Asuncion to Iguazu

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Asuncion to Puerto Iguazu, Argentina

After leaving asuncion, we rode to Itaipu, where we caught a bus to see the 2nd biggest dam in the world. The bus drove us around so we could see it from every angle and we got off at two points to take photos and take in the view. It was mind blowing and spectacular to see the volume of water released from the dam which generates energy for around 80% of Paraguay and circa 25% of Brazil.

After we finished the tour we rode to an awesome wee cafe which had espresso coffee and a delicatessen, it's amazing what lights me up now!

Refreshed we carried on to the border to exit Paraguay which thankfully was not an issue as the mercury was back up in the 30's. Interestingly we entered onto a road back into Brazil whilst entering Argentina. When we arrived at the entry border we waited in a queue about a kilometre long before we were stamped into Argentina no problem but our bikes took around an hour to clear customs which we can't complain about when they're processing 6 bikes. The woman in the customs office was actually pleasant to deal with which makes a nice change.

Riding from the border to our accomodation we could smell the jasmine flowers in the air. We arrived at our accomodation in Puerto Iguazu around 6.30pm.

We went for a wander into town to grab some dinner and exchange some money. We ran into String, Jeff and Deane so we all went to dinner together. We ordered our meals and Jeff asked for a cervasa to which the waitress replied "no alcohol". Naturally there was a bit of upset! We couldn't understand her reason because of the language barrier but she later came out with a piece of paper reading, 'we cannot serve alcoholic beverage because there voting tomorrow'. We couldn't help but wonder what had happened to necessitate this law!

Around 8.30 the following morning we rode to Iguazu falls. Once we'd secured the bikes we walked into the Iguazu national park where we queued for half an hour to take the train to the falls lookout platform. There's steel-gridded walkways over the river for about 400m out to where the water falls, it's quite an impressive feat of engineering. There were the hoards of people we expected but the falls were very impressive with huge volumes of water launching from the top and then boiling in a misty cauldron at the bottom. The water had a clay-brown colour (possibly due to the soil colour) unlike Victoria falls which I remember being green.

We walked back to the train station and decided that rather than queuing again that we'd walk back. Along the way we encountered another iguana which didn't run but kept a wary eye on us while I photographed it. Great to see in its natural habitat.

Next we started down the lower loop and grabbed Subway for lunch. I'd no sooner sat at the table when I was very nearly robbed by a coati which looks like a cross between a Lima and an anteater. These things were persistent and you had to guard your food and bags. I had one come up from under the table to distract me while his mate climbed my chair from the other side to attempt to steal my sandwich; thankfully there is a person employed there to chase them off with a stick that has a plastic bottle taped to it which makes a noise on the concrete that the Coatis don't like.

We felt like we'd seen enough where we were and went to find a chopper flight over the falls. We found out that they only run these from Brazil so we went into town and organised a cab to get us from our hotel and take us back through immigration into Brazil. We caught a scenic flight over the falls which flew in a figure 8 so we got great views of all perspectives from above the falls. It's a great way to see the scale of it all and the volume of the river that feeds it. Our exits and re-entrys went seamlessly and quickly as taxis don't have to queue, and we were back in Argentina inside an hour where it was back to our digs before venturing into town for dinner and a drink with the guys before doing a bit of writing and sewing.

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Photos

Deane checking out the inside of his eyelids
We watched a presentation on the dam here and then sneaked out leaving Deane here just for shock value.