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Published: June 17th 2016
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So I left Sao Paulo with a fifteen hour bus ride staring me in the face. I figured it would be long, but not to bad. I departed at 6:30pm and arrived in Foz do Iguacu a little before 10am the next day. The bus ride was in fact really awful. The bus was old, crowded and my seat was broken and did not recline. Couple this with the fact the suspension was shot so every bump rattled and hummed all night long. I slept maybe 45 minutes. Bleary eyed I took the local bus into the center of town and set out to find accommodation which thankfully only took 10 minutes or so. The reason I had come here was to view the world renowned Iguazu Falls which are on the triple border of Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina. The falls are formed by the waters of the Iguazu River and once I got my first glimpse from the Brazilian side I knew I was in for a treat the next couple of days.
The Brazilian side of Iguazu Falls give you a full panorama of the canyon that the river empties into and provides several views of the hundreds
of waterfalls created by it. It also offers several "extreme" activities such as rappelling down the canyon, rock climbing walls, and even a little kayaking. None of which I was interested in. The weather here when I showed up was very cold. Something I've not had since the mountains of Colombia some six weeks ago. Besides the cold about two hours into my exploration of the Brazilian park the skies opened up and began to rain very hard. I was ill prepared so I spent little time here. I began to worry that it would rain the few days I was to be viewing the falls. Pushing these thoughts out of my head I gave up for the day and made my preparations to go to Argentina the next day to try again.
Puerto Iguazu - Argentina The next day I was up early to catch a bus to the Argentina/Brazil border. I had the bus driver drop me off at immigration so I could stamp out of Brazil. He let me out and took off. Nice. So after I stamped out I waited another hour for the next bus to pick me up. At the
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Me standing above Garganta del Diablo (Devil's Throat) which was a spectacular sight Argentina side of the border the bus let me off and waited until I and a few others were stamped into the country and then we continued to the town where I set out to find a hostel as quick as I could so I could go to the Argentina side of the falls. After about an hour I was on the bus to the park where I met Lauren, an American and Ashling who is Irish. Turns out they had just met an hour previous so we formed a nice little group of solo travelers to view the falls together. I cannot write a whole lot about waterfalls (they are what they are) or the town itself. I will say that what I witnessed here was truly a magical sight. The shear size, magnitude, and volume of water being moved by these falls was astounding. The whole park has a thunderous roar throughout and there are rainbows and monstrous clouds of mist shooting into the sky everywhere. The weather was perfect and I was just blown away by the show that Mother Nature put on for me. I took like a I thousand photos and I'll share some here.
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Garganta del Diablo Hopefully they do just an ounce of justice to this truly special place on our planet.
The park has several hundred waterfalls all cascading dramatically off both sides of the canyon walls into the river below. Around every turn I was greeted with more and more incredible views. I just wished I could get that damn TLC song out of my head.
My first night in Argentina I set out to have a proper steak dinner. I ate generous cuts of beef with black pepper sauce that melted in my mouth, fresh baked bread with a red pepper garlic spread (none of that minced junk either, proper cloves in this spread), butter and white cheddar potatoes, and a bottle of Malbec to wash it down with. All for the cost of $26. It was a shame on this night I had no company to share this dinner with but I was reminded of a good friend of mine and the countless meals we've shared together through the years at home and on the road which brought a smile to my face. Joe, you would have loved this place man. Right up your alley.
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