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After spending what seemed like an eternity on buses getting from Bariloche to Buenos Aires, also getting left behind at one town and having to catch up with the bus in the following town by catching a taxi, then getting another 20 hour bus to the north I arrived in the small town of Puerto Iguazu. Felt like I was in an entirely different country and was hard to believe that this was still Argentina as Puerto Iguazu is tropÃcal and with warm weather finally after freezing to death down south. It had all the things that make me smile about being in the tropics....the smells, the fruit, the need to ride motorbikes with lots of people on them, people living in thongs, slower pace of life, living out doors, wearing little clothes and of course the sun. Again I was lucky with the weather and all my days there where blue sunny skies and sunshine which was perfect after a few rainy days. The town of Puerto Iguazu doesn´t really have a great deal to offer other than being the closest town to the massive Iguazu Falls which is what I had come to see. They are actually right
on the border with Brazil so you can visit both sides of the falls and get two different perspectives of this amazing natural wonder. They are thought to be the biggest falls in the world and are very impressive just due to the size of them and the beautiful surrounding jungle. I spent the first day in Brazil and saw the falls for the first time and just couldn´t believe firstly that I was there but I just couldn´t believe my eyes. The only way that I could describe it for people who have not been there is to imagine about 5-10 of the biggest waterfalls you have ever seen and then add them together and you might just have a taste of what Iguazu is like. That excludes anyone that has been lucky enough to go the the Victorian Falls in Africa. The noise that the water creates as it falls was loud and constant and the mist from the water leaves you quite wet. They were apparantly letting more water through at the time I was there as they needed more water down the river as a result the falls where very powerful and there was LOTS of
water coming over. From the Brazilian side you can walk right out on a platform in the middle of a couple of the falls and be surrounded by it. You do end up saturated and can´t see the bottom as the mist is too thick, but you are right out in the middle of the falls and pretty much surrounded totally by them. All I kept thinking was that I hope that the platform doesn´t break as there is going to be no chance that I would ever survive. Other than the shear beauty of the falls the area is teeming with colourful butterflies that fly around you and also land on you as you are walking. Being a butterfly lover I was captivated by them and spent many hours just hanging out with the butterflies. Rainbows also form in the mist of the waterfalls and along with the butterflies it gives the area a very magical feel. The next day I ventured to the Argentinian side and spent the day there wandering around and watching the falls from many different view points and again watching the butterflies. The Argentinian side is bigger so you can see the falls from
the top, middle and bottom and again walk close to the falls to get a sense of their power. I am still wanting to know how much water they believe falls every minute as I think the number would be mind blowing. I did spend the whole day out there as if you just sat in the one place for a while most of the other tourist would eventually leave and you would have the whole place to your self. So after two days at the falls I was again lost for words to try and explain what I had seen and Argentina had definately provided some great memories again. The next day I was back on a bus again and heading south for another 20 hour bus ride to Buenos Aires to catch my plane out...this time along with all my belongings I also had a start of a cold that I believe I caught from a bunch of snotty nosed kids on the way to Iguazu, but at this stage I was sure that I was not going to get sick.
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