Saurday March 17 Iguazu Falls. What an incredible sight! since we arrived late in the day and the park entrance was high along with an early closing we decided to explore the town and put off seeing the falls until the next day The only real memorable thing about the town, which seems to exists only as a destination for tourists to the falls was a park and viewing location to see the confluence of the Parana and Iguazu rivers. From this location you can look across the river to Brazil. The hotel we stayed at was small - just 10 rooms, but the restaurant was very good and we enjoyed an al fresco dinner that way muey delicioso!

The next morning we got up early and had breakfast at 7:00 and caught an early bus to the National Park where the falls are located. It was a 20 minute ride with standing room only. The park is very well laid out and can accommodate very large crowds. Fortunately we were visiting in the shoulder season and the numbers were well below capacity. There are three separate trails to follow that take you to all of the component falls in the park. Since the heat of the day had yet to begin, we decided to take the more strenuous lower falls trail that involved many steps. It's called the lower trail because it follows closer to river level and allows you to view many of the falls from bottom, looking up.

The park contains many separate falls and the trails allow a good view of each of them. At the very end of the lower falls trail is a boat ramp (if you can call a two old tires tied up to some rocks a dock, where a park boat will take you to Ste Martin Island for a view of the two largest falls: Garantua and Devil's Throat. We waited for almost an hour for the boat operator to take us to the island, but left in frustration that he didn't follow the Park plan to shuttle passengers every 10 minutes back and forth. We were disappointed, but it did not spoil the magnificent views of the incredibly spectacular falls. From here we climbed up the steps to the and finished the return portion of the lower trail. We spent about two hours on this section of the Park. From here we ventured to the upper trail which takes you to the top of many of the falls. this trail is mostly level, but is more exposed to the weather (sunshine). We had a good view of the approach to the falls, but it did not allow you to see much of the falls themselves. We spent about an hour on this trail. being near lunch time, we decided to catch an in-laws train to take us back to the entrance area where there is a restaurant.

When we got on the train, it started taking us in the opposite direction we intended and we ended up at the beginning of the third trail, which offers a view of Gargantua. We decided to just go for it and postpone our lunch until after this final viewing. It turned out to be a very long walk along an elevated walkway across the river to the lip of the first big drop of Gargantua. What an amazing vantage point. We took many pictures finding viewing space among the many visitors. By the time we took the train back to the visitor center for lunch it was nearly 3:30 and Tricia was getting low blood sugar. We partook of an overpriced buffet in order to get her some food quickly. We took the bus back to town and walked to our hotel arriving about 5:00. We were very tired and rested when we got home. We finished off the day with another spectacular meal at our hotel restaurant eating al fresco on the deck. With the assistance of the hotel, we rearranged our flight back to NA to be earlier than originally planned. luckily, the airline made the change without making an additional charge.