Big waters

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In our previous post, I mentioned that we had "discussed" visiting Iguazu. Eva had her way, and in the end, she was right. Iguazu was amazing!!! It is reason enough to leave your home and go to Argentina. As a Canadian, I will admit that it was way way better than Niagara, even on the Canadian side. I would point out 3 main advantages Iguazu has over your normal waterfall:

1). It is huge! About 3 times as wide as Niagara, Iguazu is also much higher in some areas. The name "Iguazu" actually means "Big waters" in the native tongue (guazu = big; i = water).

2). It is gorgeous! Iguazu is not just one waterfall, but several waterfalls spaced closely together, with rocks and trees in between. There is also lots of variety in the falls; some drop straight down while others cascade over multiple rocky levels.

3). Location, location, location! Iguazu is set in a tropical rainforest. Any picture you take of the falls shows them surrounded by lucious vegetation. Parrots can be seen flying overhead. Cormorants rest in the pools below. Happily, nobody has yet thought to build a dumb town right next to it. The nearest wax museum is thousands of miles away.

In the afternoon of January 26th, we headed by bus to Puerto Iguazu, the closest town to the falls on the Argentine side. Our bus broke down halfway, and during our wait, we almost saw the whole of "Avatar" in Spanish (minus the beginning and the end). Experts tell you that up to 90%!o(MISSING)f communication is non-verbal. I think they are crazy. I've never seen anything so expressive as those blue cats - they could say more with their tails than you could with a smile - still, hard as I watched them, I could not make out the plot. We transfered to another bus before the end of the movie and arrived in town around 6 pm. From the bus station, we walked the few blocks to Hostal Guemes, where we had reservations for 2 nights. Starving, we headed into town to find food, and landed ourselves a buffet supper at La Esquina, a restaurant attached to a big hotel (and yes, it was on the corner). With tons of bread and great salads with lots of veggies, it was one of our best meals on the road.

Sleep? Forget sleep! Who needs sleep when you got Foz de Iguazu! We were up for the 7:10 am bus to get in line at the entrance to the park, which opened at 9 am. We were lined up for about an hour, with maybe a dozen or so other early birders. Just around nine, two large tour buses showed up. Dang! Those people had tickets prebooked, and were allowed to go straight in! (Only people on tours can prebook tickets, everyone else gets them at the door.) Finally, at 9:05 am, someone started selling tickets, and we rushed in to try and beat the tour crowd people.

We boarded the first train and got off at the stop for the upper falls trail, which has boardwalk that goes around the top of a set of waterfalls closest to the entrance. No one else was on this trek, as they headed for the Gargantua del Diablo (but more on that later). We had a great day for visiting - sunny with blue skies, but not so bright to ruin the pictures. As soon as I had my first glimpse of the waterfalls, I knew they were worth all our troubles of getting here. I was almost as excited as Eva about taking pictures.

Alas, it was while taking pictures that this seemly perfect day woud so much the less. We forgot to change out the low camera battery! All this way for pictures, and we had maybe five shots left. Our first moments at Iguazu turned grey, like we had our own cloud in this clear sky. We took maybe half an hour of commiserating, than decided to make the best of things as we could. We would spend the morning looking at the falls, enjoying them without taking pictures, and then get the battery in the afternoon. We toured the rest of the upper falls trail, exhausting our camera battery. Then we descended to the lower falls trek, which gives a view of these same falls halfway down. I think Eva found it hard to just look at things without snapping them - she had spent the past half year snapping at anything that caught her eye. And with all the butterflies, birds, and lizards present (not to mention the waterfalls), picture-perfect shots were everywhere!

We paid one quick visit to gargantua de diablo before heading back for the camera. Even if you don't know spanish you are probably impressed by the name. Doesn't it sounds large and sinister? Gargantua de diablo translates to "The Throat of the Devil" and is indeed the largest and most awesome waterfall at Iguazu. The walk itself follows a metal boardwalk almost 1 km long, and at the end - how they did this I don't know - they had built a platform that went RIGHT OVER THE EDGE on one part of this waterfall. You would had no second chance if you went over the railing. This waterfall curved around, almost forming a complete circle. Looking around from the platform, you would see water rushing down from all sides. Looking down at your feet you'd see white spray from water hitting the rocks below. You could not see the bottom below; you are at the very edge of the devil's throat.

We caught a bus back into town, got the camera battery, then returned in about an hour and a half. We went back to the gargantua de diablo, this time taking many pictures. Although the park technically closed at 6:30 pm, the inferior (lower falls) trail closed early and the ropes closing off the superior trail were already in place by 5pm. Since no one was around to enforce these ropes, we did what everyone else did - hopped the rope and stayed until someone came to kick us out. We got some great pictures as the waning sunlight displayed some awesome rainbows amongst the mist of the crashing waterfalls, although Eva still thought the light was better in the morning for illuminating the falls themselves. Someone finally did show up to herd the remaining tourists towards the entrance/exit. Prior to leaving, we got a stamp from the ticketing people for us to return the next day for half price. We left the park at closing time for Puerto Iguazu, got supper, and collapsed in bed to get some refreshment before returning for our second day.

Day two was much like our first day without any camera problems. We were up again on the 7:10 am bus, and waiting in line for the 9 am opening of the park. What can I say, this was high on Eva's things-to-do list, we weren't going to cut corners now. We started our viewing on the lower falls trek. Eva went under a waterfall for me to get a picture. She didn't like the picture and went back under the falls another time. Twice she was not happy that I didn't get the picture 'right' the first time. We took a break for some lunch at the nearby cafe. During lunch we were harrassed by coati, a relative of the rancoon that is in huge abundance in the park, and has come to identify 'man' with 'food'. I chased some aroud with a stick, screaming and crawling, but I failed to install any new fear of man in them. At least one person was caught feeding the coati (even after the coati had successfully nabbed some of his food), and he was scolded by the staff.

After lunch, we took a raft ride that went right underneath two of the falls for a super soaking. The raft gets in so close you are blinded by white spray. I wonder how the pilot manages to steer out afterwards. We were both completely drenched afterwards. We did a quick jaunt back on the upper falls trek, and then went for a hike along the Macuco Trail. The Macuco trail is 7km round trip, and goes through the surrounding rainforest to a small waterfall downriver from the rest of Foz de Iguazu. This was to be our last rainforest experience in South America, and nature did not dissapoint. We saw several lizards - one of them quite large - and passed under the webs of many enormous spiders. Returning to the falls, we spent the rest of the day checking out our favorite spots on the upper and lower treks. It was closing time, after 5, when we left for the day.

Returning to town we wanted to celebrate, like we had accomplished something. Our guide book recommended the La Rueda. Simply the "Best in Town". This was our most dissapointing meal of the whole trip. While they served us high quality fish and steak, both were WAY overcooked.

Eva took some convincing to agree not take the 20 hr bus ride to Buenos Aires that NIGHT. We had to change hostals due to the old one being full, and got a room on the ground floor of a neighboring hostal de la Luna. And so, after 2 full days of touring Iguazu falls, we were hoping very much to get a decent night of sleep. I did, however Eva got quite a lot of insect bites that night (bedbugs?) and didn't sleep as well. Bedbugs apparently like her better than me.

The next day was a bore, as our bus did not leave until 5:30 pm. As misfortune would have it, the internet was down in the whole town. Not having a hotel to stay in, we simply wandered the hot streets. It was relief when 5 pm came and we could sit in an air conditioned bus, on our way to the capital.

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