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Published: November 8th 2006
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We were all very excited about the last stint of our trip with Roger and Amber in tow. It promised to be a good conclusion. We visited the Iguazu Falls. These are a huge set of waterfalls (275 individual falls in all!) that sit on the Brazil / Argentina border. All this with the Atlantic Rainforest for a back drop. There is an ongoing competition over which side of the falls is best with Argentina taking the majority (75%) of the falls but Brazil being able to claim more panoramic views.
On arrival in Foz de Iguazu, to save confusion we allowed our driver from Bonito to drop us off at the Bambu Hostel, even though we were staying at the ´new´ sister Bambu 2. As it turned out, it wasnt that close and new was pushing it a bit. It wasnt really a hostel yet! We decided to save money by taking a 4 bedded room but we were quite alarmed by the windows open / lights on approach to mosquito control and lack of fan or air con in 30 degree+ heat.
We headed out to Foz De Iguazu, the Brazilian side town of the falls. We
went for full on pizza delight in a bar on the main street. We had a slight let down when we ordered 4 delicious sounding cocktails which took an hour to arrive and were barely drinkable. This was further compounded by Vickis dodgy Portuguese when ordering two beers to recover from the cocktails ... two tequila sunrises arrived!! As the Americans would say - go figure! We decided to call it a night and head back to the sweaty dorm.
The next day we were excited to get up and going early in the morning. We were off to spend the day on the Brazilian side of the falls. We bused it to the main gate of the Iguazu Park where we paid our 10 pound entry fee (a lot for South America). We then transferred to a disney style open bus to take us to the falls. We were worried that tourism had already ruined the falls! The bus drops you at the start of a scenic walk where you catch glimpses of the falls and then they slowly open out to the most amazing views. We neednt have worried about the tourism as the beauty of these
falls outweighs any number of people happy snapping next to you. You can walk along some great walkways and really get close. We had lunch at the falls (pricey again) and then headed back to town.
Due to the state of our accomodation and, more importantly, the fact that Brazil stopped serving alcohol for a day because of the elections we decided that we would head to a hostel in Puerto Iguazu on the Argentinian side. Christian, one of the co-owners of Bambu, massively redeemed the place by helping us out loads setting things up and explaining buses, etc.
We crossed the border and before we knew it we were chilling on the terrace of our Argentinian hostel. We went out for dinner that night not quite prepared for the quality of the food we would get. We went to a restaurant called Aqua. We all had the best steaks we have ever eaten, Vicki was wowed by a tasty salad that was finally edible and Rog mistakenly (yeah okay whatever you say Rog) ordered the most expensive Argentinian Pinot Noir on the menu which was delish! We spent the evening ooing and ahhing over the fod as
well as deciding to discuss politics, religion and sex - must be the Argentinian wine! All in all for the equivalent of about a tenner a head, we were all very well fed. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come - rock on Argentina!
The next day we once again awoke early to check out the Argentinian side of the falls. One again a bus and an entry fee, but this time it all felt a lot less disney. We did an 8k jungle walk first which ended with a waterfall where you could take a major power shower. Afterwards we caught a little tourist train thingy to the Devils Throat (the largest part of the falls). You walk for a while on a metal walkway and then your breath is taken away as you reach the view. You feel like you are actually in the falls and it is huge. The whole experience is out of this world.
Rog caused a bit of a drama by getting stung, breaking his shoe and then getting stung again all in about 5 mins so we decided to head for safer ground! We looked round some of the
lower walkways which enabled access to more great views, then headed back to Brazil and Foz De Iguazu.
In answer to the debate ... Paul preferred the Brazilian side of the falls as it offered much wider views of the falls and Vicki preferred the Argentinian side as it felt less touristy and you could get so close to the falls! The competition rages on.....
We checked into the thoroughly posh (erm yes standards are certainly slipping) Hotel Del Rey and took advantage of the swimming pool to cool off (the day had been another 40 degree scorcher).
We went out for a last night dinner with Roger and Amber and had some farewell Caipirinhas. We didnt want it to be time for them to go home!
On our final day we got up mega early to visit the Itaipu Dam which apparently is one of the new 7 wonders of the world. We watched a slightly scary corporate video (not used to those any more) and then went on a bus tour. We feel very guilty to say that neither of us could stay awake on the bus much as we tried! Roger and Amber
Power shower
Its about time he washed! woke us up at key moments and it looked pretty impressive but that was about all we could muster.
Back to Foz one last time to pick up bags and have lunch. Then we said farewell to Roger and Amber who were heading to Rio for one last day before back home to Blighty. To show our sadness at saying goodbye the heavens opened and showed us what the RAIN forest is all about. This meant we had to hide out in bars and internet cafes until we boarded our overnight bus to Curitiba nearer the coast.
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Kelly the clown
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WOW
Sitting at my computer on a real dull Autumnal afternoon. From what I can see the Argentinian side looks the better bet. Absolutely fabulous!!!!!!!!!!!!!