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Published: March 6th 2006
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foz540
Rainbow through the Falls We were pretty slow at leaving Bonito - partly because we liked it there and partly because we thought our bus journey to Foz would be hell. It was. The journey was supposed to toke 17 hours but ended up being 23! This wasn´t too bad, we are getting used to long buses, however for 7 hours, a Brazilian girl sitting next to us shouted, sang and told jokes at the top of her voice. By the time she got off I was climbing the walls and even Noel (who is the most tolerant person in the world) was irrate. But anyway, we arrived in Foz at 4am and got a taxi to a hostal we had pre-booked a room in.......only the night porter had no knowledge of our coming and only had dorm rooms left, single sex ones at that! We decided to set up our tent instead; (so this is after a 23 hour bus journey at 4am and in the dark!) I can´t remember why this seemed the best solution!
The next day we booked our trips to the falls and lazed around the pool. Foz do Iguaçu is comprised of 275 individual falls, 3 km wide
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Boat ride on Brazilian Side of the Falls (before our soaking!) and 80 m high, making them wider than Victoria and higher than Niagra. They are unequally divided between Brazil and Argentina, with Argentina getting the majority. However as they both offer a very different experience it is best to spend a day seeing both sides.
The first trip was to the Brazilian side of the National park. We began with a boat ride to check out the falls from below. We realised being fully dressed for this boat ride was a mistake as everyone else in the boat was wearing bikinis/trunks. We had asked the tour organiser if we should take waterproofs and he said no, but he didn´t say wear a bleeding bikini! Needless to say as our boat went under the falls we got very wet, but it was stunning and a truly unforgettable experience. We rung out our clothes when we got off and soon dried in the 35 degree heat. We then got a bus further along the falls. The Brazillian side offers a beautiful panorama view of all 275 falls, so we walked along the viewpoints and watched in awe. As we were booked into the hotel in the National park for Valentines
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Argentinian Falls Day (in 2 days time) we left some of the trails to do on our return and went into the hotel to ensure they had our booking and beg for a room-view of the Falls.
The following day went to the Argentinian side, which involved getting a bus through customs in Argentina and into the other side of the National Park. On our bus was a particularly irritating Australian who fitted the beer-drinking-womanising sterotype perfectly (sorry Adam and Eve!) and I insisted we left him as soon as we got off the bus. Noel successfully recommended a different trail to him from the one we were taking, and he disappeared with some other Aussie lads - phew! The Argentinian side consists of 6 trails showing you the Falls from a great variety of perspectives. We had 9 hours to walk them all and wondered what we would do with the rest of the time, but it did take the whole time and was good exercise as many of the trails were up steep steps. We started with the Passeios Inferior a circuit which showed views from below. From there we took the boat over to Isla San Martin which
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The power of the Falls at the Devil´s Gorge shows you a closer view. After a short lunch-break we walked the Passeios Superior which is comprised of concrete platforms at the top of the falls. It is amazing looking at the tranquil stream that reaches a precipice before feeding into massive waterfalls. Walking across them you can imagine an unsuspecting victim rowing down the stream, unaware of the terror that lies infront of them. The most spectacular trail is the Garganta Do Diablo (The Devils Gorge) which takes you across concrete platforms to the very edge. We took a good tip from a park guide and went there at the end, avoiding the queues of tourists and totally saving the best til last.
After completing the viewing trails we took a long walk to a small waterfalls at the foot of all the falls, which is the only one in the area you are allowed to swim in. After walking all day in up to 39 degrees heat (!) it was wonderful to get in the water. As I was standing directly under the fall, I noticed that the water suddenly got hard and faster, nearly knocking me off my feet. A few minutes later it began to
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The heat during the Argentian Walk rain, so we began our 1.5 hour walk through the forest and back to the bus. Within a few minutes we were caught in a tropical storm (more lightning!). By the time we got back we were soaked to the bone and our walking boots were buckets of water. On the way back the bus driver (who was Argentinian and a real character) took our passports at the border to get us through customs quickly. When we got them back we discovered he had stamped everyones with joke stamps of animals saying Paraquay and Argentina - how this will go down when we get to Argentina at the end of our trip, we will are yet to see!
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Ma
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Wow!!!!
Your whole journey is completely stunning. I don't think good old Blighty can compete after this...