Iguazú: day 1
After hanging around taking Tango and Spanish lessons in Buenos Aires for a week, I went on a 1-week tourism trip through Argentina, with 3 stops. My first stop was Iguazú, the enormous waterfalls on the border with Brazil.
It's a jungle out there. No, really, it's a rain forest.
I was actually surprised that it didn't feel as rain-forest-y as I expected. It wasn't ultra-hot (winter), or wet (not raining), or incredibly green, or raucously noisy. It reminded me of northeastern US forests, which also have many trees, heavy ground cover, and vines. The main difference was the great number of epiphytes. Every plant was bedecked in vines and bromeliads, which would probably be more awesome in the summer when things bloom. Later, I even saw epiphytic cacti!
In among the lushness, people live. Apparently, due to the economic downturn, the government made some forest land available to settlement, and the people live there. They really do burn out rainforest for farming, but at least here, it's in very small plots. They grow things like manioc and bananas, and raise chickens and cows. It looks somewhere between quaint and squalid.
I saw one guy washing his motorcycle in the stream as we drove past.
Before going to the waterfalls, I went rappelling and zip-lining. Rappelling doesn't last very long.
The scary part of zip-lining was going up to the platform. Once I was clipped onto the line, I felt fine, but the platforms did not reassure me.
Tiny waterfalls count too.
I'll show the waterfall day as a second post.
It's a jungle out there. No, really, it's a rain forest.
I was actually surprised that it didn't feel as rain-forest-y as I expected. It wasn't ultra-hot (winter), or wet (not raining), or incredibly green, or raucously noisy. It reminded me of northeastern US forests, which also have many trees, heavy ground cover, and vines. The main difference was the great number of epiphytes. Every plant was bedecked in vines and bromeliads, which would probably be more awesome in the summer when things bloom. Later, I even saw epiphytic cacti!
In among the lushness, people live. Apparently, due to the economic downturn, the government made some forest land available to settlement, and the people live there. They really do burn out rainforest for farming, but at least here, it's in very small plots. They grow things like manioc and bananas, and raise chickens and cows. It looks somewhere between quaint and squalid.
I saw one guy washing his motorcycle in the stream as we drove past.
Before going to the waterfalls, I went rappelling and zip-lining. Rappelling doesn't last very long.
The scary part of zip-lining was going up to the platform. Once I was clipped onto the line, I felt fine, but the platforms did not reassure me.
Tiny waterfalls count too.
I'll show the waterfall day as a second post.