Day 17 Iguazu

Day 17 - Waterfalls, Butterflies, and Walt Disney. (4/24/08)

Note: Iguazu has an accent over the "u" but I can't figure out how to insert it.

I awoke to a beautiful 80 degree day, with the sun shining and the lush greenery glimmering all around.
This is where we were staying: Resedencia Noella. Rooms cost 20 USD a night, versus, say the Sheraton which was 150 USD a night (more on that later).

The hotel was guarded by this weird poodle mix, probably the most off-breed poodle I have ever seen.

When we reached the park it wasn't quite what I expected. It bore more resemblance to Disneyland than a rain forest. The first 500 feet were covered with souvenir shops, fast food restaurants, and Guarani Indians selling bracelets, necklaces, and bow and arrows. The Disneyland similarity continued as we boarded "The great train of the jungle" (the parks transport system). After being shepherded through most of the park we arrived at the main attraction: Waterfall Gargantua Diablo. This was packed with tourists from every first world country you can think of. Nevertheless the falls themselves were breath-taking. They made the waterfalls of Oregon look like a small child pissing in the wind.

I highly recommend clicking that picture to get the full effect.
And for your further enjoyment, a video as well:


There was also a wide variety of butterflies inhabiting the park. More like swarming the park, as there were thousands. They would not think twice about landing on you to hitch a ride. Here a some I managed to get pictures of:



Number 88

And my personal favorite: big greeney, who was more than happy to show off his colors for the camera.

This one was iridescent, those blue stripes changed to green depending on how you held him:


There were also these guys, who, when we first saw them appeared exotic and rare, but after two days of observing their behavior I realized these are just the South American equivalent of blue jays. One pulled a whole bag of crackers out of the trash and flew up into a nearby tree to eat it, it seems he had been doing this for awhile, as the tree was littered with other food wrappers.