Puerto Iguazu

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Before I tell you how awesome the Iguazu falls are, because they were, I will tell you about our journey to get to them. There was an insane thunderstorm our last night in Buenos Aires and it had not let up by morning time. We checked out of our hotel and the man at the front desk hailed a cab for us and told him where to go. Little did we know, we were entering the cab of the man who quite possibly invented “crazy taxi”. Honking at every car in sight, passing on the wrong side of the road, squishing in between cars to make an extra lane, hitting the mini lakes formed by all the rain with great speed, and best of all – literally covering his eyes with his arm while laughing maniacally and almost rear ending a semi.

We exit the taxi, make it into the airport alive and check in for our flight. The man tells us, “no Puerto yet, watch screens”. So we go upstairs and watch as our flight is delayed 3 times due to the rain storm that morning... then it disappears from the screen altogether. Hmmm... That can’t be good, so we head down to the main floor to the information desk and the lady calls the company to find out what is happening, she can’t get a hold of them and suggests we go to their counter and find out from them. We head to their counter but it is closed, so we ask the next person we see – where is our flight?! Is it cancelled?! The lady tells us, no information yet- go back upstairs through security and they might be able to help you. We get through security and see a mob of people surrounding an Aerolineas employee, everyone waving tickets madly in the air trying to figure out where their planes are.... trying to eavesdrop on other crazy passengers who are flying all over the country while hearing that no flights are a guarantee right now, all 50/50. The boarding area is overflowing with passengers who are on delayed flights and there is not a single piece of floor that isn’t being occupied. Finally we spot a place to sit on the floor and grab it, who knows how long we may be here?? Minutes later there is an announcement over the loudspeaker but we can’t hear a thing, I send Binnson to check out the screens to see if there is anything new about our flight – he runs back to me – Gate 5! We grab our things and run to the gate just as a fight breaks out at Gate 12......

Puerto Iguazu is a small town that is fittingly very touristy, lots of little shops selling souveniers, etc. We were staying a bit outside of town at Raices Esturion. It was a nice hotel that had a definite resort-type feel to it, big pool, restaurant, much fancier than we are used to. We checked in and headed into town to scavenge for food. Binnson came across a street meat vendor and made friends with the guy at the front of the line. The man, wearing full scrubs, tells us that he is a doctor at a clinic from down the road, he apologizes for his rusty English but is happy to practise, we are happy to hear English in general. The guy announces that he eats from this street meat vendor almost every day (as was apparent from his jolly belly) and that he has never gotten diarrhea even one time! We laugh as he helps Binnson to order and chats us up about Canada and Argentina. The vendor finishes a bunch of sandwiches at the same time and the long line disperses as we say good bye to our new friend.

The next morning, we get up really early and make it to the waterfalls (cataratas) just after they open, literally we are on the public bus that is filled with employees and tour guides who work for the falls. We decide to not save the best for last and go to it first, the Garganta del Diablo, the Devil’s throat, the top of the water falls. We get onto the platform and are instantly soaked by the wind coming off the waterfall, a welcome refreshing rain/mist to help cool off in the 40+ weather. I fear that my ample sunscreen application was likely not enough to battle the water and sun but won’t find out until later. We laugh and walk around taking pictures with the joy of little kids at the sight of the magnificent falls while periodically being completely soaked over and over again. Finally we decide that we have had enough and walk back to the bridges to go to the next viewing point. We walked a ton that day taking in the many different views offered by the set up at the park.

There were tons of birds, butterflies and coatis at the park. I kept having butterflies land on me, one on my face that I wasn’t pumped about and resisted the urge to swat it like a mosquito. There were these animals called Coatis that were everywhere! Of course our first sighting of them was immediately after a sign that said to beware of coatis and monkeys as they will scratch/bite and steal your things. They were pretty funny though, at the outdoor cafe one of the coatis was jumping from table to table and knocking people’s Coke bottles to the ground and then drinking the rest of the contents. It was more hilarious to watch the tourists freak out when they jumped onto the tables, many of the women would jump out of their chairs and walk/run away until the coatis would leave to the next table.

After getting completely soaked at the lower falls one last time, I thought I had killed the camera.... I was going in well aware that I was about to be soaked... and with the complete purpose of getting an up close and personal photo of those waterfalls (zoom from a couple feet away just wasn’t close enough), I was clicking away when suddenly there was no more click. Binnson had just joined beside me when I turned to him, “Abort, abort, abort mission!” and pushed my way out of the fall. Binnson seemed a bit angry that I may have wrecked the camera but my optimism prevailed and after letting it dry out for a few minutes, it carried on with capturing our memories.

Back in Puerto Iguazu later that evening (sunburn number 2 confirmed), we decided to have an early night. We went for a walk to the point where the three borders cross between Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina at the river close to our hotel to take a couple pictures before deciding our Iguazu adventure had officially ended.

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Comments

[Dancing Dave]

Warning...Danger
Another entertaining blog. Nice they give you the meaning of Peligro in English.We got to the bottom of a mountain before we understood what it meant! Glad your camera survived the soaking...a lucky call? Was Peligro in order?

[Mom]

Looks absolutely beautiful. May just have to add this place onto my bucket list! Stay safe. Pick a lady taxi driver next time - lol

[Sandra]

Iquazu
Your picture of the fish turned out way better than mine! Loved the butterflies.. They lick the salt on your skin. Forgot to tell you we also had flights that would disappear too!!! Crazy eh!! Keep having fun !!!!

[D MJ Binkley]

Stories make the blogs
It is always nice to hear the story behind the story or the adventure. Always good to survive a cab ride. I ruined a camera in a waterfall in New Zealand. Glad to hear your survived.

[Binns and Cheryl]

I like to think that you can always replace a camera, these trips are likely once in our lifetime so might as well dance under the waterfall!