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Published: March 26th 2016
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I'm not going to write too much about the falls because I can't quite find the right words. My photos don't even do them justice!
I booked this part of a trip as a package with a local operator (Cynsa) and they were great. There's nothing better than getting off a plane and seeing someone waiting for you with a sign to take you safely to your hotel. I arrived in Iguazu, the Argentinian side, on Tuesday afternoon and had a quite few hours at the hotel. I was being picked up at 7.30 on Wednesday which would be the earliest start since I left Sydney...
Whilst I booked my accommodation and flights before leaving, apart from Igauzu, I am doing not doing any tours. After years and years of travel I have realised I don't like getting up early in the morning when on holidays and I like being able to choose what I do in a day and where I'll eat and drink at night. Or maybe I'm just getting old!
Wednesday's tour had 14 people on it and most were from Australia, England or Ireland. It was a great group and that really contributed to
my fantastic experience of the falls.
The falls are 2.7km wide. 2.1km are on the Argentinian side and 600m are on the Brazilian side. Tuesdays tour was just the Argentinian side and the way they have set up the park for tourists is excellent. There are a variety of walks you can do (our guide said we walked about 9km over the course of the day) at varying levels of height so you can see the falls from many different perspectives. It was damn hot and very humid but because there was so much to see we were walking at a leisurely pace.
The falls are perhaps the most amazing thing I have seen on my travels and that includes the pyramids of Egypt, Machu Pichu, Cappadocia, Pompeii, Ephesus, The Andes and Niagra Falls just to name a few!
I was dropped back at the hotel at 5 and after a long tiring day spent a few hours by the pool with my book and a pisco sour.
Unbeknownst to me I had a private tour planned for Thursday where I would cross the border and view the falls from the Brazilian side. My flight out
wasn't until 6.30pm so I wasn't being picked up until 11.30am. After an early morning the day before the sleep in was very welcome!
My tour guide Rene, helped me through the border crossing into Brazil and we went straight through to the park. Once entering you get on a bus for 15 mins to where the 1.1km walk starts. There is only one walk on the Brazilian side (as opposed to many on the Argentinian side) and the Brazilian part of the falls is smaller... But you get a panoramic view from the Brazilian side that you don't get from the Argentinian side and I encourage all travellers to see both! It was great to be able to see where I was walking the day before and appreciate the falls from additional perspectives.
Rene was a very helpful guide had some good stories. He is ex military and worked at embassies throughout Sth America. I made good use of having a guide all to myself and spend the time we had together firing off questions about life in Iguazu and Argentina.
I pushed the new friendship further by asking, considering we had time before my flight,
if he could take me to a dr before I flew to Rio. Nothing serious but a small concern I would like seen to and he was fantastic. I probably wouldn't have bothered if the next day in Rio wasn't Good Friday when I knew seeing a dr would be pretty impossible. I'm glad I went as he gave me an injection which should fix the small complaint. Again I used google translate to explain the issue - what would we do without technology?? This is the third medical intervention this trip (not sure if I mentioned the paramedic visit in Mendoza...) and fingers crossed it's the last!!!
I still had plenty of time to catch my flight and bought Rene lunch to thank him for the side tour to the doctor. The flight to Rio was only 100minutes and I had three seats to myself which I lounged across and caught up on some episodes of Downtown Abbey ... Preparing myself for my upcoming 5 nights in Rio
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