South America: Iguazu Falls

That's what they call it in Argentina, in Brazil it is Iguassu Falls. Most of the falls are on the Argentinine side but the Brazilian national park is larger and more commercial. The falls are amazing, there is an average amount of water in them now, but in 2007 or 8, they were dry and the year before they were flooded and covered the boardwalks. They say they are not as spectacular as they normally are this time of year because there is a drought, but yes, you guessed it, it rained yesterday after we got here. No floods, though.
The falls are huge, they are much bigger than Niagara Falls, at its peak there are 275 falls. The main falls are the Devil's throat where the water drops 74 m and the water rises so it looks like steam. There is so much spray that we were soaked after overlooking the area, twice, once from the Brazilian side and once from the Argentine. It is so heavy, its like being rained on. All the falls stretch over 2.7 km and you can view them from both sides, although, the Argentines have built a long walkway over some of the falls. You can view them from above and below and on each side. We took a boat ride to the falls and the Devil's throat where we saw them up close before being soaked by the falls. The water was surprisingly warm, the guide said about 25C. We were dripping wet when we got off the boat. It was quite an experience, it makes the maid of the mist look pretty tame.
The falls are surrounded by subtropical rainforest and there are lots of butterflies and some wildlife. They have coati which are very much like raccoons and can be found wherever there is food, apparently they can be quite aggressive when it comes to food.
They have a spider, the golden orb spider, which spins a golden web. We visited a bird park where they had dozens of species of birds, including colourful parrots, flamingos, macaws, hummingbirds, scarlet ibis and many others. They had a butterfly house also, it was really well done.
We are now relaxing at our hotel, which is very lovely with three swimming pools and decks which overlook the rainforest. Its nice to be back in the land of reasonably priced good wine. We visited a wine boutique yesterday and picked up some really nice wine and are sipping it on our deck. Life is hard.
Off to Salta and the Northwest tomorrow for a new adventure!