Other Inhabitants of the Falls/Foz

In case we have not mentioned it before, both the Iguazu Falls (on the Argentinean side) and the Foz do Iguassu (on the Brazilian side) are ensconced within National Parks. And what really impressed us was that these National Parks are as well-run and well-maintained as any of the other Parks we've seen in the USA.

While there are signs of Man's encroachment, with roads, boardwalks, and public trains/buses, these look to have been carefully planned out, and left huge swaths of forested area intact.

And where there are trees, life abounds! Here are some of the other inhabitants we spied enjoying the proximity to the falls.


Bees!

Bzz the busy bee. With pollen stuck on it's coat too!

These bee and its bee-rothers were spotted furthest away from the Falls. We actually spotted them along the intersection of a river, where Argentina, Bee-razil and Uruguay share bee-orders.


Coatis!

I'm not worried about getting wet! I'm a raincoati!

Coatis, according to Wikipedia, are also known as Brazilian Aardvarks (to me, it sounds suspiciously like a Brazilian I'd... nevermind... let's keep this post child-friendly). And the tail is a dead giveaway - it's part of the raccoon family.

These coatis seemed to have been spoiled by human presence though. This one was spotted walking around the alfresco area of a cafe (not a high-end cafe, but just one that sells drinks and snacks). It was approaching other people for food. We were mentally trying to will others into ignoring the coati, but one couple seemed to be immune to our combined mental efforts. The lady teased the coati with her sandwich so that its front paws were on her knees while the guy was busily snapping away with his camera. Tsk. If language wasn't a problem for us, I'd have told them off!


Woodpeckers!

This 'pecker looks slightly bent at the head...

Unlike the woodpeckers we saw in Jamestown and Ushuaia, this was a particularly lovely species. The wife just ooh and ahhed over its blue eyeshadow. We saw it pecking on wood a few times, but it was mostly quite content to look back at the human passers-by!


UPBs!

Bird taunted us as we were walking by. Sigh. We're not 'cheep'! We're on a budget, damnit!

While we were doing a bit of research for one of our earlier blogs, the wife came across the term LBB, an acronym for Little Brown Bird. There are so many LBBs all over the place that it became a very useful term for us to use.

In this case, this little darling is obviously not an LBB. So I'll just call it an UPB - Unidentified Pretty Bird. Any birders who wish me to identify the bird correctly, just drop us a comment!

Oh, and it's got a nice blue eyeshadow too. The birds here all quite 'hiao'.


Dragons!

A possible relative of Elizardbeth?

On the Argentinean side of the falls, there is a Sheraton that is situated within the park, with possibly a spectacular view upriver to the falls. Now, from the hotel, guests can walk along a path to get to the boardwalks to get up close to the falls. It was along this path that we spotted this monstrosity. Two of them, actually, on either side of the path, as if guarding it.

They look menacing enough that I didn't want to fool around with them too much! Other than tossing a stick at the one that was facing away...

Okay, okay, they are not dragons, but they were huuuge!


Spiders!

Your plain ol' garden variety spider. Burns into a crisp the moment you turn on the stove while they are in the Ring of Fire...

When you get to the Brazilian side of the falls, you can board a (free) bus that takes you further into the park. Everybody alights at the start of a 1.5km walk, where you can view the falls from across the river.

The walk is pretty straightforward, just one-way with no options to go on different pathways. But to make things interesting, the wooden boardwalk with it's wooden handrails are full of critters just begging to be photographed!

Come to my parlour...

This spider will always have the right-of-way wherever it walks. Why? Because it bothers to bring around its personal zebra-crossing!

Spinnerets working to repair damage to the web

This was by far the most common spider there. I call it the Psychedelic Nut Spider.

Morning stretches

Oh, by the way, we were watching Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me a couple of nights before going to see the falls. And (I haven't even told the wife this yet - she was photographing the falls while I was shooting spiders and stuff) there was actually a Dr Evil-esque conversation going on in my mind while I was trying to get a nice sharp picture.

Dr Evil Spider: I have the most powerful spinnerets ever. I call it the "Death Ass" (And yeah.. there are those quotation mark finger actions too, in my imagination).

President: What do you want from us?!

Dr Evil Spider: If you do not give in to my demands, I shall use my "Death Ass" to spin a web around the world. Nobody will ever move again. I call this, my ultimate weapon, the "World Wide Web".

President: Nooooooooo!

Dr Evil Spider: Yes! And if you want to continue moving, to move around and do your itty bitty jobs, you will have to give me.... *deep breath* ONE MILLION DOLLARS! Bwahahahaahahaahahaha!!!!

Okay, I'm sometimes weird that way. Strange things just pop into my mind for no reason at all. *shrugs*


Caterpillars!

Boring looking thing

I dedicated a previous post to the number of butterflies that can be seen around the falls. Well, you can't have butterflies without having caterpillars. It's a bit like seeing pictures of your primary school classmate after 20+ years and going "Whoa! What a babe! How come I never talked to her much in school?"

Yeah... puberty is a time of great and marvelous changes.

I love this one! It just reminds me of Animal, from the Muppets!

You know, I was shocked when I found out that my father-in-law snips caterpillars into two whenever he finds them in his garden. He then throws them into the pond for the fish, so the caterpillars do not exactly die in vain.

But those are such boring caterpillars. Maybe if they are spectacular like these, he might be more merciful?

We'll see. The wife just replied to his earlier comment, asking him to bring mum to the falls as well. And yeah... we will make sure he leaves the scissors at home!

This one was waving it's head so frantically that I could not get a clear sharp shot at it. But yeah, it's another Muppet-like caterpillar!

Grasshopper-legged, Leaf-bodied Insect!

A cross between a grasshopper and leaf insect, maybe?

I seriously have no idea what this insect is, but I tell you, it's got a lot of guts. The shot above was a normal macro shot. Then I wanted to take a super macro shot, that required me to move in close and practically jam my camera right at it's face.

Do that to a butterflies and bees, and they fly off. Do that to caterpillars, they wave their heads frantically, denying you that clear shot. Do that to a toucan and they might poke your freaking eyes out. What did this insect do?

It climbed up the barrel of my lens and just sat on my camera for the longest time. It was even clever enough to sit on the flash, so I can't switch the camera off to conserve power (the flash unit will fold down, possibly trapping its foot).

Bugsy pwned my camera

Clever bug-ger!


P.S Looking back, I realise this post has not exactly been very child-friendly. Umm... I think it's me. Sorry!

Niagara On Viagra

Dear DanYilin,

This is the Niagara Falls leaving a comment on your blog, all the way from Canada/USA.

I have been a faithful follower of your fantastic travel blog ever since we met (and got wet!) earlier this year in May. I remember that the both of you, especially Dannie - who had never visited me before, were really excited to be here. We had a gentle ride on the Maid of the Mist - you looking so funny and alien-like in your blue souvenir ponchos - and that night, I put on a spectacular light and fireworks display just for you.

I hear from certain water sources in the river network that you were on the edges of Argentina and Brazil recently - no doubt visiting my arch enemy, the Iguazu Falls!

Photo proof that you were there!

You were here, standing on the edge of Argentina and gazing over the Rio Iguazu to Paraguay (left) and Brazil (right)

You had already witnessed me, the famous Niagara Falls - the most powerful waterfall in North America. What else were you hoping to find in the Iguazu Falls? Something bigger and better than I? You even visited Iguazu twice - once from Argentina, and a day later, from Brazil. I distinctly remember hosting you on my Canadian side only, and not from USA! :(

A little brown water droplet told me that you, Dannie, asked your wife while looking over Iguazu, "So what's so great about Niagara Falls again?" You even cracked one of your lame corny jokes that Iguazu is "Niagara on Viagra" !!!! Well you are just like that First Lady of ours - Eleanor Roosevelt, who reportedly exclaimed, "Poor Niagara!" upon seeing that big brown Argentinian-Brazilian monstrosity!!!! HUMPH!!!

Poor Niagara, poor Niagara. I'm so sick of hearing that. Maybe I'll just go drown myself. Just like the Guaira Falls in 1982 - the largest waterfall on earth - which disappeared totally, flooded and silenced by the building of the Itaipu dam, and is now virtually unheard of. Maybe then the constant comparisons in size, height and volume of flow will finally stop.

So what if the Indians in South America gave their waterfall the name "Iguazu", meaning "Big Water"? My Indians called me Niagara, meaning "Thundering Waters"! Now which one sounds more grand? You tell me.

In terms of height, my claims can jolly well hold water against Iguazu's. In fact, both of us aren't very tall. Iguazu's drops average at 65m while my largest cataract, the Horseshoe Falls, drops only 53m. To help you put things in perspective, each of the 3 hotel blocks at the upcoming Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resort already stretch 55 storeys, up to a dazzling height of 250m - practically dwarfing me! I can't believe that I, a great natural wonder, am a mere one fifth of a hotel block in your country!

But comparing Iguazu's biggest cataract - the Devil's Throat, and my Horseshoe Falls, I admit that I need to swallow my pride - just like how that devilish waterfall seems to swallow up the earth.

You walked a pretty long distance across the metal broadwalk to get to the Devil's Throat.

Accessed from the Argentinian border, the Devil's Throat plunges to a depth of 82m, so deep that to you tiny human beings, it might as well be a bottomless pit that ends in hell. Each time the Devil releases a bellyful of mist that rises 150m to almost twice it's height, visitors lining it's mouth get soaked to the skin. From the shrill shrieks and screams emitting from you squealers, you would think that people were being swallowed by the devil himself, and not just being treated to a good much-needed midday shower!

The gargantuan Garganta de Diablo

BURRRRPPPPPP!!!!

Look what the devil coughed up!

In terms of the number of individual falls or drops, I'm sad to say that I don't measure up to Iguazu. In fact, it is a rather paltry comparison. I have an embarrassing grand total of 3 drops in my name (the Horseshoe Falls, American Falls and Bridal Veils) while Mr Big Water has a whopping 275 falls stretching across 2.7km. Too many even to name *SULK* Not fair.

I believe that you must have enjoyed walking along the lower boardwalk that stretches across the foot of the falls, bringing you face to face with Iguazu's flowing white curtains.

Standing where the falls meet the river

You walked across some of the smaller falls located at Iguazu's lower tier

Iguazu offered you the experience of walking through a lush tropical rainforest - something that I could not

From what my river network told me, you guys got a tad lost on the winding lower trail when you went in search of the embarkation point for your speedboat tour of the falls. Yeah, I guess you could highlight to the park administration that they need to put more directional signs pointing people to the boats, but where's the explorer in you? Methinks getting lost in the jungle adds to the sense of adventure! In any case, the winding path lead you to some pretty spectacular vistas of the falls. Right?

The Argentinian falls, as seen from the lower broadwalk. Two thirds of the Iguazu Falls are within Argentinian territory.

Magical - a white egret in flight through the mist

Time to get really really wet!

Plus, the spray from the falls were to prep you for what was to come on the river adventure! And I know what an adrenalin-filled ride that was - I could hear Yi Lin screaming all the way from Argentina! I hear that she was freaking out because the little boat was being tossed around by the force of the flow and huge waves (waves in a river eh?!) were dumping load after load of cold water over her head. How roughly Iguazu treated you! I, on the other hand, graciously hosted you on a ferry and gently floated you down the river, and let my waters rain on you for just a bit. And Iguazu didn't present you with big blue ponchos? Tsk tsk! No wonder people just run amok within the national park with their clothes plastered wet against their skin - or worse, only wearing their bikinis!

Speeding towards the Devil's Throat

Totally wet from head to toe - like how you Chinese say, "like a chicken that fell into soup"

I presume that after getting completely soaked on the speedboat ride, you guys headed for the upper broadwalk that stretches high across the top of the falls, right at the point where the river hurls itself over the edge and dives down down down into the plunge pool. The view from the top must have been magnificent, and the experience of peering over the edge and yelling to each other over the thunderous roar must have been an unforgettable one indeed.

I remember how impressed you were, standing at the top of my Horseshoe Falls as I threw unimaginable quantities of water over the edge every second. You stood watching in awe, realising that I have been doing this every second of my life for centuries, long before man discovered my presence; realising that I was Power, Heft, Speed and Grace all rolled into one; realising that it was impossible to stop me from running my course; realising that it was impossible to freeze time - that once a single drop of water sailed over the edge, it could never turn back. Realising that life too rushes you by, never once turning it's head to look back at you. That every second that ticks by is gone forever. (Oh, don't mind this silly old waterfall gushing and babbling away!)

Sad to say, Iguazu beats me hands down when it comes to prowess and volume of flow. On the average through the year, Iguazu dumps 6,500 cubic metres of water over its edge every second. During the rainy season of November to March, the rate of flow doubles to more than 12,000 cubic metres per second. I can only manage an average of 2,800 cubic metres! Puny :(

Looking towards the horizon, the falls stretching on as far as your eyes can see, bathed by mist rising from the plunging water.

A beautiful sight to behold: mystical waters rushing through a verdant jungle

I guess all these make Iguazu and its two national parks deserving of their UNESCO World Heritage Site status, bestowed upon them in 1984 for Argentina and 1987 for Brazil.


Alright, so maybe Dan was right. The Iguazu "Big Water" Falls wins this competition hands-down. The Niagara needs to get on Viagra!

Sigh!

Signing off,
Your Faithful Fan
Niagara Falls
USA/Canada

Butterfly Factory

From Buenos Aires, we were supposed to have gone to Uruguay after applying for our visas. But after finding out that the embassy that it is going to take them 10 to 14 working days to process our visa, we dumped that idea.

Unfortunately, dumping that idea also meant that there was no point hanging around in Buenos Aires anymore. So even though there was a free tango lesson organised by the hostel on a Wednesday evening, we decided that it paying for one extra night stay was not worth the free tango lesson. So while the rest of the people in the hostel checked out the tango, we were ensconced in the front seats of a double-decker coach, on our way to Puerto Iguazu on a dark and stormy night!



Now, the Iguazu Falls is one of our main checkpoints for this trip, much like Yellowstone National Park, Pittsburgh and Machu Picchu. The main attraction is naturally the Falls. But I was seriously amazed that the people I know who have visited this place have never, ever mentioned the proliferation of butterflies to me.

These fluttery-buttery flies were all over us, from the moment we got on the in-park train to get to the area of the Falls known as the Devil's Throat. I guess while us normal people tend to get butterflies in the stomach, the Devil just plays around with them in his throat? Anyway, these winged insects were flitting all over us, and had no qualms about landing on us to taste our sweaty skin.

Incredibly brave butterfly just landed on my hand. I felt like Snow White!

Check out the proboscis!

We were at first quite certain that butterflies sorta mistook us for giant walking flowers, but once they realised that we were salty from sweat instead of sweet from pollen, they would fly off. But noooooo.... these little buggers literally hitched a ride with us for as long as they wanted, happily probing us all the way.

Thumbs up for the bold and the beautiful!

Thumb butterfly just wouldn't go away!

Since they were so tame, we practiced the art of transferring butterflies

There was quite a variety of butterflies too. Here are a few more that we managed to get relatively good shots of.

The Yellow Mudlicker

The Veeisforvaterfall Butterfly

The Clownfishwing Butterfly

The Stupidmetalballsinaplasticmazepuzzlethingy Butterfly

There were a couple of other varieties that we failed to shoot, because these butterflies were moving around a lot, making it extremely difficult to get a nice, sharp picture. They seemed really undecided whether they wanted their wings opened or closed while they were at rest. You can't really jam a super macro lens up to their feelers and expect them not to fly away. And there was also the added complication of hundred of other people stomping along on the boardwalk, making it vibrate just that tiny bit. So much so, that (and I am ashamed to say I did this) I grabbed an unsuspecting butterfly by its wings just so that I could take a super macro shot of it.

Thankfully, the story of butterflies dying if you hold them by the wings is only a myth

The macro shot was obviously no proof of my camera skill. Not with the thumb and forefinger seen pinching the wings. The little insect was also scared out of its wits. I felt so bad immediately after doing this. I decided that, as a form of penance, I shall let the butterfly 'catch' me and stare right in my face in return.

Butterfly taking a very, very wide-angle shot at my face

But nooo... that wasn't enough for Mr Butterfly. He had to walk all over my face and stick his little proboscis into my eye! Yikes!

It's the same butterfly. It's wings are blue on the top and brown on the bottom!

Ah well... I guess I deserved it! Sorry, sorry!