Finding monkeys, nearly missing a bus.

My bus out of Iguazu is not until late in the evening and the day is too lovely so I gather some pesos, and a camera and board the cataratas bus once again. Iguanas are out in force throughout the park sunning themselves. The coatis scrounge for handouts by the food courts. I take the catwalk above the falls, a section I had mostly neglected before. I then revisit the lower falls in sun rather than torrential rain.

On a popular connector trail, the Green Trail, some park visitors are gathered by the mangroves. They spot a coral snake. I make a note of it and am wary of stepping off the trail from that point forward.

I search in vain at first for the Sendero Machuco which I finally find next to the train station. I am immediately relieved to abandon the throngs of tourists, senior citizens, school children and wander off in relative solitude. The trail is favored by the occasional group of young Argentinians clad in bathing suits and bikinis walking to and from the lagoon several kilometers out with a lone waterfall and flat rocks for sunbathing. I stop by a group peering into the canopy above. Small monkeys are swinging high in the trees and they, and I, are following them with digicams.

This is one of my favorite spots in the park. These falls are isolated and unfenced and accessible by a challenging trail. Exploration and adventure inevitably heightens beauty and solace in a way accessibility never can.

I return to the hostel hungry and listless and wait out the rest of my time by the pool wielding a Fanta and a book.

Here I am at the bus station staring at the Andesmar bus to Mendoza for twenty minutes not thinking to ask if it is going my way to Resistencia. As the bus pulls out, the baggage man frantically asked me my destination, snatches away my backpack and ticket and rushes me onto the departing bus. I settle in for a not so champagne, this time, semi cama ride drinking warm Fanta and eating cold ravioli, and not sleeping well for my ten hour ride.