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Poor Niagra
The waterfalls from the Brazilian side with a perfect rainbow. Trying to write about the power of Iguassu Falls is a frustrating endeavour. I have attempted description a few times now but the waterfalls, ¨cataratas,¨ defy language. Writing this blog becomes very difficult when so many things I am seeing on this trip are twisting my tounge, making my brain, not accustomed to essay composition at the moment, work overtime.
Travelling by night bus from Florianopolis I arrived in Foz de Icuacu, the town on the Brazilian side of the waterfalls and made my way up to the park by city bus. I am glad I am here in the winter, off-season, because there is a danger of turning stunning feats of nature into trite theme park must-see locations to be written up in guide books and crowed about by triumphant tourists who only see nature through the viewfinders of their cameras. When you get past that built-up, money making side of such a wonder the falls are truly amazing. While I walked around a bit on the Brazilian side of the falls seeing the most prolific Gargantua del Diablo from different angles, the weather was perfect - complete with a rainbow rising out of the mist. After seeing other
peoples´ photographs online and reading well-intentioned-but-impossible-to-do-anything-justice descriptions not unlike this one, actually being at Iguassu Falls was awe inspiring. Perhaps rather than trying to descibe what it is like I should just say that it might well actually make your jaw drop, which would be fine because everyone else would also be admiring, agape.
Crossing the border with public transit and without Portuguese took a bit of doing but was an adventure and then I was back to Argentina and the land of Español again and checking in to a hostel very close to the bus station to wait for Mary-Dan who would arrive the next day. The local economies on both sides of the frontier are dedcatated to tourists who want to see the falls and Puerto Iguazu is a bit of a funny town with lots of people hawking artesanias and catering to travellers who want magnets and hats and t-shirts all emblazoned with ¨Iguassu Falls¨ on them.
Meeting with Mary-Dan was wonderful, of course, after her long journey South. Travelling with someone is so different from travelling alone and it is so nice to have a partner in crime, so to speak. Compañera. So we
had a relaxing night and then got up early to go the Argentinian side of Iguassu Falls. Of course, when we packed our bags and prepared for our day the sky was clear and there was a beautiful sunrise, and even when we started hiking through the trails it was lovely out. Then, suddenly, the torrential downpour that we later found out was a tropical storm began. It was another reminder of where we are. Enormous rain drops pouring down and soaking all of the tourists who ran into strategically placed gift shops to purchase matching nineteen peso white ponchos that could not match the deluge. Although we didn't stay as long as we thought we might on account of being sopping wet it highlighted the power of nature to be surrounded by so much water, either thundering down in waterfalls or thundering down in the storm. Navigating the park with hoardes of uniformly shrouded people from all over the world was a sight as well and I imagine the gift shops had a red letter day. One woman told us that she bought a complete outfit because her original clothes got so wet - Iguassu socks, cargo pants, a
t-shirt. She was heading back in to find out if there was a good Iguassu hat.
So that's the sneaky thing about the region. One day it might be hot enough to lie out in the sun next to a pool and then things can change rapidly to the point that you're left wringing the water out of your hair and giving up on ever being properly dry again. We were able to go back to our hostel and clean up a bit before our 19 hour bus ride to Buenos Aires, which turned out to be immensely comfortable - more so than many of the beds I have slept in on this trip. I'll update at some point on my impressions of Buenos Aires on my second trip through the city of porteños. As for Iguassu Falls, writing about it is tough to do but that should only emphasize how stunning it truly is, beyond description. The only way to get a good idea of this is to see it for yourself - just check the weather report before you do!
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Leah Adams
non-member comment
fall pictures
I checked on Flickr for photos of the falls. My oh my. They do look breathtaking. Thanks for sharing your account.