IT'S A JUNGLE OUT THERE!
Robyn and I met at 6am and walked across the Sheraton grounds and into the park. There were some signs in Spanish across the paths but it was quite easy to walk around them. My Spanish is just about non-existent but I think the signs were probably a warning to take care when climbing over the chain barrier – or not. Apparently the official opening time of the national park is 8am but I’d read a lot of reviews of other photographers who stayed at the Sheraton mainly for the ease of access into the park for sunrise shoots.
The sun wasn’t being very co-operative but the good thing was that we were the only ones there, with flocks of parrots and coati (a native animal) along the upper circuit. There were actually a lot of coatis – most of them babies. The adult coatis would walk along the path railing beside us but the youngsters were a lot more wary.
Back at the hotel I had arranged for a late checkout at 12 noon instead of 10 am so I had a short rest before going out again to explore the lower circuit. It’s a toss up for me which is the more impressive – the upper or lower circuit – probably the lower circuit and it’s a shame that so many tourists only have time to see the Brazilian side then do the train ride out to the Devils Throat before doing these 2 walks.
The large green outcrop to the left is San Martin Island
but with rain overnight the water flow was too swift for
the boats to take passengers across today - so I missed out.
Each side of the pathways is jungle – so thick that you’d have trouble going even a metre from the path without a machete.
When you combine this with these incredible falls and heat, the humidity is extremely high. My eyes were stinging from the combination of sweat and insect repellent dripping into them and when I returned to the hotel it took a good 45 minutes to cool down in the air-conditioning.
My 5.35 pm flight was delayed by 1.5 hours so I ended up having 3 hours to fill at the airport. As a couple of flights backed up, the seating quickly filled and people ended up sitting on the floor. As I had arrived early, I got my Kindle out, bought a couple of more books via wi-fi and then settled in for the wait. At least when I arrived back in BA, as I only had carry on I was back at my hotel within 30 minutes of landing.
The visit to Iguazu – worth every cent!!!
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