For the Birds

Iguana Falls are located in the Amazon, more or less.  There is a lot to see in the Amazon, however, much of it will kill you if given the chance (Anne's friend reports that his visit to Iguazu Falls was cut short about a month earlier because of an infestation of pumas in the national parks.  Pumas!)

So rather than venture off into the hellscape that is the Amazon jungle, Anne, Mark and HBomb took a little trip into a sanctuary.  It happened to be a bird sanctuary, operated on the Brazil side.

Statler and Waldorf check out the visitors.

Quick side note on "the Brazil side."  Normally, Americans need a visa to visit Brazil (Brazilians need a visa to visit the U.S., so they make the reciprocal requirement of Americans).  However, due to the Olympics and Paralympic Games being held in Rio, the visa requirement was temporarily waived by the Brazilian government, so Americans are free to enter Brazil for tourist purposes for a few weeks.  Mark already took advantage of this on his trip to Rio, and was a little nervous about doing it again.  The policy technically stated "one entry" and he was pushing it for a second one.

After checking in the hotel in Argentina, Anne, Mark and HBomb grabbed a cab and headed to the border, not knowing exactly how the border crossing would go.  It started out rough, as the Argentine authorities were thorough in their examination of our trio's passports, prior travels, when they entered Argentina and how long they had spent there.  Would the Brazil side be equally thorough?

In a word, nopeskidoodles.  Our cab driver actually drove right past all of the passport control booths on the Brazil side of the bridge.  Mark asked him if we needed to stop and he said no.  However, he offered to go back and try to get one of the workers (assuming there were any) to stamp our passports for a souvenir.  Thanks, but no.  We will have to live without our Brazil entry stamps in our passports for now.

Hey, look, a bird!

Back to the birds.  So, the sanctuary houses birds that have been injured or rescued or captured from exotic pet traders.  The entire thing is like a big bird house and the visitors are allowed to walk through and check out the residents.  The more aggressive types are kept separated from the humans.

Almost all of the birds were natives to the Amazon.  We saw toucan Sam, macaws that looked like parrots....

Buuurds!

And Anne met up with the ghost of Phyllis Diller who had apparently come back in bird form (RIP, Phyllis).

Anne's got a way with goofy looking animals.

But all that bird watching can really build up a thirst.  HBomb took care of that with some local flavor.

You put the lime in the coconut and drink it all up....