Chilean Stone: Cataratas de Iguazu

Today was a great day, but a long one. I´m tired, but a well-deserved, saw-lots-of-stuff kind of tired. I woke up early to get a good start on the day, and headed out of the hostel at around 8:00. I decided to just walk along the road for a while, to see what I could see, but there ended up being a lot of traffic, and it was pretty noisy. I then got a ride to the entrance of the park, and paid the $20 to get in for the day. I talked a little bit with a guide in the park, and he said that the park gets approximately 5,000 visitors a day, and around a million each year.
I ended up walking down a trail that was recommended to see wildlife and birds, and it was almost empty of people. I only saw a few people there, as opposed to hundreds in the other areas of the park. I ended up seeing a lot of great birds, some agoutis, a couple monkeys, and plenty of rainforest.

After walking around some more, I headed towards the part of the falls called the Devil´s Throat. There´s a train in the park that shuttles people back and forth, but the line was really long so I ended up walking. I got there sooner than the train anyway. To get out to the falls, there´s a long causeway that goes from island to island for about a kilometer. The end of the causeway is an observation platform that is literally right on top of the falls. The water flows under the platform and immediately falls down a long way. I couldn´t see the bottom of the falls because there was so much mist, but the falls itself is a huge horseshoe-shaped falls that plummets 270 ft. The entire park, so says wikipedia, consists of 275 falls along 1.6 miles. It was an incredible view, and I´m excited to go back once my friend gets here on the 13th.

After hiking back to the visitor center, I took a bus back to town, and spent the last little bit of daylight at a hummingbird garden in town. The garden is a person´s backyard who converted it into a hummingbird garden for visiting tourists. The woman who runs and owns it was great, and I spent some time talking to her son who is studying tourism. Her other son is a park ranger in Iguazu National Park. The son said that they use three kilograms of sugar each day feeding the hummingbirds. I´ll definitely go back tomorrow to try to see some more stuff in better light. Tomorrow, I´m just going to hang around town, but the next day I might take a little trip to another park about an hour to the east.

New birds for today: 25 in total! Versicolored Emerald, Violet-capped Woodnymph, Gilded Hummingbird, Planalto Hermit, Violaceous Euphonia, Toco Toucan, Ultramarine Grosbeak, White-bearded Manakin, White-shouldered Fire-eye, Yellow-fronted Woodpecker, Guira Tanager, Magpie Tanager, Mottle-cheeked Tyrannulet, Ochre-breasted Foliage-gleaner, Ochre-collared Piculet, Olivaceous Woodcreeper, Planalto Tyrannulet, Robust Woodpecker, Saffron Finch, Black-crowned Tityra, White-eyed Parakeet, Checkered Woodpecker, Chopi Blackbird, Crested Hornero, and Great Dusky-swift.
Also, tomorrow I will probably hit 1,000 life birds. I´m at 989 right now :)