THUNDER MIST AND AWE THAT IS IGUAZU!

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"The Antlers - Two"
"The Arcade Fire - Haiti"


Andrew had left for Chile and Alicia arrived from Canada. I had spent the better part of a month in Buenos Aires and it was time to leave! Alicia had two weeks to explore as much as possible. So we needed to travel fast! This would prove to be a challenge for me, I don't travel fast. I have adopted the South American Backpacking life style with lots of sleep, lots of food and more sleep! BUT I needed to be more efficient for the next two weeks.

We stayed two nights Buenos Aires before heading north to Iguazu. With Alicia, I finally enjoyed my first Tango show and dinner. It was pretty cool, and holly cow can they dance. What a sexy dance! Those guys are far superior to me... damn it! The food was great too! I wanted Alicia to adapt a bit and rest up for our two weeks of bus after bus after bus. Iguazu was our first bus trip, only 18 hours north!

The anticipation of arriving in Iguazu grew as the geography changed drastically. As we approached, the landscape changed from sweeping prairies to thick jungle forests and rust-red earth. It was my first taste of warm weather in nearly 4 months and I was excited to finally wear a pair of shorts.

Iguazu was a great little town, with heaps of tourists. The second day in Iguazu we decided to rent some bikes and see the town and area a bit better. We biked down red-earth streets and along the river that separates Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. Brazil sure did look nice! Renting bikes was a great idea and I would suggest it to anyone else traveling through Iguazu. Ok, now onto the famous water falls!

There was a tremendous amount of anticipation and build up to the water falls. We made our way towards the park on a bus full of anxious backpackers and tourists. This was the slow season, though you would never know. Hoards and hoards of tourists herded like cattle. But whatever, I was still pumped. We decided to make our way to the main attraction, the Devil´s Throat. They say the negative Ions at the falls reacts with us and causes us to be happy! Well sure, whatever, I think it was the build up to the falls, like a wondrous prelude of a symphony of nature. We crossed the rushing jungle river. All the while hearing the distant thunder of crashing water. The colorful birds singing their songs and thousands of rainbow painted butterflies acting as your guide towards the Cataratas. Your mood has no choice but to change, you cant help but to smile. As you work your way closer to the Devils Throat you begin to hear the water fall more clearly, but still cant see it. Except for the mist that has now come into view and quietly and gently dampens your skin. You emerge from the jungle to find yourself on a path above a beautiful blue rushing water scape. This is the point where the jungle stays behind and the gentle mist turns to what seems like rain, despite the absence of clouds and the roar of the falls grows louder and louder. 50 meters more or so, and with that the falls start to come into view and you realize that you are high above the jungle below where the Devil´s Throat pours hundreds of feet to the valley below. The mist from the falls soaks you, seemingly to your soul and you finally see the Cataratas for all its wonder and awe! The sheer size and power of the spectacle hits you hard! And here is where you now have a hard time controlling your emotion, with several tourists brought to tears. Not me of course, I'm tough as shit! But yes, I was smiling from ear to ear, and so was Alicia. This was a wonderful moment in time, your heart beats a bit faster while you try to allow yourself to absorb this amazing feat of nature. I would suggest to anyone reading this blog that is set to go to Iguazu to, in this exact moment, put your camera away and just take it in for as long as you can! We stood there amongst all the other emotional tourists cheering, screaming and laughing uncontrollably. We, all of us, were literally high on nature!

The best part is that we just got started in the park. There are seemingly endless waterfalls revealing themselves from the jungle at every turn. Everyone is smiling perpetually and taking in as much as they can. We hiked all the trails and stopped and absorbed as much of the natural beauty as we could. I even, for a brief moment, saw a Tucan!

We took many pictures, but they wont do it justice. Go and see for yourself. Amazing!

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Photos

Iguazu
The Devils Throat

Comments

[Sherry Green]

Iguazu
Hey Tim - spectacular photos, but I love your natural gift with descriptive words more than anything - keep it up. I will read this to Grandma on the phone. Love You Lotsa - Auntie Sherry