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We took an overnight bus from Curitiba to Foz do Iguazu which is the town on the Brazilian side of the falls and from there hopped straight on a bus to take us over the border to Puerto Iguazu on the Argentinian side. We´d decided to go straight to the Argentinian side as we´d been told it was much better. It felt strange having completed our first country, but exciting to go on to the next. We were sad to leave Brazil, we could have easily spent a year there exploring the never ending and stunning coast line, drinking caiprinhas and making friends with the locals. An awesome country we´d definitely return to.
We were pretty tired when we finally got to our hostel, it had been a bit of a sleepless night. We had chosen the cheap seats on the bus, it was a bit cramped and the people in front of us were fully reclined so we each had a strangers head in our laps for the night which was unpleasant.
We only had two days here and didn´t want to waste a day catching up with sleep so decided to explore the town. Puerto Iguazu looked
fairly poor and underdeveloped which surprised us; we thought it would be more geared towards tourism since it has one of the Natural Travel Wonders of the World (according to Wikipedia) on its doorstep. The owner of the hostel suggested that we go and see the triple frontier which is where three rivers meet and divide Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. You can see all 3 countries from this one point. Typically it took far longer than it should have to find due to us taking several wrong turns along the way, however we made it and it was lovely.
That night we decided to check out the steak restaurant next door to our hostel, meant to be the best in town. We went for some drinks first and bumped into some people from our hostel so we all went for dinner together. The steak was the best we've ever had, so thick and juicy, and the Malbec wine was a perfect accompaniment. We all agreed that we should cook in the next day as "proper" travellers shouldn´t be dining out in such a swanky establishment.
We got up slightly later than planned the next morning because we were
hungover. We quickly dragged our corpses out of bed and ran to the bus stop to catch the bus to the Falls. After standing for half an hour a bus pulled up which had a vaguely familiar word in the window, Cataratas. It was only after it had driven off and we saw a picture of the Iguazu Falls on the back of it that we realised, Cataratas means falls. Ooops!
We eventually got there and despite our sore heads were very excited. The park has four trails which guide you around the different views of the falls. We did the Upper Circuit first. You can hear the falls way before you see them and when you turn the last corner and see them for the first time it´s breathtaking. They are beautiful, vast and powerful; truly amazing. It is hard to describe them in words but it is fair to say that they have to be one of the most awe-inspiring sights on the planet.
We then started the Lower Trail which looks at the same part of the falls but from below. We hadn´t got very far when Lil took a very bad fall down some
slippery steel stairs. We tried to carry on but Lils ankle was turning bulbous and blue much like an elephants so we went to the Medico to get it checked. Nothing was broken just a horrid bruise to look forward to. We went and finished the lower circuit which was even better than the Upper as you can get so close to the falls that you get completely soaked. We were also delighted to meet a team of wild Coatis who were hanging out around the food hall stealing peoples lunches.
Saving the best until last, the Devils Throat is the largest of the falls and the most spectacular. Lil managed to hobble the 1km walk over the Rio Iguazu bridge to get to it. The river is so calm right up until a couple of meters before then the earth collapses and the water plummets into a bottomless pit creating a spray and roar that can be seen and heard from Jupiter! Incredible.
After a really fun day we decided the only way to top it off would be to re visit the swanky steak restaurant next door. We were careful not to let our friends from
the night before see us as we guiltily splurged for the second night in a row. Much like the falls words can't describe how amazing the steaks were. The rumours about Argentina are true.
Next stop Rosario.
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anonymous
non-member comment
please can you tell me a funny story?