Iguazú Escape

06:30 Good morning.

07:30 Hotel breakfast. The papaya is amazing.

08:00 Taxi to Iguazú International Airport. It looks like it’s going to rain. Yes “lluvia” which almost sounds like shu-vi-a, but surely my friendly taxi driver is not from BsAs. And, yes, it is an international airport despite only having two gates.

 09:30 My 10:00 flight to Cordoba is delayed due to weather.

10:00 A storm has arrived. I reflect on my good fortune to have visited Cataratas de Iguazú on a beautiful, sunny day, which today most certainly is not. My heart goes out to the people who have only one day to see Cataratas or “big water” as it is known by the natives.

10:30 The power goes out in the terminal, the lights are out and the escalators stop. Power is restored within a couple minutes. Trees blow n the wind and the tiny parking lot looks like a lake. The one lane of traffic into the terminal is oddly quieted by the storm.

14:00 Flight re-scheduled for 14:30. Yay. There is only one direct flight per day on Aerolineas Argentina from Iguazú to Cordoba, so I guess the plane has to go back home each day. I’m glad I wasn’t on one of the flights to BsAs that was canceled.

14:30 Unintelligible announcement on overhead speaker, even to most Spanish-speaking people. Monitor now indicates “see agent” in English. Flight canceled. Mad dash to counter. Swarms of anxious travelers.

15:30 On plane for Buenos Aires. Yes, Buenos Aires, not Cordoba. Will transfer to another flight to Cordoba. At least I will arrive today.

17:30 Arrive in Buenos Aires. Hang out in terminal with Robert, who looks and speaks like an Argentino, but is Swiss. He works for a Swiss bank, and I now understand why interest rates are low in Switzerland – they don’t want money pouring into the country and causing inflation. The U.S. has low rates, so other countries follow suit. And still the U.S. has a stagnant economy, and the Federal Reserve has few tools left. Damn this world economy.

21:20 Flight for Cordoba departs.

23:00 Arrive in Cordoba. French couple offers to share “remise” (it’s like a reserved taxi) to the bus terminal Carlos Paz. From booking my hotel, I know the bus terminal is not far from my hotel.

23:30 The road signs indicate that Carlos Paz is not the name of the bus terminal, but the name of another city. I’m headed to Carloz Paz, not Cordoba. Yikes!  I explain this to Madame France and her husband in my limited French and English, and then to the driver who speaks no English. For fifty Argentine Pesos, he agrees to make a side trip and drops me at my hotel in central Cordoba.

23:55 I arrive at my hotel in Cordoba. On the same day I left Iguazú, with five minutes to spare.

Ahhh, the joys of travel.

Iguazú Jungle Tour

I admit it – I love cities. I like visiting beacoup de boulangeries in Paris, staring skyward at skyscrapers in New York, and tourist-watching in my hometown of San Francisco.  But sometimes I manage to drag my city-centric ass out of the urban jungle.

Mix a lot of rain, high temperatures and sweat-inducing humidity : Voila! – a tropical forest more intoxicating than a Pisco Sour in Peru and with greater diversity than the restaurant scene in San Francisco. The jungle surrouding Cataratas del Iguazú reminds me of something I often forget.... Mother Nature never fails to impress.

An incredible canvas of color is on public display in Iguazú. The soil, full of iron oxide, glows red in the afternoon sun.

Look skyward to see soaring birds and flitting butterflies. (Okay, I actually saw most of these winged creatures while looking into trees, over rocks and down upon man-made railings.) But with nearly 450 species of birds and 350 species of butterflies, there’s always something colorful to catch your eye.

Admittedly I’m no ornithologist or lepidopterist, so I can not name the species of birds and butterflies I saw overhead.  But I did see a “zipliner deutches” fly above.

Though I’m pretty sure this is a “dorkus americanus.”

Disappointed not to see any jaguars or leopards, which still purportedly roam the area, I did encounter a couple ferocious coatis, raccoon-like mammals that hunt insects and fruit. Okay, maybe not ferocious, but these omnivores are potentially aggressive in their search for empanadas and table scraps.

The jungle is also home to a variety of reptiles – lizards and caimans and other things that crawl through the water.

Look closely, it's about 5 feet long.

 Some creatures crawl. Others repel.

After the jungle tour and “eco-adventure,” we tourists board our ozone-choking, smog-spewing jungle-tour-truck, and bounce up and down the red-dust road, past the shacks of locals selling hand-crafted souvenirs, and make our way back to the big cities we came from.

Big Water - Cataratas del Iguazu

One of the newly-selected seven natural wonders of the world, Cataratas del Iguazú is stunning. Amazing. Impressive. Inspiring. Spectacular.

 

Imagine all of the water in an Olympic size swimming pool being dumped over a cliff. That’s a lot of water. Now, imagine 32 Olympic swimming pools being dumped over the edge every minute. That’s “big water.”

 

Iguazu, from the Guarani words meaning water and big, is a natural wonder of the world and the result of big jealousy. Legend has it that a god was enraged when a beautiful young woman, and the object of his affections, made her way down the river with her mortal lover. Pissed off, the god caused the river bed to collapse... and the lovers fell... for eternity... or to the bottom of the riverbed where she turned into a rock. (Yeah, it depends on who you listen to.) A rather less compelling urban myth declares the falls formed where the lava flow from a volcanic eruption ended. I guess it’s possible.

 

Iguazu Falls is 2.7 kilometers (1.7 miles) wide. Devils Throat, the tallest of the 275 cataratas (cascades) is 82 meters (269 feet) high. The average fall is about 60 meters 200 feet.)  Niagara Falls – eat your heart out.

 

Cataratas del Iguazú is a top tourist destination.

  And some tourists actually turn their fate (and their lives) over to the Big Water gods, and attempt to get up close and personal with the cataratas. Fools. All fools.

But, it’s a hell of a lot of fun, and not to be missed. Unfortunately cameras had to be secured in water-proof bags before heading under the falls. (Note to self: bring water proof camera next time.) Sure, I got a little wet, but it was a beautiful sunny day and I dried out quickly.

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Resting in Recoleta - Death & Angels

The “streets” of El Cementario de la Recoleta are filled with marble mausoleums, soaring statues, and sanctimonious sarcophagi. The final resting place of Buenos Aires’ dearly-departed is home to wealthy elites, past presidents and social notables. In Argentina, a country with a reputation of being obsessed with appearances, Recoleta is where the rich and famous look fabulous even after their funerals.

 Come wander the streets of Recoleta.

 

Whereas at many cemeteries a lot of time is spent looking down, at Recoleta, much time is spent looking up.

An abundance of angels reside in Recoleta.

Recoleta is also the final resting place of Maria Eva Duarte de Peron, aka Evita, an irritation to some elites who are buried just inches away. The “streets” of this exclusive city are so narrow, a decent photo is not possible without a wide-angle lens.

For me, I would like an elaborate mausoleum, something with sculptures in the style of my favorite artist, Rodin.

Also, I would like beautiful ironwork or a sculpted entry for my final home.

But, it is said that it’s cheaper to live extravagantly all your life than to be buried in Recoleta. So, maybe I can find a fixer-upper, something that needs a little work and some fresh paint.

 

Or maybe I could end up like Tomas Guido, a general in the Argentine War of Independence, and negotiate a pile of rocks and stones. His is a rather notable tomb in an otherwise over-the-top maze of marble and granite grandiosity.

One last photograph, a self-portrait, as I depart El Cementario de Recoleta.

The devil is in the details in the lower left corner.