March 2 - Parque das Aves

After six days of constantly being on the move, we took a bit of a breather today, but still I managed to have a fairly active day in and around Iguazú Falls.  Today is our last full day here before returning to Buenos Aires tomorrow and then heading to Ushuaia on Sunday to start the cruise.  We met our guide Francis for our third and last day of touring at 9:30 and headed back across the border to Brazil and the Parque das Aves, This was not just a really great bird park, but a beautiful jungle botanical garden as well. The park has a definite “conservation” slant, but was very educational, and filled with beautiful birds in large aviaries (some of which you walked into and through, so you could see the birds really up close).  The flowering plants were fantastic as well.

Monkey Ladder Vine

Even though the Bird Park is fairly close on the map, getting there required a long drive out of the national park, across the bridge to Brazil, through border control, and then back down the other side of the river.  By the time we finished, it was about 2:00 when we got back to the hotel for lunch.

After eating, I went on a solo hike on one of the smaller trails in the park, one that started a couple of hundred yards down the road from the hotel, called the Macuco Trail.  This went about 3 km into the densest of forests, and ended at a relatively small waterfall called the Arrechea Cascade.  But, it was very, very quiet, and nice to escape from the crowds of yesterday.

Everyone has been telling us that the weather this week has been great because (except for a little rain on Tuesday) it has been sunny and dry, but it has felt just like New Orleans in mid-summer, so being outside all day, especially walking through the jungle, has been a hot, sweaty affair.  This evening, though, was lovely, and we celebrated our last night here with a drink before dinner on the rooftop bar of the hotel, overlooking this beautiful scene, just sublime.

Tomorrow, back to Buenos Aires.  We understand that there was a massive power outage this week in Buenos Aires and much of Argentina, however this area is served by the massive Itaipu Dam, 3rd largest hydroelectric dam in the world apparently, and so we didn’t know anything about it!  If we had one more full day, we would have made a visit there.  Here’s hoping that things are back to normal in B.A. by the time we get there tomorrow.