Puerto Iguazú, Misiones, Argentina: When I arrived in Iguazú I was hit by a heat I had not felt since leaving Vietnam. No matter how humid it gets in New York in July, as a born and bred north-easterner I am never prepared for the jungle.

The place is a riot of color: the trees are a vivid, almost shamrock-like, green and the earth is bright red. As a result a lot of the houses are red too.

Since I landed too late to go to the falls, I decided to take a ride on a catamaran to escape the heat.

The boat went out along the rivers that form the Argentine borders between Paraguay and Brazil: the Paraná River, shown here:

and the Iguazú River:

Three obelisks have been erected where the rivers meet to form a triangle. Standing on the Argentine side you can see both the Brazilian and Paraguayan obelisks painted to look like each country’s flag.

The area is called el Hito de las Tres Fronteras.

I was told that Iguazú is just south of the Tropic of Capricorn. In July there are four days that have a hint of frost.

We stayed out to watch the sunset and then returned to port.

The limited parts of Argentina I have seen walk an interesting line between developed and developing country. While Buenos Aires is a cosmopolitan city (maybe a little rough around the edges) Iguazú reminds me of Siem Reap in Cambodia.

And it has the best and worst parts of the third world. On the one had, there are spectacular natural wonders that are practically unrivaled throughout the world. On the other hand indigenous Guarani children come up to your table during dinner to beg or sell carved wooden animals and feral animals roam the streets.

The town seems to come alive at night after the sunsets. It’s by no means cool, but on Sunday nights the town shows movies in a central plaza (Frozen dubbed into Spanish), and young boys hold drum circles in other parks throughout the town.

Some of the drummers are really excellent.

SUNSET IN PUERTO IGUAZÚ