Location: Iguazu Falls

There are so many amazing pictures of Iguazu Falls that I’m almost embarrassed to share mine. But I learned to overcome embarrassment years ago. So, here goes.

It’s about a 45-minute hike to the falls from the within-park hotel. There are two trails – upper and lower. The upper trail takes you to the top of the waterfalls, the lower brings you to the bottom. As my knees were complaining and the lower trail had steps, I stayed with the upper trail. I had three days of plane trips coming up, so I know my knees would thank me (and they did). Here is a map of the area. The bottom is the main entrance, but I started from the hotel (lower-mid left). The lower trail is in yellow, the upper trail in blue.

As I’ve said earlier, while there is rain forest, all of it is less than 100 years old due to previous clearing for farming and livestock. However, it still is far too thick to see thru. We saw none of the potential mammal wild life – puma, jaguar, ocelot, red brocket deer. Nada. I didn’t even get a decent picture of a toucan. But right away there was a turtle under the elevated walkway. It is less likely to eat me, so that works.

There were local birds all around, like herons and vultures.

But after a few steps, you are just overcome by the size and sounds of the falls.

An odd sight is the skeletons of previous walkways right next to existing ones.

My guide then explained how every now and then the river decides it’s time to clean up. About every 10 years or so there is so much rain no amount of concrete and steel walkways can stand up to the flooding. In October 2023 the volume of water increased by FIFTEEN TIMES NORMAL. The below video is not mine, but you can see how the steel walkways have no hope at the 0:50 mark.

While walking out we found a jamboree of caterpillars.

In the end, the Falls are well worth the visit. It’s a two-hour flight from Buenos Aires, or a 17-hour drive. Your choice.