Finally.. on Iguazu (the details)

Welcome to MarcoPoloInn in Puerto Iguazu. Sarah and I were pleasantly surprised to have a $30/night room to ourselves where they even provided towels (a big deal when packing for two weeks and only bringing a backpack) and a decent breakfast! We booked a week or two in advance and paid in cash. The best way to go in Argentina we've found.

Having arrived early to the city we decided, "What the hey, let's just go to the park!" We took a short bus ride to the national park and entered a sea of butterflies (as previously displayed), a mesmerizing view of, truly, Niagra Falls on steroids, passed a store of Yerba for maté that smelled so good, and a bunch of these guys:

cute. but dangerous.

They're called Caoti and they look pretty adorable until you sit down for lunch. These guys have no fear when it comes to tourists, especially when they are hungry. At one point, Sarah and I stopped for the day at the general lunch location. She went to the restroom, and I pulled out the first portion of lunch I had bought from a local grocery store. If there's ever been a sense of the force, it was then, as slowly but surely, 5 Coati started to surround me. Creeping toward me, noses perked by the smell of the ham and cheese sandwich I had left in my bag. One, much less stalker-like, simply jumps onto the table in front of me. We were face to face.

He reached for my bag! I squealed, "Es mio!!!!" and pulled it away. Everyone of them slowly backed away. Sarah came soon after and we moved our eating location. I had a scratch on my hand to prove the ordeal.

The park is worth 2 days. I've been to some beautiful national parks, but so far, this one hits the number one mark. In my paper journal I even wrote it above other important sights like David in Florence and Monet's Waterlilies in France. Seriously.

There are 5 main paths to take. We didn't have time for one, but we saw enough. Our main comment is that the park naturally builds upon itself. First you're above the falls. Then you're under. Then you go to an island in the middle of everything and you see a pretty powerful one (my new profile picture on facebook is of this one). We took a boat that led us under the falls and thought we had seen it all.*

Until the walk to Devil's Throat, as seen below.

I've already mentioned the tears that invaded my eyes. How it looked like the earth was being sucked into itself.

Such a place of wonder.

Such a place in which I had to let my words be few.

And then it wasn't over. We took a boat tour above the falls that allowed us to see more of the tropical forest side of things. It was the first time I had seen an alligator, with a good sized head peeking above the water, without a wall of glass to protect me. The guide thought it was a good idea to take us closer, and I just so happened to be the closest at one point. I freaked. As calmly as possible, so the gator would have no reason to freak out as well. While the guide explained that they are very tranquil animals, I just said that I don't like taking that sort of risks. After all, even the Steve Irwin died from a manta ray, something I was holding in my arms just a week before...

We couldn't go through the weekend without some more hands-on adventures! Namely, rappelling, a hike through the forest (with a view of Paraguay), and zip lines. Zip lines through trees can be pretty scary. It was cool too, in that we would go down one. Stop at a tree. Climb the tree a little bit higher, then go down another. Etc. Etc.

During our hike, we thought about wanting to see toucans in their natural habitat. I began to pray and once again the Lord brought us not one, but TWO! I pointed them out and even the guide had not seen them before. I asked if I could get a discount on the trip for that. lol.

We might some nice British folk on these adventures. Unfortunately, they were staying on the Brazilian side, and since Sarah and I didn't have $300 to spare for that crossover, we just enjoyed the conversation while we had it.

On our final day together we decided to go out to eat instead of relying on grocery bought sandwiches. I couldn't decide on what to eat, so I got a little bit of everything (it was all pretty cheap after all). So to the left, you've got your pumpkin mash, to the right your surubí salad (surubí is the Iguazu version of catfish. It's got a different texture, but still a bottom dweller of the Paranha river.) and in the middle those aren't fries--it's fried yuca! Everything was delicious. Even the un-pictured sambayón I had for desert.

A great trip. Nothing like what I was expecting, although I don't think I really could tell you what I was expecting. Aside, I also secretly like getting to have a tv in the room just a little bit. It's great that we don't have one in our home, but a little of it to fall asleep to can be fun.

* Recently 2 died and 8 were injured in a boat accident. The same boat company that took us under the falls is at fault. This is what I mean by fear. This is also what I mean by taking us under the falls. It was amazing, but we certainly need to have reverence for His power.