Same Falls, different side

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Sorry for the delay guys, i've been ill and in bed for a few days and we've been moving about a lot recently, get ready for lots of entries today!

Day 19-24th September

So there we were at 6am, packing, moving rooms and getting something to eat, it was a bit of a mad scramble but we all ended up on the bus on our way to the Argentinean side of Iguazu Falls! Out of the 5 of us, only Ellory and I had seen the Brazilian side and we were looking forward to comparing the two sides. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t too great, but at least it wasn’t raining, although Clare, Ben and Scott were disappointed as the falls are definitely better and more dramatic looking when the sun is shining! However we bought our tickets, picked up a map and worked out what we were going to do first.

First impressions, there is a lot more to do on the Argentinean side, there is a huge network of trails leading through the park and we spent the morning walking most of them. We’d been told and I’m sure I mentioned this in an older blog, that you get a lot closer to the waterfalls and this was certainly true. There were lots of bridges crossing over the falls where you could look down the falls themselves. Second impression, the wildlife is loads better on this side! In the morning as we were walking we saw loads of those mad badger things (who’s name we still can’t remember) , a wild toucan, gorgeous little yellow birds and a family of vultures who very kindly sat there for ages with their wings spread so we could all get pictures of them. I had read a while ago that there is a breed of swift that make their homes on the rocks behind the waterfalls and they have to fly through the waterfall to get to their nest, I couldn’t believe that this was actually possible but lo and behold, as we were crossing another bridge over a waterfall we looked down, and there they were! Absolutely loads of them clinging to the rocks! Ellory got some amazing photos of them with the trusty SLR with its lovely zoom lens and we spent ages watching them flying through the water.

By then we had walked about 5 km and were starting to get hungry, the weather was starting to look a bit better and we decided to stop and have some lunch and hope the clouds would clear. Ellory is definitely struggling more in this country to find things to eat and the only thing he could eat on the entire menu was a cheese sandwich. I had my first empanada and they’re pretty damn good! The food served its purpose though and by the time we finished the sun was out. It was definitely pretty near perfect weather to go and see the main attraction of the Argentinean side, The Devil’s Throat.

We all piled on the train to take us up to the trail leading to the Devil’s Throat and to our amazement, we saw thousands of butterflies on the road running alongside the train. Seriously it was a huge cloud of them, it was so cool! Then when we got off the train the ground was just covered in them, we were all trying to get them to land on us, but we were obviously not appealing enough so we walked off to the start of the trail to lead to the waterfall. The trail to the Devil’s Throat is a series of walkways and bridges over the river which ends in a huge balcony overhanging the top of the Devil’s Throat. For those who don’t know, the Devil’s Throat is the most famous part of Iguazu Falls. It is a huge U shaped waterfall and there is an immense amount of water falling from the river above down to this relatively small plunge pool. As you can imagine, the noise is incredible. As we were getting closer we could hear this deep roar getting louder and louder and when we finally got there, all 5 of us were completely taken aback. It is possibly one of the most amazing natural sites I have ever seen, the noise, the spray, the sheer size of the thing, you have to see it to believe it. It is incredible.

We spent a long time on this balcony taking lots of photos and finally persuading the butterflies to land on us! What was it like? Tickly, it takes all your willpower not to flick them off! But it was wicked just having them up close, at one point, Ellory was like the Butterfly man as he had one on his hand and another on his chin! (nibbling on his beard). As we walked back to the station, we were keeping a better eye out for more wildlife and we saw loads! We saw an egret type thing swimming along carrying a fish in his beak (obviously to take home to his family), several turtles and underneath the bridge there was a birds nest with 3 eggs in it. That walk back took us much longer than the walk over!

When we got back to the station, the sun was fully out and Clare, Ben and Scott decided to redo one of the trails again to get better pictures now the light was better. Ellory and I, having already got lots of waterfall photos decided to wait for them at the cafe, watch the weaver birds building their nests in the tree nearby and chill out. I promptly got comedy tan lines as I was wearing a t-shirt (although I didn’t discover this until later) and it was great just to relax a bit in the sunshine. When Clare, Ben and Scott returned, they joined us for a beer and we then headed back to our bus to take us back to the hostel via a handicrafts market. Ellory and I lost all reason for a bit and bought ourselves a small bow and arrow and a blow pipe! (made by the Gurani tribe who we’d visited in Paraguay). We are currently carrying them around with us but will have to ship them home soon as they’re a bit awkward and pointy!

We were all shattered by the time we got back, it had been a long day! (although amazing) So the 5 of us went out for dinner, played some cards and settled in the dorm for a (hopefully) good night’s kip.

Love Liz xxx

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