Iguazú National Park

Our next stop in Misiones Province was Puerto Iguazú.  The town of Puerto Iguazú sits at the confluence of the Parguayan, Brazilian, and Argentinean frontiers.  Less than 20km from the town of Puerto Iguazú is Parque Nacional Iguazú - home of the mind-numbingly impressive cataratas (waterfalls). 

The park's emblem, featuring the vencejo bird - more on him in a bit..

Rule #1: Stay on the Paths..

Walkway to the Garganta del Diablo (The Devil's Throat)..

Mists rising from the cascades come into view..

La Garganta..

Rule #2: No Moving in for a Closer Look...

Note the birds in the video that dart in and out of the waterfalls' spray...

These are vencejos de cascada - the bird from the official emblem of the park.  In English, they are known as Great Dusky Swifts (Cypseloides senex).  Because their wingspan is so wide and their legs so short, they are unable to alight on the ground or any horizontal branch without getting stuck there permanently, unable to take off.  They have adapted by building nests on slight protrusions on sheer rock faces - such as those behind the waterfalls at Iguazu.  Yes, behind the waterfalls.  Incredible, needless to say.  

After seeing the Garganta del Diablo, another trail skirts the upper edge of the falls.

Small wonders abound, as well...

The third and final trail descends to the base of Salto Bossetti - one of the cascades - and then skirts the edge of the giant basin where the falls empty into the Iguazú River.  At the roaring base of Salto Bossetti, we got soaked through with spray from the crashing water...  The trusty camera survived.

If you travel here you will see folksy art depicting Iguazu landscapes that include an impossible amount of rainbows.  If you tend toward skepticism, it could be easy to see these depictions as bordering on hokey or overdone... but they are, refreshingly, pretty damn spot-on.

Rule #3: Do NOT feed the Coati.

...even if the coati tells you he is of legal drinking age.

Oberá, Misiones Province

Saludos/Salutations!

For those of you who didn't know...  Ten days ago we embarked on a 7 week nomadic tour-de-force of Northern Argentina.  We started by taking a 14 hour overnight bus to the Province of Misiones.

First, we spent 3 nights in the city of Oberá, the second largest city in the province after the provincial capital, Posadas.  We chose Oberá because it hosts a yearly festival to celebrate the region's history of immigration from all over the globe. (More on that in our next blog post..)  For now, here's a look at the neighborhood where we stayed for the first few nights of our time in Misiones:

"Hostel Sueño Azul"

Our tree-cabin on stilts.

Our neighborhood..

Stilt-cabin porch-breakfast with guitar.

Front-door view of sunset over the outskirts of Oberá.

  

Misiones' signature red dirt...

(everywhere).

San Telmo

It's been a couple weeks since our last post, but here we are!

Over the last six weeks we've spent many afternoons roaming 

the San Telmo neighborhood.

On weekends, you can buy anything from a kermit the frog puppet 

to antique soda bottles in the street market that ranges 

from the Plaza de Mayo down to Plaza Dorrego.

Coin carvings...

Antique soda bottles...

Bits and pieces of leather...

Mercado San Telmo..

Colors for your kitchen...

A little street art..

New boots on old tiles..

Copper stall..

Ceramics..

The buzz of the night market air..

Faces..

..and some homeopathy.

And many, many, many cobblestones.

Arte in Palermo

 A Brief Survey of the Art in our Neighborhood 

(click on photos to enlarge...)

~

Over doorways.

Down alleyways.

On shops...

...houses and walls. 

Two Days in Tigre

 

We decided to take a jaunt up to the Parana river delta, ~45 minutes North of Buenos Aires by train. 

 

We stayed at a hotel in town, which was wonderful except for the dog barking all night..

 

Made a visit to the extensive Puerto de Frutos market. set out on long piers into the water,

just in time for sunset. 

 The neighborhoods are all reached by water rather than roads, and the next morning we caught a 'lancha' (municipal transport boat) up river.

 We passed Domingo Faustino Sarmiento's last home, which is now hermetically encased in glass,

 townsfolk on their daily errands,

 

and walked around the neighborhood of Tres Bocas once we got off the boat.

Everything is on stilts.