.

On the closer side of the river, a caiman sat motionless

on a log.  If you look closely, you can see his head is

covered in butterflies.  They are enjoying the minerals

left over on the caiman's skin after the water evaporates.

Makes for a pretty decent disguise.

Not too long after, the boat could be heard in the distance, and we returned to the dock.  Climbing in a long, narrow metal boat, we set off at speed across the water, following a zig-zag pattern across the surface.  Every once in a while, we'd stop so they could point something out.  The breeze rushing past felt amazing.

The only thing out on the river, we were free to skim

across it as we saw fit.

The boat operator and my guide.

Most of the birds were far away, up in trees, and had

sunlight behind them - difficult to photograph from

a moving boat.  But here's a black vulture.

And a flock of cormorants.

A pair of green parrots (the local name for

them was something along the lines of maletaca,

but I can't remember precisely).

It was getting late in the afternoon, and even though

the weather was a bit overcast, a few colors shone

through.

A green kingfisher that we followed around from

perch to perch attempting to get a good shot.

Another caiman resting in the plants along the water's

edge, also with a crown of butterflies.

We came upon a patch of abnormally rough water

in the middle of the river, in stark contrast to the

relatively smooth surface of the rest of it.  The guide

explained that it was due to the basalt rocks below

the surface.  For this same reason, the river remains

quite warm, as the rocks retain heat well.

We also stopped over an area known as the Black Well - while the Iguaçu river, on average, is fairly shallow, there is a much deeper area visible from the air, where the depth suddenly drops to 25+ meters.

Does anyone remember Thunder In Paradise?

Speeding around like this reminded me a bit of that -

except with marginally less Hulk Hogan.  Sadly.

This was a local dove that was making an awful

lot of noise.

Eventually, the tour came to a close, and we made the drive back to the hotel.  But not before finding a little bit more local wildlife.

A few of these southern lapwings were strutting

nonchalantly around the hotel grounds.

Desperately in need of a shower, I got back to my hotel room and cleaned the remains of the legions of mosquitoes off my arms.  There were so many that I looked a bit like Oliver Twist before my shower.  Or perhaps Newt from Aliens, as a more appropriate reference.  Freshly bug-free, I'd had the incredible foresight to schedule a massage for that evening before dinner.  Spared no expense.  Exhausted for the day, I fell asleep a short ways into my 90 minute Amazonian massage, woken up only briefly when the massage therapist tore into my shoulder muscles, tense from carrying around a backpack full of heavy camera gear all day.  Relaxed, and a bit slippery from the massage oil, I stepped tenuously back to my hotel room to prepare for dinner.  Eaten in the hotel restaurant, I had some amazing buffalo mozzarella on toast with shaved Parmesan, some delicious crispy-skin salmon, and a nice glass of Malbec to complement it all.  Relaxed, full, and happy, I departed for bed, and promptly fell asleep.

Another early start the following morning to head into Argentina and visit their side of the falls.  The mist obscures a portion of them from the Brazil side, so the views promised to be pretty stellar.  

I was a few minutes early outside, so I had a quick look around while I waited.

Yep, still there.  I breathed a small sigh of relief.

And still just as stunning.

A few people had pointed out some toucans while we'd been in various cars / whatnot the previous day, and because they're a bit flighty, it was tricky to get one to hold still long enough to photograph.  Fortunately, my patience was rewarded that morning.

Just follow your nose!

My driver met me in front of the hotel at 7:30, and we were on our way.  As we were headed to the Argentine side of the falls, we had to pass through some border crossings.  Additionally, the true border between the countries is on a river.

One side is painted with Brazilian colors, the other
with Argentine colors.  Clever.

We left early to beat the crowds, and were treated
to a beautiful sunrise.

Also, this just in: I'm ridiculous.  And now you know.

Before long, I had gotten a new stamp in my passport (hooray!) and we had arrived at the park.  There was virtually no one there given how early it was.  I purchased my ticket, and we boarded the train to take us into the heart of the park, where the walking trails (probably a good 10km+ of them) would take us to the viewing spots.

It took us a bit longer than planned to get to the

falls - we ended up in some Neighborhood of

Make-Believe.  What the hell?

We scampered across slippery metal walkways - the roar

of the falls in the distance became louder.  Urge to pee -

rising.

So, wait - this is meant to deter me from leaving the

trail?  Word of advice - if you make your snakes

adorable, I will go after them.

Depending on the water level, some of the

walkways actually become flooded and

inaccessible.  This was not one of those days.

This was the old trail, which had been destroyed

several times over by torrents of water.  It made me

uneasy that it was actually higher than the one we were

on.

In a flurry of spray and sound, we arrived at Devil's

Throat.  After promptly peeing my pants, I just stood

and stared in awe.

Definitely looking stylish in my poncho.  It mainly

protected my camera - the ends of my sleeves and jeans

were completely soaked.  I needed a bigger poncho.

My hotel is off behind that massive plume of mist.

I had lost track of the number of pants-wetting
incidents by this point.

An adventure 65 million years in the making.

"I can see the shed from here. We can make it if we
run."
"No, we can't."
"Why not?"
"Because we're being hunted."

Rawr!  Grahh!  Dinosaur noises!

The water can be anywhere from white to dark red
depending on the level of the river / how much
rain there's been.

This was the old water storage tower for the Sheraton.
I thought it was a lighthouse.  And then I wondered
why it was in the middle of a field.  And then I was
glad I didn't say any of that out loud.

Following one of the lower tracks, it took us to the
middle of one of the larger falls.  Because the sheer
volume of water was displacing so much air, it was
actually incredibly windy.  Not to mention the spray.

This was about as close as I could get with my camera and not have it come away dripping with water. I did venture closer, but nearly lost my umbrella into the whole mess.  And to add insult to injury, I came away even more soaked than I was before.

The final shot of the tour - it used to be people could

swim in these pools, but too many of them were getting

carried off to the left (where there was another waterfall)

and off the edge.  No more swimming.

I slept most of the car ride back to the hotel, where I promptly removed all my wet clothing.  I wrung out my socks and realized I had taken a good portion of the falls back with me.