Day 2 in Paraguay - August 10, 2012

We got an early start to see Iguazú Falls.  Iguazú means "big waters" in Guaraní and the falls are definitely well named.  The falls are near the borders of Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina.  Much research was done prior to our visit.  We had heard various suggestions about how to approach the falls and from which country to view them.  Part of the falls are in Brazil and part are in Argentina.  Because a visa is needed to enter Brazil, but not for Argentina, we viewed the falls from Argentina.  We drove to the Paraná River to a place called Tres Fronteras (Three Borders).  This is where the Paraná River meets the Iguazú River and forms the borders for Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil.  We crossed the river from Paraguay to Argentina on a ferry, and then drove to the Iguazú National Park.

Crossing the Paraná River.In the distance is a bridge that
crosses the Iguazú River, connecting Brazil to Argentina.

Ferry crossing the Paraná River

Enjoying the ferry ride

Once we arrived at the park, a short hike through green vegetation and a tram ride, followed by several crossings over water on metal foot bridges, brought us to the view platform for the set of falls which are in Brazil called Devil’s Throat.  The water flows over very steep cliffs and the powerful falls produce so much mist and spray that you can’t even see the bottom of the falls.  We soon became drenched even with our rain ponchos.  What a sight! 

Devil's Throat Falls are the Iguazú Falls which are located in Brazil.

Next we took another tram ride to view the series of falls located in Argentina and took the Upper Trail which mostly consisted of many more of the metal foot bridges and crossed over the top of the falls. 

Falls located in Argentina. 
The Iguazú Falls have anywhere between 150 falls
 during the dry season to 270 falls in the wet season. 

 We also took the Lower Trail to view the falls from the bottom.Again we pulled out the rain ponchos as we neared the end of the trail which took us close to the bottom of one of the falls.It was all quite spectacular.

View from Lower Trail

View from Lower Trail

Near the bottom of some of the falls

No...it's not raining
...but we are very close to the bottom of the falls!

  During our hike through the park we were amazed by the many varieties of colorful butterflies as well at birds.   We were also entertained by the coatis. 

Butterfly kisses...the only kind Elder Snow can have!

We saw many beautiful butterflies in the park

The coatis kept stealing food from the eating area and then from each other.
Very comical!

Look at all of the coatis with their tails in the air!

Early that evening, we purchased some empanadas and Paraguayan pastries to tide us over until we went to Santa Rita to eat at the pizzeria where some members work.  We enjoyed four different types of Paraguayan-styled pizza (the beef stroganoff pizza was my favorite) made by Izaías, Mirta and Rosa.  Rosa had been newly baptized when Zach served in Santa Rita and Izaías, Mirta and Mirta’s sister, Mariela were taught and baptized during his time there.  We also stopped at a house of some other members and met their cute children, Diego, Matías and Sofía, but the parents were not home.  We drove around Santa Rita and Zach showed us the two different places he had lived at in Santa Rita before we headed back to our hotel in Ciudad del Este.

It was a long and tiring, but also a really great day!