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Published: January 19th 2008
The Brazilian side
See those little people on that platform?I hate to sound clichè, but words literally cannot describe what we witnessed at Iguazú National Park. These pictures can give you an idea, but they do not come anywhere close to capturing the experience of what it feels like to stand in front of the falls for yourself, to try to absorb all that you are seeing before you, to feel the water´s spray on your skin and to hear its thundering roar echoing in your ears. We all left the park that day agreeing that everyone in the world needs to come to Iguazú Falls and experience it for themselves, or at least, as Mike put it, "all the people I really care about." Basically, you all need to come down here (preferrably now, we´d love to hang out)...but seriously, this is something you NEED to see at some point in your lifetime.
We had arrived in Puerto Iguazú the day before, a pretty enough little town of 30,000, and after our 15 hour bus ride we decided to spend the hot humid day relaxing in our hostel´s pool. It´s kind of strange to be in the very close vicinity to of one the world´s biggest natural wonders
and not be
at it...but we had made plans to meet up at the falls with our friends Brett and Daryn, who would be flying from the states into the Brazilian side the following morning. (For those who don´t know, Iguazu Falls is shared by Argentina and Brazil...each country has their own national park with different views of the waterfalls...the Argentinian side offers a more close-up view, whereas the Brazilian side supposedly shows the grander scope).
After some emails back and forth, we agreed on meeting Brett and Daryn at the park entrance at 11 AM... when we got there we waited...and waited...and waited, until 1 PM, when we decided we couldn´t wait for them any longer. Did the guys ever make it to the park? The mystery was solved a week later, when we learned that the boys had been on Brazil time, which is 1 hour later than Argentina...so they had gotten to the park at 10:30 Argentina time, assumed that they were half an hour late and that we had gone in without them...so when we got there at 11, they had already been inside the park for half an hour!
It didn´t take long
for us to see that all the waiting and anticipation had been worth it. We were in what surely must be one of the most amazing places on the planet. The national park itself is beautiful, lush green all around you with monkeys climbing in the trees above you and...oh yeah, amazing cascading waterfalls EVERYWHERE. Your first glimpse at the waterfalls catches your breath, just the SCOPE of it all, fall after fall after fall, admist all the lush green...incredible, as I said, my words can not do them justice. I had the "Jurassic Park" theme song running continuously through my head as I really did feel that I was in some sort of Lost World. It is so amazing to look at these beautiful falls and realize, "this unbelievable place exists here naturally, no one built this, no one planned this or constructed this, it is just HERE, it´s always been here and as long as the world exists it will be here..." Incredible. Mind-blowing.
There are two main trails, one providing close-up views of the waterfalls from above and the other, from below. We also took a quick boat ride to an island from which you can
get right up next to the incredibly powerful San Martin waterfall (the second biggest in the park). I could not believe the power of that waterfall!!! We ran into Mari, (a South African girl that we had seen everywhere we went in Uruguay) and I told her that San Martin was the most amazing thing I had ever seen in my life. She just laughed at me and said, "you obviously haven´t seen Garganta del Diablo then!"
She was right of course, so we hopped on the train that would bring us to a 1 km catwalk leading the way to the famed "Garganta del Diablo," español for "Devil´s throat." There are some things in this world that get so much hype that when you finally see it in person, you just go "eh, cool" because you´ve seen so many pictures and heard so much about it, that you might as well have alreadly seen it. Well, this is NOT the case with Garganta...we were all rendered completely speechless in awe upon seeing the furious falls up close in all of their massive glory. First, speechlessness, then laughter...laughter that arrives because you are truly filled with SO much joy
at what you are seeing that you just cannot contain it. Without a doubt, the most incredible thing I have seen in my life up to this point.
Even though we spent a solid 6 hours inside the park, we still wanted more. We decided to return the next day, and were unexpectedly rewarded with waterfalls twice as powerful as what we had seen the day before. It had rained all night, and apparently the rain had caused the dams upriver to nearly overflow, which meant that the water in the dams had to be released in order to prevent flooding. This meant that some of the smaller falls that we thought were pretty the day before now astounded us. We stood right below the pounding Bossetti Falls with our arms raised in the air, getting soaked and shouting with happiness. When we stepped back, we watched countless other people do the same thing. There was no way you could NOT put your arms in the air and shout! This day we also took a speed-raft within 2 feet of two of the waterfalls, another incredible experience.
I could go on and on about the waterfalls, but you
guys really should just see it for yourselves.
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Sange
non-member comment
WOW
I am rendered completely speechless from this blog, the photos in it, and your tantalizing descriptions! I realize that I must see these waterfalls for myself (which after reading/seeing this I WILL come here one day), but honestly you gave the best descriptions possible I think.....you have always been an amazing writer Sarah! It makes me so happy to know that you have experienced this wonder...I can't even describe it. I love you and miss you so much and knowing that you are so happy and experiencing so many incredible things really touches my heart <3 I love you and really truly hope that one day maybe you will come back here with me! There is no one else I would rather share it with :) Talk to you soon! Muah!