We had a relaxing morning. We did a few errands, picking up things we had forgot to bring and returning the car. After lunch at the hotel, we were picked up for our tour of the Brazilian side of the falls. The majority of the falls are in Argentina. We are guessing that a quarter of them are in Brazil.
Brazil is right across the river, 10 miles from our hotel but it took awhile to get to the Brazilian National Park because we had to emigrate out of Argentina and immigrate into Brazil. We had an interesting discussion on the way; our guide was born in Argentina but now lived in Brazil. He told us that the Brazilian economy is much more stable, opportunities much more plentiful, and Argentinean’s go to Brazil to shop so we assume the prices are lower.
It had become overcast and the sky was getting darker and darker. While we were waiting for our guide to get us tickets into the park, the skies opened up and it started to rain. We waited briefly to see if it would stop and then forged ahead even though it hadn’t stopped. About half along the 1 km trail it stopped raining.
Initially we could see the Argentinian falls. We were far enough away that we could see most of them. As we continued to walk we started to see the Brazilian falls as well as the Argentinian ones. The falls were even bigger than what we had seen yesterday and we were amazed by the size of them then. At the end of the walk we were by a fall that dropped half way to a small plateau and then dropped further. The trail went to the bottom of the first drop and then walked over to the top of the second drop. As we walked to the end of the trail it was very windy due to the turbulence from the falls. There was also a lot of spray and I went to the end and got quite wet.
We learned today that the falls are one of the seven natural wonders of the world. They definitely deserve that recognition. Here are a bunch of pictures and a couple of videos so you can hear how loud and expansive they are.
We returned to the hotel, had an appetizer at the bar, and returned to our room to pack up. We leave at 7 tomorrow morning for the airport and onto Ushuaia.