April 29, 2006
Day 213
I arrived in Puerto Iguazu early this morning, exhausted after being in a bus for so long. The seat I was in barely reclined, so it was almost impossible for me to sleep. Passing the time was tough, too, because the movies they played sucked. I couldn't really watch them anyway because the volume was so low. They turn down the volume really low on buses because the people watching are just reading the subtitles anyway, so they don't need to hear anything. Normally there are jacks above me that I can plug my headphones into, but this bus didn't have any. And I can only read subtitles in Spanish for so long before my brain gives up.
I got to Puerto Iguazu a little to late to see the park adequately, so I decided to wait until tomorrow. Instead, I checked out the Images of the Jungle Museum. I figured it would be a bunch of paintings and photos of rain forest animals, but it was one man's collection of woodcarvings. I was bored stiff at the beginning of my guided tour because every animal was made out of a branch or log that already looked like an animal. "This one is the monkey," my guide would tell me, "But of course all the artist did was carve a slit for its mouth." Bo-ring. But at the end, I saw some much more difficult pieces that took up to a year to make including JFK, a famous pope sitting in a chair, and Jesus' head that was carved when the artist was blind for two years from cataracts. It turned out to be a nice little place to visit.
Late this afternoon, I went to the "Punta de Tres Fronteras," the point of three borders, where Argentina Brazil, and Paraguay all meet. There wasn't much to the site itself, other than the fact that I could see three countries at once. I think it's funny that on some postcards of Paraguay, Iguazu Falls are featured, even though they are miles away and are only viewable from Brazil and Argentina. A little bit of deceptive marketing is going on in Paraguay.
Tonight I went to bed early in preparation of the long day of seeing the Falls that lied ahead.
You said 'Wood'. Sorry couldn't help it.