Heed the warning: Do not feed the wild animals!
It defintely has been a very busy first two days in Argentina. Very busy, but extremely enjoyable. I have gotten ample opportunity to practice my basic, broken Spanish. I am able to form simple sentences, but it is going to take me a while to differentiate between when to use the"ir" versus "estar". I must admit, thought, that the four years of high school latin, as well as a knowledge of rudimentary Tagalog, have made it somewhat easier. I still can´t get people to believe that Lagrimas is really my surname...
So yesterday Christine and I spend the entire day at the spectacular Iguazu Falls, supposedly the world´s second largest waterfall system. It is truly amazing, and far more beautiful than I could have ever imagined. The Argentinian government has built the equivalent of a natural theme park surrouding the falls, offering all sorts of soft adventures, including rides through the forest in open jeeps, cruising down the rivers and through the waterfalls in speedboats, and rafting through the quiet upper forest. Of course, being ever the tourists, Christine and I did it all (after all, how often is one in Argentina). There are also a series of catwalks going over the rivers and approaching the end of the falls, offering terrific views. The only unnerving thing was that the catwalks are made of an open metal grating. Looking down did give me a touch of vertigo.
There are two sides to the falls - the Brazilian as well as the Argentinian sides. I thought travelling to the Brazilian side would be an easy crossing of the border and the opportunity to get my passport stamped. How wrong was I. I quickly learned that the Brazilians charge Americans, and only Americans, a $100 visa processing fee, even for short day trips to the other side of the falls. Why, do you ask? It is a simple matter of international disagreement - you see, the US government charges Brazilians a $100 fee to apply for tourist visas, so the Brazilians decided to retaliate. Bottom line, Christine and I were unwilling to spend $200 to spend three hours in Brazil so we could see the falls from a different angle - call me crazy. It was strongly intimated that the right person could bribe a border agent and get us in with no visa, but for some reason, I found that sketchy. Instead we decided to head to another UNESCO World Heritage Site today, the ruins of the Jesuit Mission in San Ignacio (these were made famous by the movie The Mission, which was de rigeur viewing at all Jesuit schools). San Ignacio Mini, as it is called, was a wonderful site. However, I found it odd to visit ruins in a subtropical forest when the temperature was about 50 degrees.
Last, but not least, to the title of this posting: do not feed the animals. In the Iguazu National Park, there are animals called coati (koh-ah-tee). Very cute animals which travel in packs, they are like brown raccoons with longer snouts. The trails are crawling with them, mainly because they have grown accustomed to eating human food, and much like the grizzlies of Yellowstone, have become very aggressive in getting food from human visitors. There are signs all over the park, in various languages, saying not to feed these animals. Well, while Christine and I were following a trail out of the park, we happened to bump into a huge pack of coati surrounding a group of three people. Apparently, thinking it was cute, one of the women in the group decided to feed the coati. Well, the 10 or so coati quickly multiplied, and I saw others starting to run out of the forest. One coati started to crawl up the woman´s leg and into her large purse to get into more food. Another man who stopped to take pictures yelled in an attempt to scare the pack off. The situation started getting very scary, as she tried to shake the coati off of her purse, angering it in the process. Realizing how dangerous the situation was, Christine and I quickly walked past the worsening scene. The last thing we heard as we quicky walked away was yelling, and even more coati running back toward that direction. I don´t know what eventually turned out, although I did see several park rangers run toward the trail carrying first aid kits. So I leave you with today´s lesson: never, ever feed the wild animals. The park managers really mean it!!!
Sorry for the long post - had to catch up for missing a day...
- Joe
So yesterday Christine and I spend the entire day at the spectacular Iguazu Falls, supposedly the world´s second largest waterfall system. It is truly amazing, and far more beautiful than I could have ever imagined. The Argentinian government has built the equivalent of a natural theme park surrouding the falls, offering all sorts of soft adventures, including rides through the forest in open jeeps, cruising down the rivers and through the waterfalls in speedboats, and rafting through the quiet upper forest. Of course, being ever the tourists, Christine and I did it all (after all, how often is one in Argentina). There are also a series of catwalks going over the rivers and approaching the end of the falls, offering terrific views. The only unnerving thing was that the catwalks are made of an open metal grating. Looking down did give me a touch of vertigo.
There are two sides to the falls - the Brazilian as well as the Argentinian sides. I thought travelling to the Brazilian side would be an easy crossing of the border and the opportunity to get my passport stamped. How wrong was I. I quickly learned that the Brazilians charge Americans, and only Americans, a $100 visa processing fee, even for short day trips to the other side of the falls. Why, do you ask? It is a simple matter of international disagreement - you see, the US government charges Brazilians a $100 fee to apply for tourist visas, so the Brazilians decided to retaliate. Bottom line, Christine and I were unwilling to spend $200 to spend three hours in Brazil so we could see the falls from a different angle - call me crazy. It was strongly intimated that the right person could bribe a border agent and get us in with no visa, but for some reason, I found that sketchy. Instead we decided to head to another UNESCO World Heritage Site today, the ruins of the Jesuit Mission in San Ignacio (these were made famous by the movie The Mission, which was de rigeur viewing at all Jesuit schools). San Ignacio Mini, as it is called, was a wonderful site. However, I found it odd to visit ruins in a subtropical forest when the temperature was about 50 degrees.
Last, but not least, to the title of this posting: do not feed the animals. In the Iguazu National Park, there are animals called coati (koh-ah-tee). Very cute animals which travel in packs, they are like brown raccoons with longer snouts. The trails are crawling with them, mainly because they have grown accustomed to eating human food, and much like the grizzlies of Yellowstone, have become very aggressive in getting food from human visitors. There are signs all over the park, in various languages, saying not to feed these animals. Well, while Christine and I were following a trail out of the park, we happened to bump into a huge pack of coati surrounding a group of three people. Apparently, thinking it was cute, one of the women in the group decided to feed the coati. Well, the 10 or so coati quickly multiplied, and I saw others starting to run out of the forest. One coati started to crawl up the woman´s leg and into her large purse to get into more food. Another man who stopped to take pictures yelled in an attempt to scare the pack off. The situation started getting very scary, as she tried to shake the coati off of her purse, angering it in the process. Realizing how dangerous the situation was, Christine and I quickly walked past the worsening scene. The last thing we heard as we quicky walked away was yelling, and even more coati running back toward that direction. I don´t know what eventually turned out, although I did see several park rangers run toward the trail carrying first aid kits. So I leave you with today´s lesson: never, ever feed the wild animals. The park managers really mean it!!!
Sorry for the long post - had to catch up for missing a day...
- Joe
Comments
Take care and stay away from the coati