Iguazu Falls...Almost as beautiful as you

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Hello and welcome back to the wonderful world of Matt Caldis. It has been more than a month since my last blog post and yes, I do have a good reason for not posting. From January 8 through January 30 I went on somewhat of a whistle stop tour of Argentina and Chile, spending part of the time with my girlfriend and part of the time on my own. I saw a lot of amazing places, had a lot of very unique experiences, and met a number of very interesting people. Because it would be hard (and probably unreadable because of sheer length) to describe all of my trip in one extremely epic post, I have decided to break it up into a few phases so I can describe it as best as possible and post as many pictures as possible. Therefore, I will be writing a number of more ‘traditional’ travel blog posts in the next few days to make up for my extended absence. I hope all is well with all of you and that you enjoy reading about my latest experiences.

I woke up January 8, 2009, with a new feeling that I had never had in all of my time in Paraguay. That day I was receiving a visitor from the United States, a person to come and see and experience a little taste of my life and my reality for the last five months. This excited me because, after talking to my sister Hilary about living outside of the United States, I realized that I can try to describe all that I experience through words but that the best way for someone to understand my daily life is to experience it first hand. On that day my girlfriend Ashley was arriving to spend 11 days with me in Paraguay and Argentina. After sleeping for only a few hours the night before (a little too excited) I woke up early and prepared to leave for the airport around 8:30 am. I packed a bit of a travel bag as the first phase of my travels was also beginning that day. We planned to go directly from the airport to the bus station in Asunción to depart for Puerto Iguazu, Argentina, via Ciduad del Este, Paraguay. I left Villeta for the airport with my friend Julian and one of the sisters (they’d both tell you my heart was beating out of my chest with anxiety, I would argue otherwise). As we waited at the international arrival gate I kept telling myself that I still could not believe someone from the United States was actually coming to visit and that I was not going to be able to fully believe it until I saw Ashley walk through those gates. And then it happened and my dream of a visitor in Paraguay became a reality. Unfortunately for Ashley, her luggage did not arrive, somewhat expected after the very same thing happened to me on my arrival to Paraguay. Luckily, because this was pretty much expected, she packed enough clothes in her carry on to get her through the first few days of our trip. With that we left the airport and headed for the bus terminal.

We arrived at the bus terminal around 11 am and were able to find tickets headed for Ciudad del Este at 11:40 am. The bus ride was about five hours and was fairly uneventful, but I did not really care because I was so incredibly happy to see Ashley. We arrived in Ciudad del Este around 5 pm and looked for a cab to take us to Puerto Iguazu, Argentina via Paraguay and Brazil (you need to pass through Brazil to get to Argentina from Paraguay). After a 40 minute cab ride and a couple of stops at immigration, we arrived at the Hotel Rio Tropic, a quaint, little gem of a hotel a little bit off the beaten track in a residential area of Puerto Iguazu. Our location, away from the touristy areas of the city in the middle of a countryside surrounded by exotic trees and other plants, was ideal. We relaxed a bit and had a beer, as Ashley had been traveling for more than a day and was functioning on very little sleep. Later that night we pulled out the Lonely Planet guidebook and headed for a highly recommended restaurant called La Rueda, which means the wheel. If you are not aware of this, Argentina is world renowned for its beef, specifically steak. Knowing this I figured when better than to try my first Argentinean steak than my first night in Argentina. I ordered a steak smothered in onions and it did not disappoint. I think Ashley would agree that it was one of the best steaks either of us had ever tasted. After dinner we wandered the streets a bit and found a little street side bar/café where we had a few more drinks and caught up, as we had not seen each other in more than five months.

The next morning we woke up around 9:00 am, had a quick breakfast, and then caught a local bus headed for Parque Nacional Iguazú. We arrived at the park gates around 10:30 am and after about 15 minutes in line we entered the park. As we walked up to the little train that takes visitors into the heart of the park we noticed a clock that said 11:45, which really confused the both of us. It turns out that the clock jumped ahead an hour when we entered Argentina, which made a lot more sense considering the closing times of restaurants the night before. So yeah, we had a little less time than we expected to see the whole park, but it did not matter in the end as we were able to see all that we wanted to see. Just a quick overview of Iguazu Falls, with a little help from the good folks at Wikipedia. Iguazu Falls is a waterfall system that consists of 275 waterfalls along 1.67 miles of the Iguazu River. Some of the individual falls are up to 269 feet in height, while the majority of the falls are about 210 feet. About 1/3 of the Iguazu falls does not have water flowing over them. Iguazu falls can be seen from various angles from both the Brazilian and Argentinean sides. The falls are considered one of the most impressive collections of waterfalls in the world, once prompting Eleanor Roosevelt to say “Poor Niagara” upon a visit to South America. After reading so much about Iguazu Falls I knew it was a can’t miss sight during my time in South America. For the record, everything you read and hear about the place is true, it is absolutely breathtaking.

We boarded the train and headed for the back of the park to its most famous waterfall, La Garganta del Diablo, meaning The Devil’s Throat. We walked over a series of walkways about a half a mile long that led to La Garganta, stopping along the way to snap a picture of an alligator or crocodile (not sure which) that we saw lurking in the weeds. As we approached the main attraction we started to hear the rushing of the water and could see a heavy mist rising up into the sky. The closer we got the louder the noise became. Within a few minutes we were getting soaked by the mist of the U-shaped, 269 foot beast of a waterfall. It was the loudest, tallest, widest, and longest natural water formation that I have ever seen in my life. Just seeing the sheer power of the water flowing over the falls was truly amazing, and as we were told, the water was considered to be low at the time we were there. Could have fooled us, it was still an incredibly massive amount of water. After staring in awe for about 10 minutes and taking as many pictures as possible, we headed for la vista inferior, the lower view of the falls. There are a variety of impressive walkways that wind through Parque Nacional Iguazú that offer very different, unique views of a number of the waterfalls. Many of the walkways allow you to walk over, around, or right up to the different collections of waterfalls. Ashley and I walked through the lower falls walkways for about an hour and a half and eventually ended up right down close to the river at the bottom of the falls. From here we took a quick boat ride across to San Martin Island, where we took a bit of a nature walk and took in other amazing views of the falls. After the island we stopped for a quick bite to eat, then headed for la vista superior, the upper view of the falls. Along these walkways we were able to see a more complete, panoramic view of Iguazu Falls. After spending almost 7 hours in the park and seeing almost every possible view of the falls we had had enough and headed back to the hotel. In all of my time in South America Parque Nacional Iguazú is the most impressive natural wonder I have seen, hands down, no debate needed. It is said that you need to see the falls from both the Argentinean and Brazilian sides to have the most complete experience, but I felt like our time on the Argentinean side was quite sufficient. As my descriptions do not really do Iguazu Falls justice, I will include a lot of pictures for you to enjoy.

After a quick swim in the hotel pool, we headed back downtown Puerto Iguazu for what turned out to be another steak dinner. We then found a local outdoor bar where we sat talking and listening to the DJ spin mad South American tunes until about 3:30 in the morning. We woke up the next morning, had breakfast and another swim, and then headed for the bus station to head back to Paraguay. We caught a bus from Ciudad del Este back to Asunción, where my host dad and brother picked us up from the bus terminal. After unsuccessfully attempting to pick up Ashley’s luggage at the airport we headed for Villeta, the small town about 20 miles south of Asunción that I call home.

Upon our arrival to Villeta, Ashley met a number of my host family members, was given the grand tour of the house, and also a quick tour of part of the town before it got too dark (all this with me playing the role of translator, a fairly new role for me). We arrived back to the house and were greeted by a number of the religious sisters, a few friends, and the rest of my host family members who were preparing a bit of a welcome to Villeta get together for Ashley. We all sat around for the next few hours chatting, taking pictures, and eating hamburgers. I was not expecting anything like this and it was a very nice gesture by both my host family and the sisters. After doing a bit of laundry and spending a bit more time with the family it was time for bed as we had a long day ahead of us on Sunday, January 11.

We woke up early the next morning, went to mass, Ashley met a bunch more of my extended family members and friends, and we had a nice lunch with my host parents and siblings. After frantically throwing together my stuff for the next three weeks (the only way I know how to pack) it was time to head to the airport to find Ashley’s backpack (which I actually planned on using for the rest of my travels). We arrived at the airport a little after 2:00 pm and were luckily able to find the backpack. As we emptied the backpack in order to repack my stuff in it we found a variety of presents my mom had sent for my host family, as well as a few things that I had been waiting for. You guys are probably really going to like this. Those of you who have read my past blogs know that I have been short on socks, so Ashley brought me some. Unfortunately for me, one thing was stolen from the backpack in transit (as it is impossible to lock every little pocket). The thing that was stolen was the pack of socks (yeah, laugh it up). So yeah, I am now waiting for another package from the U.S. to show up with another pack of socks. After saying goodbye to my host family we went to catch our flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina, literally boarding as they were closing the door because we had not been paying attention to the announcements in Spanish that indicated that our gate had changed (and yes, those of you who know me know that I have missed another flight within the last 9 months). With that we were on our way out of Paraguay and headed for the next part of our adventure.

-MWC

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Comments

[Lincoln]

Wow. Falls look super sweet