We flew from Buenos Aires to Puerto Iguaza yesterday with the idea of spending two days visiting the great waterfall where the Parrahna and Iguazu Rivers converge in northern Argentina. Each river is a natural border between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. Our plan was to visit the Argentine side on the first day and the Brazilian side on the second. But Brazil requires an entry visa for US citizens and a charge of $175.00 per person for US citizens even if you only visit for a few hours on one day. They call it a “reciprocity tax” since we charge their citizens the same entry visa fee since 9/11/2001. We passed on the Brazilian visit.

We hired a driver after our arrival and went to a precious stone mine 60 Km south of Iguazu . The two of us sat in the back seat while our driver barreled along at 120 to 130 Km/Hr, passing buses and cars “con mucho gusto”. Being close to the Paraguay border, we had to pass through an Argentine military check point, they looked inside and waved us through.

The last 5 Km. were down red dirt roads into a small town called Wanda. Named after the mine, not the movie. The mine started out as a small open pit mine, maybe 300 to 400 wide with the discovery of geodes containing quartz, amethyst and citrine. . The mine is on a hill above a smaller river and the top 10 feet or so of topsoil was blown away hydraulically and washed down the river to get at the bedrock. The gems are all found within geodes embedded in solid rock shown below. Alan kneeling at the face of one of the shafts and Chris’s hand in front of one of the geodes for size comparison.

The next photos show the 6 or 7 horizontal mines, none more than a 100’ long. The shafts were dug by hand with cold chisels, pneumatic drills and explosives. Dynamite is very expensive and requires a permit to purchase so they simply make their own. The geodes are freed from the rock, and then cut, polished and tumbled and sold at the gift shop, conveniently located at the only exit for people touring the mine. The largest geodes were more than 7 feet tall. Chris is standing behind several in the photos below.

The following day, Monday, we left with our scheduled tour of the waterfalls or cataratas as they’re called here. The Argentine National Park Service has constructed pasarelas or catwalks that allow a long easy walk from the nearest bank to a lookout right over the top of the largest falls. It’s maybe a half mile walk suspended over the river and when you get within a 1000’ or so you can start to see the spray and hear the roar of the falls. Finally in view, the roar is deafening. Wind and spray from the falls have everybody soaking wet within a few minutes.

Here are some pictures of the upper and lower falls.

At the end of the day we went in a high powered boat up to the base of the falls and got thoroughly wet. Oh, there are coatamundis here- like raccoons. We saw one take a guy’s sandwich and bit his hand in an instant! They are clued into tourists.

The park has been dramatically upgraded since Chris was here 15 year ago- a train to move people and trails with all weather surfaces. There was huge water in 1992 which took out the old walkways..

The tour took all day and we were exhausted when we got back to the hotel. We sat by the pool listening to the night sounds of the jungle with our cold pizza , left over from lunch and downed Alan’s precious 500 cc bottle of Quilmes Lager..



Ciao, Alan & Chris