ECOLOGICAL TRIP

In Puerto Iguazu, atravellers can use the services of the ecological train, a means of communication that will take them to the Garganta Station to experience floating for 3 km through the Upper Iguazu Delta. A trip in the little ecological train is an attractive and different way to encounter the delights of the Park. It carries an average of 150 passengers for 7 km to the walkways of the incomparable Devil's Throat in a journey of 20 minutes.

The rail-track runs alongside part of the Iguazu River, and little by little enters the green foliage of Misiones, where local birds, accustomed to the train's passing, can be seen showing off their brilliant colors.

On arrival at Garganta Station, the staff of Iguazu Jungle Explorer will give a brief safety talk that will be useful to the traveller in the experience he is about to have.

Wearing life jackets, travellers board the rubber boat and are taken to the Upper Delta of the Iguazu River. The current is soother there, because the basalt in the bed of the river is more resistant to water erosion and so the Iguazu spreads out, making little islets that are true refuges for local fauna.

When the passengers begin floating they are soon in a sort of mystic communion with the environment. This type of tour gives a direct and very special contact with nature, in an atmosphere of amazing silence, broken only by the sounds of insects, amphibians and birds.

Hints and information

• To avoid insect bites it is advisable to wear ankle socks, and use neutral, unscented soaps and shampoos, as well as a repellent.
• The use of sunscreens and hats is highly recommendable.
• It lasts 30 minutes.
• Departures are every 20 minutes, starting at 9 a.m from the Devil's Throat Station.

RAINFOREST SAFARI
Tourist opportunities in the Iguazu National Park are many and different. Leaving the fantastic environment of the Falls for a while, it is promising to make a safari through the rainforest. This consists of a 20 km trip across the Yacaratia Grande trail, which is closed to private vehicles so as not to disturbe the environment.

The traveller advances slowly into the virgin red soil, that harbors more than 2,000 species of vegetation that occupy almost all the space between the earth and the tops of the taller trees, linked to each other by a web of climbing plants, lianas and epiphytes. The wilderness route leads through primary Parana rainforest, with its plants and trees of huge size struggling to reach the rays of the sun. Palm trees, yacaratías, Misiones cedars, palos rosa, araucarias and arborescent ferns seem to multiply everywhere.

The visitor can now see very closely what he has seen only in books and documentaries: ants of all types and sizes, butterflies, paradise birds and, perhaps, even one of the most beautiful of the big felines on the planet, the jaguar, and other cats such as the yaguareté and the puma (mountain lion or cougar). They will also see the human-shy but fierce yacaré alligators, as well as the native land-dwelling mammals that live in the region: tapirs, deer, wild boar, etc., and will certainly smell the typical odor left by a herd of wild boar to mark their territory.

One feature of the area is the fabulous richness of bird-life. There are far more than 500 species among which are the fragile humming-birds, fruit-eaters, parrots, toucans and trogons, and the multicoloured butterflies that fly and settle high up on the tree-trunks.

Hints and information

• To avoid insect bites it is advisable to wear ankle socks, and to use neutral, unscented soaps and shampoos, as well as repellents.
• The use of sunscreens and hats is highly recommended during the day.
• The journey along the path takes abut two hours, in specially prepared 4WD vehicles, open-topped so that you will be able to take photos and to film in greater comfort.
• Departures take place daily.