Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Las Cataratas de Iguazú

I visited Iguazu Falls National Park today, and it was very impressive, with many walking trails and activities to do. I took a boat ride right underneath the falls and got soaking wet, which was lots of fun and a good break from the heat! There are actually many different falls, and you can see them all from the different viewpoints on the trails. Since I don´t have a visa to go to Brazil, I couldn´t see the view from that side, which I am told is spectacular, but I was very happy with what I got to see. Here´s an aerial photo. I also saw some wildlife: many coatis (small raccoon-like things), some iguanas and even a toucan!

The bus ride up here was actually very comfortable. It was in a "coche cama", or "bed bus", and the seats recline to nearly flat position. I slept well, enjoyed the meals provided and my iPod kept me company in between. However, the in-bus entertainment definitely left something to be desired. They played four movies total, and I took it as a bad sign that the only actor I recognized from either of the first two was Marcel, the monkey from "Friends". These movies definitely broke the rule (recently discussed on Basil´s blog) that bad films are better when screened in a confined and unescapable space. The worst one, Anaconda 2 (which now is near if not at the top of my list of worst movies of all time), was obviously a pirate copy somebody shot at the movie theater, and a few times you could actually see the silhouettes of the people coming and going from their seats. Despite this drawback, I am looking forward to the return trip tomorrow...once back in Buenos Aires, I head straight to the airport for my flight to Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world.