Category: 2018 S. America and Antarctica trip winter

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.

Today we went to the Argentinian side of Iguazu falls. They are the largest waterfall system in the world, a chain of waterfalls almost 2 miles wide.

This is from the Lonely Planet guidebook, “According to Guaraní tradition, the falls originated when a warrior named Caroba incurred the wrath of a forest god by escaping downriver in a canoe with a young girl, Naipur, with whom the god was infatuated. Enraged, the god caused the riverbed to collapse in front of the lovers, producing a line of precipitous falls over which Naipur fell and, at their base, turned into a rock. Caroba survived as a tree overlooking it.


Geologists have a more prosaic version. The Río Iguazú’s course takes it over a basaltic plateau that ends abruptly just short of the confluence with the Paraná. Where the lava flow stopped, thousands of cubic meters of water per second now plunge down as much as 80m into sedimentary terrain below. Before reaching the falls, the river divides into many channels with rocks and islands separating the many distinct cascades that together form the famous 2.7km-long cataratas (waterfalls).”


We got lost several times on the way to the park but eventually found it.

There were three trails around the falls, upper, lower and Devil’s Throat. As the names suggests the upper trail is a set of trails/grated metal walkways above the falls and the lower trail was below the falls.

We walked on trails through the rainforest to get to the falls. This picture of the rain forest shows how dense the vegetation is.



There were lots of coati, a member of the raccoon family, and capuchin monkeys around. In fact there were warnings about how aggressive they can be to get food. We also saw lots of butterflies, several turtles, and an alligator.


The falls were simply amazing. The roar of the water was loud. You really felt the power of Mother Nature. Words cannot describe it so I will leave it to the pictures . . .

From the upper trail

From the lower trail

From Devil’s Throat

One interesting sign said that 40 years ago the water on the falls was clear but there has been so much logging that now the water looks reddish-brownish from all the soil run off. (The soil is very red here due to the fast decomposition of organic material.). Of course they are trying to remediate that.

After the falls, we returned to the room. We walked into town to get groceries and had our typical picnic for dinner. Off to the Brazilian side of the falls tomorrow.

Not the most exciting day . . .

We spend the morning with Roberto. We went to see family graves and then he showed us a little more of the town. We went back to the house, picked up Ingrid, and went to a restaurant for lunch. They had a salad bar and bought trays of grilled meat to the table. It was very good.

After a sad goodbye (we plan to see Roberto when we go to Switzerland), we headed north to Puerto Iguazu. The drive took about 2 hours. We got checked into our hotel and then explored the property and the town. We bought our food for dinner at the local grocery store and had a picnic in the room.

I told you it wasn’t very exciting.

We were up very early to catch a flight to Iguazu Falls.  We were a little nervous that the airline would have a problem with one of our suitcases which weighs slightly over 50 pounds but they didn’t say a word.  The flight was uneventful.

When we arrived in Iguazu, we rented a car and drove about 2 hours to Puerto Rico.  We went through two police checkpoints.  We didn’t have to stop at the first one and at the second one we told the police officer that we don’t speak any Spanish and she just waved us through.  We think they are looking for drugs coming from Brazil or Paraguay.

Once in Puerto Rico we couldn’t find the hotel and ended up driving up and down the Main Street several times.  Finally we found it and got checked in.   We had come to Puerto Rico because Rick’s cousin, Ingrid, lives there.  Rick’s great grandfather was Swiss and had seven sons.  Several of them including Rick’s grandfather went to Prussia and Ingrid’s father, Adolph, came to Argentina in 1937. Rick’s grandfather and Adolph were brothers and the two brothers married two sisters.  If you are following this, Rick’s  grandmother and Ingrid’s mother were sisters.  This cousin is Lily’s aunt.  For those of you that followed our Spain trip, you may remember we met Lily when we stayed at Irene’s (another cousin) condo in Denia, Spain.  Lily’s twin brother and Ingrid’s nephew, Roberto, who lives in Basel, Switzerland, was visiting Ingrid.  I guess we had met him in 2010 at the family reunion but I met a lot of people that day. Bottom line the Mansers are taking over the world.  😉

Ingrid and Roberto showed up at the hotel just as we were leaving to come to them. We tried to go to lunch but the restuarant was closed so we ended up at the local Shell station for empanadas.  Seemed a little weird but we went with it.  After lunch, Roberto showed us around the town.

Eventually we ended up at Ingrid’s house which was a small two bedroom house.  We reviewed the family genealogy and talked some more.  Actually Rick talked to Ingrid and Roberto in German and I tried to follow along.  My German is worse than my Spanish which is really bad.  Here’s a picture of the four of us.

We came back to our hotel to follow the Patriots game.  Go Pats!!

Then we met for dinner (at 8:30 and we were one of the first people at the restaurant, I told you they eat late).  We had a great dinner and great conversation (I think) with them.