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Published: December 14th 2007
Oh Lovely
A handful of the amazing falls that are everywhereSo I´m standing on a metal catwalk over a tranquil spot on the Iguazu river. I've got a full day´s worth of sweat, sunscreen and bug spray coating my skin. One arm is strapped over Jenny's shoulder, the other firmly grasping the wooden guardrail. I close my eyes. There's a peace, a quiet that I haven´t experienced in a long time. The only sound is the gentle trickle of water passing by a few feet below me. Those slowly stepping droplets and I have something quite in common. I, like that water, have no idea what extremes lie just a few meters downstream. My grip on the handrail tightens and Jenny lets out a choked ´Oof´ as my whole body tenses and we begin to walk forward. The ground before me is slick from a light dusting of rain that has just passed. It´s all I can do to keep my eyes shut as I'm slowly led down the slippery path. My first few steps are like those of a baby giraffe fresh from the fall out of its mother's womb. I stagger, stretch and stumble as i try to gain my bearings. Jenny shows extreme patience as, weary from a
full day of marching in the extreme heat, she supports a great deal of my weight while I try to gather my senses. I continue to amble forward, having to leave the safety of the handrail for a few brief terrifying moments to pass tourists resting along the side. Through my drunk-like meanderings, I begin to sober slowly and gain confidence in my footing. Eventually I´m able to silence to scared little child screaming in my head and become aware of the things occurring around me. The first body parts to regain its sensory powers are my ears. They gather a deep rumbling off in the distance that grows ever more powerful with each advancing step. What started as a distant drumbeat, over the minutes escalates from the noise of a basement washer-dryer quickly building to the crescendo of the overpoweringly pounding roar of an approaching army. It is sound powerful, that I feel the pulse echoing through my chest with every second. The feeling is like giving a hug to Ted Nugent's sub woofer. This insane throbbing continues to beat down upon me and is contrasted so subtly by the gentle spray of mist the dances down upon my
More falls
It´s a 360 degrees veiw like this from the center of the park face. I´m reunited with those very same droplets that I met minutes before passing underneath me as they softly touch down upon my face, offering the tiniest ounce of sweet relief from the oppressive heat. More and more drops fall upon me until I´m brought to the point of soaking. Finally my last step forward brings me to the end of the catwalk. Eye´s still closed, both my hands are placed on the guardrail. I take one last moment to assess my senses, the throbbing in my ears, the flecks of water on my skin, the taste of the mist as it lands on my tongue between words. At last, I´m offered releif from the overwhelming anticipation. Slowly, I allow myself to experience the most spectacular sense of all. I open my eyes. The blur before me clarifies as my eyes adjust to the light. My hazy vision comes together to reveal the most incredible thing I have and maybe will ever see, The Garganata Del Diablo, in all it's beautifully violent fury.
The Garganta Del Diablo (Spanish for Devil's Throat) is the mightiest of the many waterfalls at Iguazu National Park. I'm not sure how many they are
Showing off
Our Gargantas aren´t quite as impressive in total but i can think of probably 10 that dwarf any waterfall I've ever seen in my life. The day was one of the highlights of my 24 some odd years and it was a trying process to achieve it. We came to Puerto Iguazu on Sunday with John and Sarah after 3 days of movement through Uruguay and Argentina. We spent all day Sunday sitting on our hands because everything is closed and we needed to get Visas for Brasil from the consulate (The park has two sides, one entered from Argentina and the other from Brasil. You must cross the border to enter the Brazilian side of park and therefore need a visa to see it.) Monday morning was spent sprinting back and forth between our hostel and the Brazilian consulate with all my paperwork. Sarah, John and I suffered a two hour ordeal that ended up with one visa between the three of us, and that one couldn't be used for a week. (We were under the impression that the visas lasted 90 days, but they in fact are for 30 days, which starts counting the second you enter Brazil. So we discovered that entering the
Soaked
Right after driving a boat into the falls Brazilian side of the park would compromise everyone´s future Brazil plans.) We did, however, finally get it all sorted and head to the park. Jenny and I split from Sarah and John at the entrance so they could wait to meet with some of their friends from home who had just flown into Iguazu (they never showed up). All in all, we strode into the park lugging the added weight of the massive chips on our shoulders. It was insanely hot and humid and we were exhausted before our adventure had even begun.
It seems every blog i write has one of those sentences that says despite all of the crap we went through, it was all worth it in the end. This blog is no exception. Iguazu is the most staggering thing I have ever seen. The sheer volume of water cascading down the cliffs is impossible to capture with word or pictures. We traveled two long trails that gave up close of some of the better falls from both above and below. The experience was truly awe-inspiring. After reuniting with Sarah and John she told us of an African girl named Mari we had met in Uruguay
they had run into on one of the trails. Sarah told Mari that the second biggest fall, San Martin, was the greatest thing she had ever seen. Mari just laughed and said, ´So, you haven´t been to the Garganta?´
After that we hopped a little train so janky that it only needed some Disney characters painted on the side to belong in Tommorowland (Mr. Toad´s Malaria Trip). This brought us to the 1 km catwalk that leads to the Garganta. About 100 yards away, I decided to have Jenny lead me with my eyes closed so that I could see the falls all at once. When I finally opened my eyes, I can honestly say that it was the best moment of my life. (Having never been married or had kids, i can say this without shame. I´m not put in that awkward position of having to lie and say that my wedding day was the best moment of my life. It´s hard for athletes. I don´t care how hot your wife is, nothing is better than winning a super bowl.) So, we had a full Monday at the falls that happened to be capped by the best moment
Bossetti Day two
slightly more powerful of my life, not bad for a day's work. So we left, still dripping in the spit from the Devil's Throat, expecting to come back the next day just to fill in a few gaps that we had missed. We knew that nothing could top what we had seen that day, until the next day blew it out of the water.
It poured all night, so we expected the falls to be slightly larger than the day before. What we didn't know was that the rain had forced a bunch of dams upriver to nearly overflow. This forced them to have to be purged in order to prevent disaster. The result was that every single fall pounded at twice the ferocity of the day before. We took this opportunity to pay a few bucks and strap into a speedboat that drove us within feet of two of the biggest waterfalls. We were drenched from head to toe all day because passing all the trails required walking through a wall of spray. Unfortunately, the Garganta was less spectacular than the day before because the spray was so strong that you could barely see the waterfall at all.
Iguazu has
left a permanent mark on me, but unfortunately we had to move on. We have since left Puerto Iguazu for the city of Posadas, which is the Argentine equivalent of Bakersfield. No reason to be there, but they have a Sonic, so it could be worse. We have to wait until Sunday to head over to Brazil because I can only be in the country for 30 days and we fly out on Jan 15th. While being deported sounds like a cool story, it is slightly inconvenient for my budget. Tune in next week for harrowing adventures on terrifying Brazilian beaches. Will our heroes escape the dreaded Caiparina? Find out next time. Same blog time. Same blog channel.
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LeGrandBleu
Ana
Hi there! I'm having a good time reading your blogs, you seem to be enjoying every second of the trip. Keep them coming! Oh and these photos make me already miss those massive falls... Ana