Monday, February 28, 2011

Two Faces of Iguaçu


After a wretchedly quick but totally tubular excursion to Florianopolis (Obrigado Eduardo e Julia para a hospitalidade!) we took a quick 15 hour bus ride to Iguaçu. We love you Niagara, but, uh..yeah...Iguaçu is just a more graceful and powerful animal. Me wishes to live in it!



Both sides of the falls are monumentally beautiful and when you go, ensure you've been to the toilet because the awe you experience might cause you to evacuate your bowels unwillingly into your shorts. It's with reluctance that we state the Argentine side is better, for we wish not to understate the power of all angles of Iguaçu. The Brazilian side offers an overview of the whole thing, a zoom out if you will, a gander at the big picture.... while the Argentine side allows you into the beast, to zoom in and get up close with the details. It is tourist season, there were a lot of tourists, especially on the Argentine side, but to let that bother you would be a grave mistake.

The video is 86.3% on the Argentine side as a result of us spending more time there, plus the camera finger had been well rested at our lovely hotel in Puerto Iguazu, so it was itching to get clicking.


The creatures at the beginning of the video are Cuatis (kuatis in portuguese) and they swarm you at the entrance of the park or at any time you wish to engage in snacking. They are basically raccoons but aren't nocturnal, can't climb, aren't as fat and are not less likely to have rabies. Signs all over the park tell you not to feed them or touch them, but 86.3% of people ignore that. Petting friendly animals is instinctual, I suppose. The area also had numerous monkeys, a gazillion stunning avians, mammoth lizards/miniature dinosaurs and creepy quantities of butterflies.


The song is a portion of 'Gaio Da Roseira' by Hermeto Pascual. He was unable to work in the fields with his family as a young man because he is albino, and thus developed mad skills on multiple instruments while spending so much time indoors. I feel deep connections to anyone who likes tropical climates but has no tolerance for the sun.


Video 1: Our excursion to Iguazu
Video 2: Other people's excursion to Iguazu in the 20s