Iguazu Falls 9th - 12th Feb 08

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Flew from Rio to Iguazu Falls via Sao Paolo on Saturday morning with TAM.
Stopover in Sao Paolo was better than the last one - no delay this time and we could even get off the plane and have a walk around the airport (not that there was much to see).
After take off from Sao Paolo you realise the sheer vastness of one of the worlds largest cities. We must have taken upto 20 minutes to hit any countryside. Football grounds, racetracks, motor racing circuits, parks, lakes, swimming pooled mansions, slums, mile after mile of skyscrapers - great timing on my part to win todays installment of “Who’s Having the Window Seat?”
We’d never really spoken about visiting Sao Paolo but were now considering a couple of nights there. But, could we get anything like under the surface of such an enormous city in a couple of days?
Upon arrival at Foz do Iguacu airport - the Brazilian side - the temperature seemed just as hot as Rio but was noticably muggier. We collected our bags and again ordered a taxi from a stand in departures as in Rio to Puerto Iguazu, Argentina. Would’ve been cheaper on the meter but tiredness and convenience won again.
The drive over to Argentina took approximately 20 minutes. The driver took care of immigration, we didn’t even need to leave the car. I’ll remember this if I ever need to cross a border illegally. Should be pretty straightforward.
After immigration we crossed a river by bridge and the driver pulled over to point out we were right on the border of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. We had no plans to visit the Paraguayan side at any point but I’m definitely claiming this as another country visited.
I’d practically forgotten that this was the second last country we went to war with until just after the “Welcome to Argentina” sign there was a “Las Malvinas are Argentinian” sign. Great. They probably hate us. Didn’t think of that.
We arrived in Puerto Iguazu and were dropped off at the Hostel Inn, our first (but not last) hostel experience.
Having never stayed in a hostel before I was full of trepidation - students, kids (how old do I sound?), tree huggers, Americans, all night parties, having to make our own bed, people wearing tye-died t shirts - these were just some of the potential problems I envisaged. As it happened - all of the above were there in abundance (apart from the tye died t-shirts, thank god) but were actually no problem whatsoever. We even found out that most Argentinians dislike Americans more than they do Brits so we’d get off lightly in comparison which was nice to know
The main difference between a hostel and a hotel that was noticeable was the non-existent service. I was immediately torn as to whether nobody rushing over to carry your bags a whole 10 yards for a tip like in Rio was a good or bad thing. The room was very basic but clean enough although we were a bit worried that they’d attempted to fumigate the wardrobe with a number of the little brown deodorising tablets you find in mens urinals over here. Questions that sprung to mind were - What had happened in this room previously to make this necessary and why hasn’t anyone realised that these tablets actually smell WORSE than piss?
Hungry, we headed straight into Puerto Iguazu itself via taxi - 10 pesos (about £1.70) where we were dropped off at a cashpoint to get Argentine Pesos. Cashpoints here only only let you draw out 320 pesos at a time which is about £50 so you literally have to make 4 or 5 withdrawals at a time to get a decent amount of money - bizarrely you don’t even get your card back out, you just press “yes” when asked if you require another service. You can imagine the queues and the sighs, “tut’s” & shaking of heads when someone (me) does this.
The centre of Puerto Iguazu is very small (about 4 streets) but very laid back and atmospheric. Restaurants, bars, shops & internet cafe’s are in abundance though and it makes for a great little relaxed night out.
Of all the restaurants we ate in we didn’t have a bad meal. Prices were cheap aswell, eg, one night Rachael had Milanesa - breaded veal/steak (not sure exactly but it was nice all the same) - I had a sirloin, we had chips and salad between us, bread, a litre of Quilmes beer, a bottle of wine, a litre of water and the bill was about £10.
On our first full day we visited the Argentinian side of Iguazu falls. There were several organised trips available through the hostel but, we weren’t sure exactly what we wanted to do so just made our own way there by taxi which cost 50 pesos each way (about £8). Entry to the park was 40 pesos (£6ish) with half price entry the following day if you wanted to come again.
There were a large variety of walks you could do to see all the falls from a number of different perspectives. We first plumped for one called Sendero Macuco which was about 3 kms each way with loads of wildlife along the way, including monkeys according to the leaflet, and a stunning secluded waterfall at the end. It was already raining lightly then just as we were about to set off the heavens opened so out came the waterproofs. Rachael had bought a see through plastic poncho and looked even muggier than the weather (says me who was wearing shorts with hiking boots for the first time in my life). To cut a long story short, the trail was crap. We got drenched, saw no monkeys (just spiders and the odd ant on steroids) and the “waterfall” was more of a “watertrickle”.
After this we were hungry & thirsty so sat down in the first cafe we came to and had empanadas and a beer. The beer was called .............. which I believe is Spanish for “Amstel”. I managed half, only because I was thirsty.
From here we went on two walks - called the upper and lower circuits - which take you across a number of see through metal bridges or “catwalks” that take you close up to the falls and the best views and also way above some evil looking whitewater ravines. This was especially good fun with me being scared of heights and Rachael being scared of bridges (yes, I think that’s strange too) but we persevered and it was well worth it with some stunning scenery.
Throughout the day the weather changed frequently. Our waterproofs and my t shirt were on and off constantly. Rain, wind, sun - if it had snowed aswell it would have been just like being back in Oldham (but there’s still only one town in the world that can lay claim to regularly having all four seasons in one day)
Around 5pm we were knackered and ready to leave. All we hadn’t done was the boat ride which takes you right upto and under the falls and a train ride to Garganto del Diablo (the Devil’s throat) which is the largest fall. As we’d seen it from a few angles already we weren’t really that bothered but decided that, as tired as we were, while we were here we might aswell just do this one last thing and, anyway, it was on a train so didn’t involve any more walking.
We got off the train and quickly realized that a lot more walking was involved but, my god, it was worth it!
The walk took us to a spot right next to the huge waterfall where we were looking down on it and the view really did take our breath away. One of, if not the, most stunning sights I’ve ever seen - an amazing display of both the beauty & power of nature. The waterproofs were back on again aswell as the spray almost drowns you.
The walk there was fantastic aswell and gave our weary legs their second wind. We had to cross 3 or 4 wide rivers via catwalks again which were, this time, only a few feet above perfectly calm water. It was a scene straight out of the Tarzan films I used to watch as a kid, albeit with alligators replacing the crocodiles. The signs warning us about snakes were a bit concerning though.
The following day we saw the Brazilian side which was OK but not a patch on Argentina’s and only took 2 hours or so. We got there via transport arranged at the hostel where, again, the driver took care of most of the immigration stuff (we did have to get out for a few minutes this time though which was a chore).
After this we spent the afternoon by the pool at the hostel. Lying in a hammock in the shade from the 30 degree heat with a bottle of Quilmes listening to Puressence on my IPod now ranks prominently in the highlights of my life so far!
While Rachael went for her now regular siesta I played (badly) in a game of pool volleyball.
Ate another lovely meal in town that night then checked out and headed to the airport the following day to catch our flight to Buenos Aires with LAN which was delayed for about 3 hours. Not to worry, there was an internet cafe where I started this blog only for there to be a powercut after about an hours typing - lost it all! It was good originally, honest.

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