Hello everyone we are back in Buenos Aires but not for long, we leave for Uruguay in the morning at 8:00 A.M. and have to be at the ferry terminal at 7:00 A.M. I wanted to get a few of our Iguazu photos up before leaving. We have hundreds of photos and video clips. In the next few days I will write more extensively about Iguazu but for tonight just a few lines. First off, nothing that I can say, none of our pictures and none of the videos will begin to tell you about the magic and beauty of this place. It has to be on your top ten places in the world to see. The best way that I can describe it is what I heard a woman call, "The front door to God's house". That begins to tell the story. I will write more soon. Off to Uruguay and Punta Del Este.

Okay, I'm back and now about Iguazu. Our adventure started from the Retiro Bus Station at 8:00 P.M. in the evening. This is a new and massive structure with hundreds of busses leaving for all areas of the country, Brazil, Paraguay, Chile and Uruguay too!! It is to say the least a total madhouse. We found our bus gate and boarded a beautiful Bariloche Coach to Puerto Iguazu, Argentina. The trip was expected to take no more that 18 hours. I was not thrilled by the expectation of having to spend that amount of time on a bus through the Argentine hinterlands. That is until I boarded this incredible two story coach. The large bus only holds about 26 people, that is because the upper part contains virtual seating cabins were you can comfortable fully lounge out, stand up, spread out or lay down. You have a full time waiter who serves you snacks, drinks, a full course dinner, breakfast and lunch and anything else you might need. Movies are shown but most people just go right to sleep. That's what Bridget did but I stayed awake most of the time but in a very comfortable state(again thank you IPod) . The bus does not stop but goes full tilt towards it's destination. Smooth saiing and a lack of traffic problems got us into Puerto Iguazu in just over 15 hours, not Bad. We checked into the gorgeous Esturion Hotel, at around noon, just a few hundred yards from the Tres Hitos landmark where Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina meet. The hotel attendents took care of all our needs and we went out to explore the Tres Hitos and the town of Puerto Iguazu. The only problem that we had with the hotel was that the room telephones were not working. We had dinner at the hotel (Very Unspectacular)and then rested up for our next day's full schedule of sightseeing. Our trip was arranged by Argentina for Less and by Filatour in Iguazu. Both groups took care of everything for us and were absolutely sensational. I would recommend them to anyone. They did a first rate job and were very caring. Our private tour guide (as it turned out) picked us up at our hotel at 8:30 A.M. for our first day of falls exploring. Our guide was named Rodrigo, he was a young Brazilian fellow who spoke excellent self-taught English. He was a never ending walking encyclopedia of facts, history, geography, soccer etc... The most important thing about Rodrigo was that he knew how to maneuver us around the park and through the various trail systems. His advice would really come in handy on our next day when we explored some less traveled places around the park. The first thing that struck me about Iguazu was the isolation. First off this is a place that it is off the beaten track and if not for the falls would not even exist. The Argentine side the park is nearly 20 kilometers from the town of Puerto Iguazu. Once in the park you need to take a system of trails, catwalks and trains to get to the prime viewing areas. My hat is off to both Argentina and Brasil for acknowledging the importance of this and for working hard to keep the principal areas in their natural states. When you get to the viewing areas you see everything almost the same way that the Indians, Spaniards and Jesuits saw it. It is a sight to see that is very hard to describe and fully capture. Every angle is a different view that is breathtakingly beautiful. There is no way to get a full perspective from the ground. You go from lookout to lookout and to breaks in the forest all with different views and perspectives. Add to this the different times of the day, Sun, rain and water volume (We saw it all) that add different hues and colors to everything. You are in a full fledged rain forest with all of it's colors, lushness, wildlife and fauna blended in to the picture. Our first view after a long hike was the Garganta Del Diabolo, the largest of the falls, see the pictures and I will say no more. We then headed to some smaller falls and to the San Martin Falls, completely in Argentine territory. We walked down a long and steep trail down to the boat launch and took the hairiest boat ride half way up the Garganta Del Diabolo and then deep in to the San Martin Falls. When I say deep I mean deep, we could actually almost touch the main cascade coming from over 250 feet above our heads. The volume of water swamped the boat, totally and completely soaking everyone. Many including little kids were quite freaked out by this. The captain then turned the boat around and fired up the twin 250 horsepower mercury's and got the hell out of there. We headed full speed down the rapids of the Iguazu for about five kilometers to a spot on the river where we were met by open military transports that took us on an uneventful trip through the rainforest that ended near the main gate to the park. I recommend taking the full boat ride and adventure since it saves you the trip up the steep trail. We headed back to our hotel wet and exhausted but overjoyed by the experience. On our next day we were supposed to go to the Brazil side to view things from their park but we were unable to get a Visa and had to change plans. By the way, U.S. citizens must get a visa that costs $100 per person to get into Brazil and that takes a half day in the consulate to get. We didn't feel bad about missing Brazil especially with the kind of day that we had already had at the falls. We decided instead to explore with Rodrigo's help an island known as Isla San Martin on the Argentine side of the falls. This island is reached by a free boat that leaves from where the other boats leave. The island has several trails that are quite steep but that offer amazing views of the San Martin falls and some lesser falls. You also get as close as you can to Brazil, easily waving to tourists across the river. We headed back to our hotel to relax and savor this wonderful experience. What an amazing trip that I would recommend to anyone who is ever in the area. Many people actually fly in for the day from Buenos Aires. I would strongly recommend staying for at least one night here. We flew back to Buenos Aires instead of returning on the bus and were back in our Recoleta apartment in less than three hours to begin preparing for our next adventure to Uruguay. I did not mention the food in Puerto Iguazu since unlike Buenos Aires it takes a distant second fiddle to awesome beauty of the place. We did have one fine meal right inside the Argentine park which has many restaurants. We ate a buffet style place (many places are buffet style to better handle the many busloads of tourists) off the beaten track of the park. We got their early and had first dibs on everything. The highlight was a parillada station that had all kinds of freshly grilled meats. Bridget and I made more than several trips there.