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Published: October 4th 2012
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Our overnight bus took us to Puerto Iguazu way up in the north of Argentina. When we arrived at the place we were staying, we were met by the most helpful guy we have met yet. He was so keen to help us out and to make sure we got the most out of our time in the national park. We pretty quickly got ready and headed straight our to explore the falls.
What an amazing piece of creation! The falls are magnificent! They are shared by both Argentina and Brazil. The Argentinian side covers the greater share of the falls. There are a two main trails to explore the park one views them from above and the other from the bottom. Within the park there are about 275 waterfalls, the main attraction is the Garganta del Diablo a massive drop in the river bed that creates a view spectacular waterfall. This is the main attraction but there are a number of very beautiful and impressive waterfalls to captivate your attention. We decided, and were advised, not to rush straight for the big one but to spend time admiring the other falls first, which was a very good idea.
The national park is home to dozens of different types of butterfly, which was great they land all over you and then spend time licking you it was crazy. There are also lots of birds, we were really excited to spot a toucan flying over head but were too slow to take a photo.
Words don't describe the beauty of the place. We took loads of photos... But again the places we are staying don't consistantly have a computer that we can up load them withand the iPad does not allow us to put up photos. But as soon as we are able I will put them up!
We spent 2 days walking around the park. On our second day we went up to the big fall. There is about a kilometre of walkways out over the river to get to the viewing platform. The river is so peaceful, we spotted turtles and huge catfish on our way out to the viewing platform. When you approach this you see the spray rising up into the sky. Your first glimpse of the fall is a semicircle area that drops in the river, then it opens up and then you
are looking down into the fall. Beautiful!
Wow the amount of water going over that is incredible! There are these little bird called swifts that make their nests aroundland behind the falls so they fly in and out of the massive falls.
After spending a long time admiring the waterfall we headed back in to the park. To go swimming at one of the smaller falls. This was a 5km walk through the forest, at the beginning we saw signs to watch out for snakes didn't think too much of it and headed out. About 1km into the walk we nearly stepped on a crazy red and black and white banded snake. After that we spent the rest of the walk looking only at the path where we then saw a big green snake going across the path. That kind of ruined the walk a bit but we made it to the end to find the path to the fall closed. We decided we would ignore that advice and walk the path anyway. We got to the bottom and were rewarded with a nice water fall and small swimming hole. Then in exploring a bit further found another
water fall just down stream a bit. All in all we loved our time in the national park and would recommend going there to anyone.
The next day we packed up and headed into Brazil, after a little confusion at the boarder we got stamped in and headed in to find the Brazilian national park. We ended up getting there late in the day, after organising bus ticket for florinopolis we caught a bus to the national park! And then another bus out to the walk way to view the falls. This side of the falls gives you a wonderful panoramic view of the Argentinian national park. This is defiantly the wetter side of the falls! We spent time soaking in the views. The sun was starting to set so it gave the mist a beautiful golden glow. Ahhh so pretty. After snapping lots of pics and trying not to get the camera too wet... We left this amazing place to get yet another overnight bus to the island of Santa Catarina.
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Emma Laning
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Iguazu is amazing isn't it?! Sounds like you guys are having an awesome adventure. Look forward to hearing more of your travels :)