We had a 7:30 departure for the Argentinian side of the falls, Iguazú Falls National Park.
We arrived before the crowds began building and we were able to easily get a spot at the railings of the viewing platforms. By arriving early we also had a better chance of seeing birds from the paths as we walked toward the falls, and we were hoping to spot a toucan. We first walked the upper loop, then took a short break before walking the lower loop.
The falls up close are amazing, and that is despite the water level being a bit low while we were there.
We saw some more coati, several birds, and a venomous snake, but no toucans.
Then we had lunch on our own with a choice of several venues in the Park. Sandy and I split a sandwich and tried some chipas - small rolls baked with yuka flour and cheese - they were tasty.
Then all except one of our group took the optional “Grand Adventure” boat tour. We loaded on to some open trucks to ride down closer to the river. It rained lightly while we were riding down, but we were dressed to get wet and it was plenty warm. From there we walked down a bunch of stairs to a dock to get on a jet boat.
The boat was powerful to drive about forty passengers up some deceptively strong rapids. Then we toured around near the base of some of the falls. Eventually the pilot drove us right under the falls a few times to really soak everyone.
It was a fun and interesting ride. There was a photographer who was a little pushy about getting everyone to pose for photos in order to sell us all videos afterwards, but otherwise there was nothing to complain about. The sun came out and helped dry us off a bit.
We had some free time at the hotel before dinner. Because the planned dinner was to be served outside, and the clouds still threatened more rain, the dinner was canceled and we had another dinner at the hotel instead. We weren’t sure if the hotel restaurant would be happy about us bringing our bottle of wine so we drank it early.
Barby got one of the bartenders to give us a lesson on making caipirinhas - that was one of the activities planned at the original dinner. They are very tasty and easy to make.
The dinner was steak nicely done, it made for a nice final dinner of the trip.
The next day we had to be on our way to the airport at seven. We flew to Buenos Aires and got to check back in to the ARC Recoleta Hotel early in the afternoon. We recovered the luggage we had stored there before the Iguazú extension and re-packed everything, then walked out to have a late lunch. The four of us wandered over to the Recoleta Mall and we were reading menus from the various restaurants along the mall when Chuck, Jean, and Jane called to us from the Pani Bistro patio. We joined them, pulling some tables together, and then a few minutes later Mabel and Ki walked by and we convinced them to join us, so we ended up with almost the entire Iguazú Extension group.
After a nice meal we walked back to the hotel and got on the bus around four thirty to ride to the international airport. Our flight left around eight and arrived in Atlanta around six in the morning. Then we flew back to Portland and, because of the time zone changes, arrived around noon.
Our good friend picked us up and took us to a great restaurant for lunch, then we picked up our car from their house and drove home, arriving a long thirty-eight hours or so after leaving Puerto Iguazú.