Buenos Aires, Argentina

The Viking Sun arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on a 2-day stop over.  Six shipping containers of food and supplies were brought aboard, 450 passengers sent home and 450 new ones welcomed aboard. (178 of us long-haul travelers continue our epic journey.)  While the ship was in port, Jan and I booked a 2-day excursion to Iguazu Falls located about 900 miles north of Buenos Aires.

Photo courtesy of Enaldo Valadares, Wikipedia

The world's largest waterfall system, Iguazu Falls is ranked as one of the top 5 natural wonders of the world.  Located on the boarder of Brazil and Argentina, its cascading falls are 3 times higher than Niagara and more than twice as wide.

After our 2-hour plane ride, we reached Iguazu National Park in Argentina. The 900-mile flight returned us deep into the tropical rainforest where we were greeted  to 97⁰ temperatures.  (We had been warned that we would be wet from the time we arrived until we left, either from sweat or the waterfall.) 

We had a few minutes wait at the visitor's center before heading for the falls.  Jan is sitting in the shade (the only air conditioning available) with fellow passengers; on the left are John and Kathy MacDonald from Toronto and on the right is Dave Nether from Santa Fe, NM. 

We boarded our "air conditioned" transportation for the 20-minute trip to the Iguazu River.  Our open-air vehicle traveled on a two-track trail through the rainforest.

After disembarking the truck, we continued on foot descending 10 stories (98 steps) to the river bank.  Thank goodness, it was downhill!

Strapped in our life jackets, we boarded a RIB boat and headed upriver for a closeup view of the falls.

It was an adrenaline-packed trip through the rapids.

The noise was deafening as we approached the falls. Faced with the challenge of keeping the camera dry while taking photos of the stunting views, Gene snapped away hoping the camera would survive.   

With over 300 separate falls making up the waterfall system, everywhere we looked was more cascading water.

With little advanced warning, the pilot of our zodiac took us under the falls--not once, but several times!

Drenched, we had 98 steps, this time up, to board our open air truck back to the visitors center.

On day 2 we were scheduled to walk a couple of miles through the rainforest to view of the falls from the top.  Unfortunately, at the end of day 1 Jan slipped in the hotel shower resulting in a severe contusion on her ribs.  Sharp pain made walking difficult so we didn't see the falls from the top. Fortunately she was able to board the plane for the flight back to Buenos Aires.  X-rays at the ship's medical center indicated no broken ribs!  The prognosis is that healing will take several weeks, but she can continue on our journey. (6 more weeks to go!)