Campo Grande - Puerto Iguazú

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Having arrived back in Campo Grande at 7pm, we had an hour to hunt down the guy who was looking after our bus tickets whilst we were in the Pantanal before our night bus left. Thankfully we found him in good time and were swiftly on our way to Foz de Iguaçu. We decided last minute that it would be ashame to miss Iguazu Falls from the Brazilian side so left our bags at the bus stop and jumped on a local bus to the National Park. The view was spectacular, offering a panoramic view of all the waterfalls (there are loads!) as well as an upclose view of one section. The visit didn´t take long so we were back on the road in no time heading for the border. We got into Argentina late afternoon arriving in the nearest border town Puerto Iguazú. Most hostels seemed full which was a little worrying, but after declining an offer to sleep in a scrapyard with some hippies and a little sniff about the town we found a nice little place in the centre. By this stage we were both pretty exhausted but were delighted to be in yet another country!

We got up early the next day and headed out on one of the first buses to visit the falls from the Argentinian side. They were amazing! We headed onto the upper walkways first and then worked our way down, enabling us to see each section from the top and the bottom. There were butterflies everywhere we looked with some of the most amazing colours on them and also hundreds of cheeky little coaties (racoon-like) who are out to get everyone´s lunch. Lower down we got a boat over to the central island, which we had been able to see all of from the Brazilian side the day before. The shear quantity of water was awesome, I for one finding it hard to believe these things haven't ever run out! After being attacked by a group of coaties, we headed back up to do a 3km walk to a little waterfall where you could swim, which was a nice lunch stop but not that impressive after seeing the the main falls. Finally we headed back to the main area to get the train out to the final walkway that took us over the river to see the grande finale, Garganta del Diablo. the walk alone took about 20 minutes and the view was spectacular with lots of water birds around and the odd sighting of multi-coloured fish. We finally got there and, despite the hundreds of tourists hanging off the railings and snapping away, it really was beautiful and so vast! We got back to our hostel early evening feeling utterly spent but very pleased we had finally seen them. We decided we would stay one more night in Puerto Iguazú and head out to Buenos Aires the following day on a nightbus where once again we would catch up with Dave and Ollie.

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