14 – 16 Feb 2010

Along the border of Argentina and Brazil, very near to Paraguay, lies an impressive waterfall, Iguazu Falls:

So we’ll be spending the next couple days exploring this area:

We did try to get a visa to cross over to the Brazil side, but were denied, so we’ll be spending all our time on the Argentinian side.

I believe this first part of our trip was along that yellow path on the map:

The spray from the Falls was pretty impressive:

It reminded me a lot of Niagara Falls, but way more expansive:

I know a lot of these pictures look the same, but every time you came around a corner, there was another (slightly different) view:

We did later take a boat ride up the river to the base of the Falls, but I definitively did not bring my camera along- we got SOAKED! and since I haven’t learned that jeans maybe aren’t the best travel pants, it took forever for my clothes to dry out.

We also went on a jungle trek and found some cool critters along the way:

This ant is MASSIVE! Like, at least a solid inch long, and chunky:

Small-eyed sailor:

This guy has a cool green inside, but refused to open for pictures 🙁

Tree monkey:

Ground monkey:

and back to his tree with a snack:

Plush-crested jay:

Toucan!

Wasp nest:

The “88” butterfly:

and another:

A pair of cracker butterflies:

ANOTHER TOUCAN!!!

and a cold, wet, lonely bird:

Coati:

the trash panda of South America:

Part 2 of our Falls tour took us on a path to the top of the Falls:

Starting to fall!

I’m pretty sure I have a very similar shot to this of Niagara Falls:

There’s so much spray in the air that it’s hard to get a clean shot:

We were already pretty wet from the spray of the falls, but then it started raining…

I hopped the train back for a bit of shelter, but half of our group just walked- we’re already drenched, what’s a bit more rain.

We finished our time here with one more hike through the jungle:

winding our way back to the waterfall:

It was overcast and rainy for most of our time here, which didn’t make for the most picturesque photos, but still an awesome experience!

And before I knew it, our trip had come to an end and we were heading back to the airport:

I’m hooked!  This is such a fun and rewarding way to travel with a great group of people- can’t wait for the next trip!