Guira Oga is located on the outskirts of Puerto del Iguazu so we were able to hop a local bus to get there. When we arrived we were loaded into a trailer pulled by a tractor and hauled back into the jungle. The driver seemed a little sullen and disappointed that he had to drive a tractor instead of something more speedy and glamorous so he did his best to remove OUR limbs with any handy tree limbs he could manage to brush. Word of warning if you visit: keep all of your parts IN the trailer unless you want to contribute fresh meat to the wildlife.
Guira Oga (Guarani for house of birds) is a sanctuary and rehabilitation center for bird and animal victims of poaching, traffic accidents (including tractor injuries?) and wildlife trafficking. As its name implies 90 percent of its inhabitants are birds. On our visit there were also Cappuchin monkeys, a Crocodile, Coatis who had probably managed to eat too many tourist Alfajores, and a happy Howler monkey who is a free wheeling member of the staff.
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| Caraya the Howler |
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| Capuchin monkey |
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| This Cappuccino Monkey is beyond rehabilitating! |
Most of the inhabitants are released back into the rainforest, so the much anticipated Jaguar was no longer present (unless of course he was stalking us), but we did get to see one of the Toucans that was a no-show at the falls, so it was all worthwhile.
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| A bird's eye view |
The Wanda Mines, named after a Polish princess who loved gemstones, (older sister of Princess Zelda), are a bit further from town so we needed to take a semi cama. Not to be confused with a semi colon or other forms of punctuation, cama is the spanish word for bed and a "cama" is the civilized version of a Greyhound bus, with seats that fold out into full beds, meal service and a movie. A "semi cama" is the slightly downgraded version of the same type of bus.
The seats half-recline like those Barcaloungers all the dads had in the 60's, and there isn't any food service. I guess the semi camas are more for cat naps then the full night's sleep camas.
At any rate its good we had a chance to rest because when we disembarked an hour later we discovered we had a 3 km. trek to reach the mines.
3 km. is not really very far but the red dirt road seemed to get a lot longer as the noonday sun beat down on us and the recent rain steamed back upwards to replenish the clouds. The jungle bugs were in full chorus (it really DOES sound like the soundtrack for Tarzan!) and every 100 yards or so we were swarmed by Guarani salesmen in the guise of adorable children, offering us geodes and enough crystals to heal the entire population of Santa Cruz. They were beautiful, relentless and heartbreakingly poor, and we probably would have bought all their wares except we weren't ready to carry several tons of geode even 3 kms.
The Wanda mines are very small but working open pit mines, employing only 30 miners.
As our guide led us into the caverns, we breathed a sigh of relief at the cool interior and I quickly scoped out a handy tunnel where I contemplated hiding until the evil sun went down.
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| We're going in and we're not coming out until sundown! |
At one bend in the tunnel he showed us some fuses dangling from the ceiling just begging to be lit, so I was glad that he was using the newer technology of a cell phone rather an old school lighter, to illuminate our way.
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| Mine, all mine! (Get it?!) |
Ciao for now,
J
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The Cappuccino Monkey, cebus caffeinensis, is considered the most attractive of the new world monkeys and I would most heartily agree! The specimen in the photo typifies the awe-inspiring beauty of the species!
ReplyDeleteI would say this biologist is a little biased.
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