Iguazu - Day 1

Woke up a 5 and got out the door at 530am looking for a taxi on the streets to the airport. Wasn't sure this was the right strategy but was not feeling great about the 15 min estimate from the front desk. Luckily found one quickly and off we go

My very friendly taxi driver (Ramon) in iguazu spoke perfect English and gave me his whatsapp number in case I wanted to hire him for any other rides. Was able to check in immediately and then got Ramon to pick me up, take me to the ATM and then to the waterfalls.

The iguazu national park is huge. Several kilometers of trails lead to all sorts of different waterfalls. Some individual ones, some clustered ones, and mostly to the main attraction where there are seemingly an endless string of dramatic waterfalls carrying off into the horizon, or the 270 degree devils throat waterfall area.

Just the infrastructure put into elevated walkways/catwalks was dizzying. And of course the falls themselves were mind blowing beautiful. I started on the lower paths which took me near the base of some falls, and then made my way up to the higher areas that put me over top of the falls too. I will have to let the pictures paint the scene as it's too surreal to describe. Watch the video because it's hard to capture in a still image.

After I saw pretty much everything, I was done. Overheating from the super humid jungle temperatures and legs burning from what had to be 10-15km of walking. Earlier I had decided to hike on the jungle path to the furthest falls destination instead of taking the small train like everyone else. Was nice but drained me quite a bit.

Took the train back and for some reason had an instinct to get off at a halfway station to relax with a beer in the jungle before heading back to town. Hilarious decision as the seating area on the edge of a lot of trees got overrun with coatis and monkeys. The coati were everywhere, especially the baby ones. Under and on top of tables. A number of monkeys showed up as well. Fantastic entertainment while I tried to cool down.

On my walk out of the park I also saw what I thought was a capybarra but I was told it is a paca paca. Plus lots of lizards all over the park throughout the day.

Back to town for a nap. And then hit up a nearby restaurant where I met some nice locals who chatted with me for a while and exchanged contact info for possibly meeting up another evening while I am in town. That's very nice (again).

Edit: I can only attach 2 vids per entry. Will attach more to tomorrow's entryRead more