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Published: October 14th 2007
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We flew from Cayenne to Belem, stayed one night, then flew all the way down to Foz do Iguaçu. It was a long trip but at least from the bottom of Brazil we could easily travel overland to Paraguay and Uruguay.
We suffered a long delay in Sao Paulo so arrived quite late at
Hostel Bambu in Foz do Iguaçu. Our reserved double had been given away but they put us in a dorm on our own until the next night. The brothers running the place were great. They gave us information for visiting the falls and also for getting to Paraguay.
One thing we were not prepared for was the cold. It would have been close to freezing .. or perhaps it just felt like that after the 40 degrees plus temperatures in French Guiana. We had sent our big jackets home from Quito thinking we wouldn't need them but we had changed our plans which dropped us in Southern Brazil in the dead of winter. Brrrr.
The next day we took the 120 bus as instructed to get to the Brazilian side of the falls. We knew it was going to be touristy so shouldn't have been
surprised by the little tourist complex at the entrance or the double decker buses that shuttled you into park. We rushed off down the trail ahead of the tour groups that were on our bus and soon found our first view of the falls. It was breathtaking. This moment was followed immediately by another lovely moment as a coati wandered past us. Never having seen one before, these members of the raccoon family were a lovely surprise. With long snouts and long ringed tails they were really cute. They challenged people to ignore the signs that say 'do not feed the animals' and cleaned up after messy visitors who dropped food. We saw a dozen of them on the path as we walked to subsequent view points on our way to the base of the 'Garganta del Diablo'. Here we put on our raincoats and braved the walkway out over the water where we received a soaking from the spray of the waterfall. It was fantastic to be so close to such a huge volume of water. The trip was a little tainted by the stupid people we saw feeding the coatis and then kicking them when they got too
friendly, and by the huge queue for the returning shuttle which snaked around the souvenir shops.
The Argentina side is a little more difficult to get to so we joined a tour for a day. It wasn't too expensive and it meant we bypassed the horrendous queues at the border, we just waited in the van for 10 minutes while our guide, Gil, whizzed in with all the passports. We had to get stamped into Argentina but we didn't need a stamp out of Brazil. About 2 kilometers away from the entrance to the park we hit a traffic jam. The half hour wait gave us time to get to know some of our fellow tourists. In the van we had Italians, Brazilians, some teachers from French Giana with there clever little girl and an Irishman who lived in New York. We had already met him at our hostel. Finally parked and on our way into the park we were accompanied by a hoard of tourists. We had thought that yesterday was bad, this was unbelievable. Queues for the loo and then a huge queue for the cheesy little train that would take us to the walkway at the
top of the falls. After a half hour wait we just got on a train but poor Pieter was deposited in the middle of a family who resented the intrusion and spent the entire journey talking over him. Getting off the train we them had to shuffle our way along the 1km walkway jammed with people, jostling at the end for a view of the falls. It was quite spectacular with the falls dropping away below your feet and stretching around in a big horseshoe.
After the long shuffle back and another wait for the poxy train we were absolutely starved and delighted to find the US$13 buffet recommended to us by people in the hostel who had been the day before. The grilled meat was fantastic and they had lots of salads and side dishes. It was nice to be in Argentina again, even if just for a day!
In the afternoon we walked the amazing complex of walkways and platforms going around the cliffs and over the waterfalls. These provided the best views of the falls. The Argentina side was definitely the more spectacular but also the most busy. Both sides are worth visiting.
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