First on the list is the Iguazu cataratas (water falls). There are countless buses that run from Bs As to Iguazu but these are only for people who enjoy sitting on a bus for 18 hours. We're more the two hours on a plane type of people. Landing at Iguazu is a real landing in the jungle. So often airports are surrounded by cities but here the airport has been carved into the greenery. Once at the airport we were hit by the tropical dry heat - quite the contrary to the weather we had been experiencing in 9 de Julio and Bs As. The taxi system is 500 pesos per car to your hotel and there are no public buses. As our taxi driver drove us to our accommodation
we immediately noticed that people here speak a lot slower and are easier to understand. This was confirmed later in the day when we were in town window shopping.
Our host put us in touch with a taxi that had an eight seater vehicle and would take us to the falls and back for a reasonable price. When we woke this morning, Depp was running a bit of a temperature and we ummed and ahhed about one of us staying behind so Depp could rest. He assured us that he was well enough to go. We don't usually take parenting advice from five year olds but today we did. After the 20 minute drive to the national park it was obvious that Depp would need to be carried. Just as I was limbering up for eight hours of carrying a child we saw pram rentals and went to ask how much. The man saw Depp and said the prams are only for toddlers less than two.
About 700 metres in we saw another shop that rented out prams and Talluah went in while we kept Depp out of sight. The pram was a god-send as Depp was able to sleep when he needed to and could see everything comfortable while still resting.
While you may not see all 275 water falls, it's possible to see a substantial amount of spectacular falls in one day with a family. The tracks are well maintained and most are accessible by wheelchairs and prams. There are many other activities such as boat trips, visiting a small island to get a different view of the falls, going under the falls, eco tours in the river and a train ride to the Devil's Throat.
We managed to stay dry and only saw two mosquitoes. The mosquito population may be different at different times of the year but we were surprised by the lack of little vampires. There were however, plenty of coati looking for a free feed. These little animals are cute until you see their tusklike teeth and crazy long claws. We caught a quick glimpse of some monkeys but unfortunately did not see any toucans, maybe tomorrow.
Oh, and Happy Birthday Martine.
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