December 31th - The Falls!

We woke to find the Hotel St. George in the center of the city, Puerto Iquazu, and on the shared border with both Paraguary and Brazil.  The hotel was lovely and large with gardens and a nice pool.  Our tour company who had assumed we were a no show still arrived at 8AM hoping to find us and they did.  Still a bit sleepy from only five hours of sleep, we had a chance to get breakfast and be ready for their arrival.

We met our guide Juan Luis, a Brazilian/Argentinian fellow with five languages under his belt.  His English was perfect and he was quite quite charming.  We once again boarded a private tour bus for the short ride out of town and into the jungle and the national park.  We reached the park in 15 minutes and suddenly we were aware that this was going to be an amazing day.  We still had no idea of what was in store for us even though we had seen countless picutres before hand.

We wandered the main entrance getting acquatined with what was going to be our îtinerary and then got on the park train to take us to the Devils Throat.  We got off the small HO train and walked to the beginning of the catwalks.  We could hear the thunder in the background.  All of a sudden we were on top of the water weaving on catwalks from one small cement pillar to another until reaching the edge of the falls and the most amazing display of falling water we had ever seen.  The sound and the grandeur were overwelming as was the welcomed spray on what was already a VERY hot morning.

This began our full day of walking the platforms both above and below the falls.  AMAZING.  The pictures we took we only tell a small part of the story today.  Just before lunch we decided to board the boat ride that would take us to the bottom fo the falls.  We were given waterproof bags and lifejackets, then got into the large zodiacs and were taken literally to the face of sevearl waterfalls.  We were drenched as was the boat.  It was a thrill that is a once in a a lifetime experience.  Afterwards it was back up over 100 steps and through the series of catwalks and trails to get back to the center and a very nice lunch buffet.

After lunch we wandered the upper catwalks and again were amazed at what we saw.  We left the park shortly before 4PM and headed back to the hotel for a short rest before dinner.