Friday, March 3, 2017

Our cruise ended today in Buenos Aires. We checked into our hotel, then headed to the airport for a quick trip to Iguazú National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the northeastern tip of Argentina. We had heard about the falls during a presentation on the ship, and made a last-minute decision to go there. The Iguazú River (Iguaçu in Brazil) flows between Argentina and Brazil, and spreads almost two miles in width, and drops over 150 feet from 275 waterfalls. Over 2,000 species of plants are represented in the park, as are over 200 species of birds, plus black capuchin monkeys, coatis, jaguars, puma, possum and many more animals. We even saw a few toucans on the way from the airport to our hotel.

Our hotel, the Sheraton Iguazú, is actually inside the park, and our room afforded us some amazing views of the falls, with the mist rising above them, and the roar in our ears. The grounds were beautiful as well. We were warned when we checked in that we needed to be sure to lock our balcony door to keep the monkeys out.

We enjoyed the pool as well as a beautiful sunset and view of the moon tonight as well.

Saturday, March 4

The park opens at 8 am, and we were up early to make the most of our day here. After checking the map, we headed out on the Paseo Superior (upper loop.) There is also a Circular Inferior (lower loop,) which we also walked. We foolish Americans thought Superior meant the better route, so we took it first. Actually, both loops were fabulous. Each one was about 1 mile long, and took 1.5 – 2 hours each to do them justice. This a rainforest, so very humid. That, plus a light rain at times, caused us to look like drowned rats by the end of our visit.

It’s hard to explain how stunning this park is. We were presented with OMG moments every few feet. The falls were uncountable, and ranged in size from a few feet to hundreds of feet across.

We almost forgot to look out for the flowers and wildlife. However, we didn’t miss the coatis and the black capuchin monkeys.

We flew back to Buenos Aires late this afternoon, tired but so very, very happy with this delightful diversion.