From Buenos Aires I hopped on a plane for a quick flight to Puerto Iguazu in Argentina’s far northeast corner. Most of Argentina is pretty dry and arid, but this tiny little panhandle of a province is the exception, extending into the jungle region. It’s hot! It’s humid! I went from the refrigerator straight into the oven.

Puerto Iguazu, my base for the next few days, is situated right at the confluence of the Iguazu and Paraná Rivers, forming the tri-border with Brazil and Paraguay. Its very much a tourist town for one of the most famous sites on the planet, Iguazu Falls. Lots of hotels, hostels, overpriced restaurants, etc. Day one was just getting settled into my hostel and preparing for the next couple of days. Once all the practicalities were sorted out, I took a walk through town and out the border (seen above).

There’s really not much to do here other than see the falls and everything in town is set up to get people there and back efficiently. So finding the bus to the national park entrance was super easy and I was off and running, well, off and walking slowly because it’s so damn hot! As a distraction, the coatimundis are pretty much everywhere.

This day actually turned out to be a great day for wildlife, but more on that as we go. There’s basically two paths around the park, an upper and a lower path and both have astounding views every step of the way. This place is huge and totally overwhelming! The falls are actually around 275 individual waterfalls and stretch on for roughly two miles.

The end of the upper path takes you to the top of Salto San Martín, which only traverses about a third to half of the falls. They built metal walkways so you don’t have to get your feet wet or plunge to your death. It’s all very family friendly.

Most of what I’ve seen so far is only about half of the falls. Off in the distance I can see the other section called Garganta del Diablo. There is a walkway that goes out to the top part, but they closed it because they are worried about rain storms. No rain today though.

Speaking of wildlife, these black capuchin monkeys were kind of all over the place too. They are constantly on the move, so getting these pics was not easy.

Down on the lower path I got more face to face time with the falls. In the pic below, Salto Bosetti is far right, and Salto San Martín is the really heavy one on the far left.

After having seen Niagra Falls in North America and Victoria Falls in Africa, I can honestly say that Iguazu blows them both out of the water (pun intended). The craziest part about it though is that this is only half of my visit. I have another full day exploring the falls tomorrow. Wow!

In the pic below, the heavy waterfall just left of center is Salto San Martín. If you zoom in dead center of the pic and just right of San Martín, you can make out the end of the upper path with the Argentinian flag.

There’s a side hike in the park out to a smaller waterfall upstream, Salto Arrechea, so of course I had to check it out. Walking along the road to the trailhead I spotted these cool looking birds and I stopped to take some pics. All I did was take a couple of photos, put my camera away, and then kept walking, that’s it. In keeping with my trend of offending birds on every continent, sure enough, I could hear him coming at me from behind. I turned and he flew right at my head. What is it with these birds?!

Finally on the Macuco trail and about half way to the waterfall, I got startled by this coral snake. It’s a good thing I remembered that rhyme about coral snakes from my younger years, “Red and black venom lack, red and yellow kill a fellow.” I gave this guy a wide birth since he’s definitely the red and yellow kill a fellow variety. He sure is pretty though.

Luckily I managed to to get to the waterfall without being murdered by any birds or snakes. After all the mindblowing hydroviews of Iguazu, this one was pretty cozy and peaceful.

And on the way out of the park, I was treated to a showing of a couple a dozen coatimundis. They were very preoccupied with digging in the dirt and finding food, but they’re fun to watch.

The Iguazu River is the official border between Argentina and Brazil, which means there is excitement to be had on both sides, so I hopped on the bus and took a day trip over to Brazil. There’s only one path in the Brazilian park about two miles long to view the falls. I won’t say one side is better than the other, they’re both just very different experiences.

The path starts out directly across from everything I saw yesterday in Argentina and makes it’s way slowly to Garganta del Diablo.

I got super lucky with the weather today, which never happens to me. From when I woke up and got ready to the whole bus ride over it was pouring rain. I had all the rain gear ready, but as soon as we pulled up to the entrance, the rain stopped and didn’t come back all day. Poof! Gone! I also met this bird really up close and personal and he DIDN’T feel the need to attack me. Awesome!

In the pick below, that’s Salto San Martín in the back row on the right. That’s a far as I got yesterday. Everything from here on out is brand new.

Finally you get to the walkway out over the river and almost inside Garganta del Diablo. First you walk out along this wall of water and then BOOM, there it is.

This part was pretty wet. The spray from the falls is a constant sideways barrage. What a sight though!

I read that I needed a visa to visit the Brazil side, so I forked over the eighty dollars to get one online before leaving home. Turns out I didn’t need it at all. On the way over the bus stopped at the Argentinian immigration, but drove straight through the Brazilian immigration. Same deal on the way back too. Oh well, visa or no visa, I’m really glad I decided to do both sides and I’m even more glad I got to see this place in my lifetime. Just incredible!

When I got back to the hostel that night, like right after walking in the door, it started pouring rain again. I really can’t believe the timing today. Anyway, the next day I went back to the airport, but only to rent a car for the next few days, and then drove down to San Ignacio a little over three hours away. Starting from the early 16th century, the Jesuits had a pretty significant influence in the area extending into neighboring Brazil and Paraguay. I thought I would go take a look at the ruins of some of their missions.

Call the colonialism benign or cruel, there are mixed opinions, but the Jesuits came to this region in the early 17th century to introduce the local Guaraní people to Christianity. The missions were built and the population reached a peak, until the Jesuits were ejected from the Americas in 1767 by the Spanish King. It was more about European politics than the Jesuits themselves though. Two hundred fifty nine years later, I see these three birds on the main plaza and they did NOT attack me.

As far as the ruins in Argentina go, the San Ignacio ruins are the best preserved. And they’re right in the middle of the little hamlet of San Ignacio. Easy!

My ticket to San Ignacio included admission to the two other ruins I visited while here. They involved a bit of driving however. First, the ruins of Loreto. These were the least intact of the bunch, but I enjoyed the nice walk through the jungle to see them anyway.

The mission ruins at Santa Ana were much better preserved. At Loreto and here I was the only visitor. In fact at Santa Ana I never even saw any staff to check my ticket. I just walked right in and then right back out when I was finished.

Between Puerto Iguazu and San Ignacio, as well as in between exploring Jesuit ruins, I spent a good bit of time hunting waterfalls all over the province. I had at least a dozen waterfalls mapped out, but I seriously underestimated the drive times thanks to the rough road conditions. The roads were all through farms and jungle and a lot of them weren’t even on the map. When it was all said and done, I found only what I am dubbing, the illustrious five.

I only found Salto Carlito by studying the satellite photos, and a fair amount of luck. Otherwise, I don’t think I would’ve made it.

Salto Bella Vista and Salto Berrondo were pretty well established sites. The rest of these I really had to work hard for though. The last day on the way back to Puerto Iguazu I was hoping to find three more, but could only manage to make it to one, Salto Alegre. Even that required ditching the car and walking the last mile when the road started getting too muddy.

Finally, I made it back to the airport at Puerto Iguazu relatively on time to return the car and then headed back into town for one more night. And tomorrow, I’ll be on another plane to my next stop. Stay tuned kids…