Nature and the Guarani Tribe

Coati

While hiking through the jungle we saw a lot of wildlife. One animal that we saw a lot of is called a Coati, or a Brazilian aardvark. They look similar to a raccoon. Two of the most distinguishing features of the Coati are its tail and its nose/snout. They have very pointed elongated noses and long tails as well used for balance and signaling. It was amazing to me how domesticated these animals are in a sense. They are not afraid of people at all; they got within inches away from me while walking through the rainforest. One thing that a guide mentioned to us is that people frequently feed them, which is bad because they start to rely too much on people and lose their natural instincts.

I also saw several monkeys in the rainforest. They were in large packs and the mothers carried their babies on their backs down trees which was adorable. I saw two monkeys helping to clean each other as well. We were able to get relatively close to them without scaring them away, but not nearly as close as the Coatis would get to us.

We also saw many types of birds and butterflies, all of which were vibrant in color. The butterflies ranged from black and white patterned with red trim to bright purple and blue. I carried one on my hand for part of the walk back from the falls. We saw a toucan and another brightly colored bird as well. The biggest surprise was seeing a small crocodile in the river when we were rafting to the falls. While fairly small in size, I would not like to get much closer than we were while on the boat.

There was much to see and learn about besides the animals. The rainforest for example doesn't have seasons per say. There are just periods were there is more rain than others. Right now it would be considered the rainy season (summer time). We also learned about the soil in Iguazu. It is reddish in color due to the iron, and it is relatively infertile. Because the roots are shallow, trees have buttresses at the base to support them.  

The Guarani man that was our guide taught us a lot about nature as well. They use the seeds from a particular plant to make the jewelry that they wear. They appear to be wooden beads when in actuality they are just seeds from a plant. There are white, brown, black and reddish colors. He also explained that they use a liquid that comes from the bark of the Redwood trees for baptism. 

Our Guarani guide also told us about the community that lives in Iguazu. He said there are approximately 2,000 people living there. At school the children learn both the Guarani language as well as Spanish. They are taught a little bit about our culture as well ("white people" in the words of our guide). As for religion, it is not associated with Catholicism; it is their own indigenous religion.

School children singing