Another Time

The Iguazú Falls inspire a storytelling mode in me. I start imagining all the animals of the jungle gathered by the waterfall in the moonlight, like I’m reading a childrens’ jungle book.

The moonlight would color the heavily falling water an otherworldly shade of blue, and a toucan would fly by, quickly followed by two more…

Their colourful beaks catch the moonlight. Down by the lower part of the falls, a few monkeys are contently sharing a meal, though one of them prefers to stay soaking in a calm patch of the brown water. He knows the thundering waterfalls are at a safe distance, this is his favorite bathing spot. Occasionally, a sneaky coati manages to sprint by and snatch a piece of fruit. The jungle echoes with the monkeys’ annoyed warnings.

Meanwhile, huge, red ants the size of a man’s thumb march in a line on their own little path, meticulously carved by previous ant footprints in the red dirt.

The ants are silently being watched by a plump, black-and-green striped lizard…

The tourists are nowhere in sight.

*****

Inspired by an old pamphlet I saw at Puerto Iguazú, advertising a guided moonlight tour to the waterfalls which I unfortunately missed by several years. I’ve also been thinking of the amazing fact that there are monkeys in Iguazú ever since I read a post by a fellow blogger who’d visited the place a couple of years before us.

She’d seen butterflies, monkeys, and toucans at the waterfalls, while we saw almost no wildlife – except for lots of coatis and scarily gigantic ants (with strong-looking teeth). It was absolutely packed with tourists when we visited. To think that there are supposed to be even some jaguars there!

Thanks, Sabine! 🙂 I keep dreaming about toucans, for some reason. Though we didn’t see any at the waterfalls that day (probably due to the noise all of us in that huge crowd were making), we were lucky enough to see some at the airport (of all places!) when we were leaving Iguazú the next day! They look incredible.

Lovely story…it probably happened! And yeah, when I was there, not many animals. I don’t think I saw a butterfly. Did see those feisty devil things that steal your lunch. And I did see a cool blue and black and white bird that I never discovered the name of. Your photos of the falls are spectacular. I’m very disappointed in my shots. They just don’t do it justice.

Thanks, Indah! Hope you get to see it! I like the images I took from there maybe better than the reality, I can somehow appreciate it more with some distance (and less people). We did see it from the airplane though, which was great. The pilot curved really low so we’d all get great views! 🙂

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I have no idea if there’s an off season for Iguazú. We also didn’t visit the Brazilian side, maybe that’s better?? Thanks for your comment! Unfortunately so many places worth visiting are just crowded these days…