Advertisement
Published: August 19th 2007
After yet another relatively successful 24 hour journey (the bus only broke down once!) we arrived in Puerto Iguazu, excited at the prospect of spending the next three days exploring Iguazu Falls.
Iguazu falls straddle the Argentine / Brazilian border and consists of over 270 waterfalls, but all the facts and pictures in the world do not prepare you for how truely spectacular the place is. Niagra is a mear trickle in comparison, and at 14 times wider and almost twice as tall Iguazu is bound to impress even the most demanding travellers!
Our first two days were spent on the Argentine side, where for the pricely sum of 5 pounds you can explore a number of walking trails which take you over, under and up close and personal with the various waterfalls.
The first day was beautifully sunny, and we caught our first glimpse of the falls from the Upper Trail, which takes you right along the edge of the falls. It was amazing, the sun was casting rainbows in the spray from the falls and the trail was empty, we had practically every viewpoint to ourselves. On the Lower Trail we walked along the base of
the falls and got drenched from the spray - the underwater camera case finally started earning its keep after two months of vacationing in the bottom of Paul´s rucksac!
We had lunch on the beach at Isla San Martin (a hot contendor for most pictureque picnic spot of the trip), a tiny island in the middle of the waterfalls, but not before taking in two more viewpoints. The second was the wettest viewpoint on the Argentine side, at the base of the second largest waterfall. Needless to say we both got soaked to the bone.
We´d saved the largest waterfall, the horseshoe shaped Garganta del Diablo (the Devil´s Throat), until last. Located at one end of the park it is only (easily) accessible by a cute train. It was packed with lots of over-excited children, including us and the prettiest, most colourful butterflies surrounded us on our journey. Unfortunately the viewing platform was absolutely packed full of people when we arrived, but it was still exceptionally impressive. It is so powerful that you can hear the roaring before the falls become visable and (rather annoyingly!) the bottom of the waterfall is not visable because it is engulfed in
spray.
The next day we woke to a disappointingly overcast day and returned to the park to get truly soaked on a speed boat ride which actually takes you under the waterfalls. We had the advantage of seeing just how wet people got the day before so went fully prepared - rain jackets, zip-off trousers and flipflops. Unfortunately it still didn´t stop us from looking like drowned rats by the end of it. It´s basically the equivalent of taking a shower fully clothed, within 3 minutes our arses were soaking wet through, despite all our best efforts! It was absolutely exhilarating, being thrown from left to right as the driver took sharp turns.
Our third and final day was spent on the Brazilian side of the falls. We didn´t really have all the details regarding the complicated bus journey from Puerto Iguazu in Argentina to the Brazilian park because our Spanish just isn´t that good. You might think it sensible to have a tourist bus ferrying people from point A to point B, but you have to remember that this is South America and from our experiences logic doesn´t seem to play a big part of everyday life
Andrea´s favourite waterfall
Not the biggest, but a beautifully symmetric curtain of water nonetheless.here! We made it through relatively stress free, however neither of us had our passports stamped when we entered Brazil, so spent a day as illegal immigrants.
From the Brazilian side the panoramic views give you a much greater sense of just how many waterfalls there are here. The park itself is much smaller and half a day is more than enough to take in the one walking trail which ends near the base of Garganta del Diablo. The Brazilian side was exceptionally busy and full of very glamourous looking women, who seemed quite happy tottering around a national park in white jeans, killer heels and perfectly groomed hair. We both took great delight in their shocked faces and smudged makeup when they reached the main viewing platform and got soaking wet through like everyone else.
Iguazu falls has been truly amazing. We both love waterfalls and had high expectations of Iguazu, but it still managed to totally exceed them. You definitely have to see both side of the falls, but the Argentine side is the most impressive by far - the infrastructure is impressive and puts Niagra to shame - there is so much to do and
it´s accessible to pratically everybody, with the exception of vertigo suffers who wouldn´t appreciate the wire mess platforms. It´s been a great place to end our time in Argentina (goodbye Dulce de Leche, sob) and a perfect start to our Brazilian adventures. Bring on Rio (and a Portugues phrasebook - ekk)!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.161s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 12; qc: 58; dbt: 0.1114s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
