Iguazu falls, the Argentinian side, the Brazilain side and Paraguay!

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We decided to take a bus journey from Buenos Aires to the Argentinian side of Iguaza falls in order to save some much needed money. The bus was supposed to take 16 hours, however, it took a little longer due to the bus breaking down a few times a long the way- lovely!! Two English guys Matt and Tom that we had met in Buenos Aires travelled with us, though they couldn't stay in our hostel as it was fully booked. Our hostel was very strange, we were located in a little shed to the side of the main building, here there was no hot water and the beds were extremely uncomfortable. Added to this was the fact that we were on the bottom floor and our room had no door so whenever anybody came in/out, or decided to use the toilet we were woken up. Towards the end of our stay this didn't matter anyway as our room was over taken by men and I can honestly say that I've never heard snoring so loud. Oh the joys of hosteling!!

The food, the kitchen, the staff and the computers were equally comparable to the living quarters but somehow this mattered to nobody as the people of the hostel and the presence of an almighty pool made up for anything and everything else. And did I mention the happy hour with 2 for 1 Caprihas??!! With that said, Australian day was spent in the pool with face-painted Ozzys and lots of beer which was fun to say the least.

We decided to do the Argentinian side of the falls first with Matt and Tom and booked the 'Grand Adventure', which was a tour organised by the park. Walking to the tour destination Shane and I did the 'lower trail' of the park which was full of wildlife, mainly Coatis. Coatis seem to be everywhere in South America and were the animals in my Brazilian photos that I mistook for Raccoons, although they do belong to the same family. They are awfully cute and are not afraid of us in the slightest, often pestering guests for food.

Once we reached our tour destination we bumped into two girls that we knew from the hostel and so all six of us jumped onto an open-top jeep. We sat right at the front which we considered a good thing until we nearly started getting wiped out by tree branches!! We drove 6km into the jungle and were dropped off at the river. A speed raft picked us up and, again, we were lucky/unlucky enough to be placed right at the front of the boat ensuring that we got utterly soaked later in the trip, fun! The boat started to slowly make its way along the wide river which was peaceful and extremely beautiful- the canyons stretching for miles along side us, it felt like we were in a film.

After some time we still hadn't seen a fall and the water began to get really choppy as the boat made its way over the rapids. I don't easily scare and I have to say the adrenalin rush that I got on this boat trip was out of this world. After bouncing around for a while we turned round a corner and BAM, waterfall after waterfall. They were all huge and looked even larger seeing them from below. The spray was emmense and everyone in the boat sat amazed for a few seconds. However the jaw-drop turned from one of amazement to one of sheer terror as the boat driver headed straight for a powerful fall and took us close enough so that we couldn't see anything but spray. It felt like we were practially underneath as the strength of the water bounced off our heads and the boat tipped from side to side. He did this two or three times and we were absolutely soaked- it's quite something when you can genuinely say that you have had a shower in Iguaza falls!

After getting off the boat and drying off a little we walked another trail up to the top of the falls, capturing some amazing views of various falls and seeing our friends the Coatis and numerous lizards and bugs. We then took a train far out to where the falls begin. We walked over an extremely large stretch of river/marsh land which was amazing in itself and we saw numerous butterflies with the most amazing patterns on them followed by an impressive Plush Crested Jay. Whilst watching the bird Matt let out the biggest scream I have ever heard a guy make and started dancing around like an idiot shouting that he had been bitten. Of course, we all jumped out of our skins and ran over to him where he had already turned bright red and was staring at a small bee on the floor. Turns out he had given us all the scare of our lives for a case that was related to 'man flu´. Saying that, I don't think the rest of us have ever laughed so much in our lives. I was on the floor nearly crying and needless to say he got stick for the entire day.

About a quarter of a mile on and after the laughter had finally subsided we saw our favourite reptile of the day, a crocodile, or perhaps I should say a cousin of the croc because what species it was exactly I have no idea. He was bathing away with one eye always on us and some people beside us were stupidly throwing him bread which he ate when it seems he could be bothered, snapping his nice sharp jaws round it.

We eventually arrived at the Devil's throat, which was one of the most spectacular things I have ever seen in my life, on a par with the Grand Canyon definitely!! The water seemed to flow gently from the river to the edge and then crashed down with a startling amount of pressure, bouncing off of rocks as it went. It was impossible to see the water hit the river below as the spray rose up for miles hitting us in the face above. We could see most of the other smaller falls in the distance and over the top of Devil's throat was a huge rainbow that seemed to 'fall into the fall'. It was incredibly beautiful and we stayed there until the area closed simply staring. I felt like I was at the ends of the earth.

The next few days were quite literally a wash out. Tropical rain falls saw the hostel swimming pool rise so that water was tipping right over the edge. We had a bbq night where we met loads of people and had a night out in the small village town of Iguaza which was fun and the rest of the time we spent longing for the rain to stop. On our last day it still hadn't subsided and we knew we had to visit the Brazilian side of the falls so we dragged our waterproof covers off of our bags, placed them over our heads and decided to brave the rain. We had planned to do the 10am organised trip but with our hostel being so organised we were told that they had forgotten to change the sign on the wall and unfortunately the tour had left at 8.30am. This meant bus to bus to bus using a map and our amazing Spanish, so we waited at the bus stop, not forgetting the fact that a lorry drove past and simply soaked us in mud, I personally don't think the lorry driver liked the English very much, haha.

Luckily the rain subsided and we found our way through passport control and over to Brazil. We climbed on to a national park bus and were driven along a jungle track to the start of the trail. No falls actually lay on the Brazilian side but there is the opportunity to get some amazing photos as there is a panoramic view of them. However, along the trail I got ever so slightly distracted...... there were many spiders, just a few metres above my head that were the size of HOUSES!!!!! They built gigantic webs and often three of them would be 'hanging out' together. they all had medium sized bodies and long, LONG skinny legs. EURGGGGHHHHHHH!! I bet they can bloody run too!!!!!!! Shane was amused by me and kept snapping his camera as I ran under each web with a disturbed look on my face!

We ended up at a tall building where we were able to get a lift to a balcony that had amazing views of the Devil's throat. It made me chuckle to notice that at the top of Devil's throat the Argentians had stuck a flag and at the top of the balcony hung a Brazilan flag. I don't think though, that the Brazilians have much of a leg to stand on, all the falls belong to the Argentinians. Although it is definitely worth paying a visit to both sides, the Argentinian side wins hands down in my opinion, nothing beats being inside and right beside all the falls. Saying that, i´m sure thousands would disagree with me, it is a personal preference after all.

After we left Brazil we decided to jump on another bus and venture into Paraguay. We managed to escape the queues of passport control both ways as we walked over the border to avoid having to sit in traffic for hours. I think this was possibly illegal but we didn't get shot and that's the main thing right?!! We stayed close to the border so it would be unfair of us to comment on Paraguay as a whole but from what we did see of it, it was completely manic. The country is famous for black market electricals and the streets were full of markets selling numerous electricals and clothes etc. Shane managed to barter for some Ipod speakers and I bagged a fake Puma watch for about 5 pounds. It doesn't look expensive enough to be mugged for MOTHER, it is pink though- thought I would at least get one stereotypical, blonde comment in there!! We didn´t stay for long but we were mighty impressed that we had seen three countries in one day.

We left early the following morning. We arrived at the bus stop just in time to get to Salta but, (just our luck) the computer system crashed and although we had the money right in front of her face she claimed it was impossible to let us on. A little disheartened and instead of waiting around for an indirect bus that night, we decided to go straight to Rosario. Rosario is a student city about four hours away from Buenos Aires that is famous for its river bank beaches.

Until the next episode....... xxxx
Note: PLEASE visit Iguaza for THE most amazing experience of your life!!

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