The falls border three countries... Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. We'd be visiting the first two, being the main attractions.
We took the local bus into the town and with no hostel booked, we went in search for one. I decided one one, the first I've chosen the whole holiday - my wife does a masterful job at this so I usually watch from the sideline. Phew, it passed. And it had really good wifi in the room - many places have had no wifi or only available in the reception area.
The hostel told us about a rodizio grill, Buffalo Bronco, two blocks away where we could get a discount and great food. More about that great meal in a separate post.
We caught the 120 local bus to arrive just before the national park opens. We entered the bus station correctly through the ticket booth this time - yesterday we walked in on the side of the road that's a very open entrance, but were descended upon in a Royal Marine like attack by the security guard. Can't believe how cheap the busses are.
Our backpacks were with us as we'd head straight over the border to Argentina. After a good game of tetris, we puzzled our 2 backpacks, 1 daypack and the rolled up painting from Salvador into the one locker.
An open top bus took us to the start of the one kilometre walk along the falls to wards Garganta do Diablo (Devil's Throat). From the first lookout area, the falls were impressive. The river flows down and then along the side of the drop points creating the cataratus (falls) a good kilometre long.
As we walked along the trail the waterfalls grew in size (width) and ferocity. specialist boats offering water tours were dwarfed by the powerful cataratus. We could see people one the Argentina side who were mere specs, but have real perspective on the height of the falls.
Along the path, we saw a 2 meter black and yellow tree snake some tourists had spotted, before the The Devil's Throat appeared - quite fitting. It is truly impressive.
A viewing platform is built out over the falls half way up. We covered the camera in a plastic bag, put the waterproof cover on the day pack and headed out on the platform. The water crashes down and creates a mist or even rain that hits you side on. In a couple of minutes we were drenched. With the mist, amazing rainbows are created with the sun penetrating through.
Still soaked we walked on to the lunch area next to the start of the falls. Initially an exciting find, the raccoon like animals quickly turned into the devil's pets as they tormented those having lunch. We could see how this happened with some visitors giving them food where clear signs police against it. One crazy mother held her baby next to these wild animals for a close up photo!
Instead of catching the bus straight away, we walked back along the train to get to see the great waterfalls and glad we did as we got tom see another perspective as we walked.
We negotiated the taxi driver down to our expected tariff to drive us through the Brazilian boarded to the Argentinean border (great tip from the hostel instead of taking bus after bus through each stage). Before long I was standing on Argentinean soil! A local bus that lucking accepted Bolivian Reals took us into the Argentinean side town of Puerto Iguazú.
Mands took control of hostel booking again, booking us into a small converted house with a pool. After posting off same items to the UK (including Miguel, the painting from Salvador, I'd accidentally left at the bank 5 minutes earlier), we cooled off in the pool.
Now refreshed, we were ready for our first Argentinian parrilla. These grills are served on a steel tray with coals underneath to keep it hot and include pork sausage, black pudding, beef ribs, chicken, kidneys and stuffed small intestine - all went down well except for the stuffed small intestine, one bight was enough as I couldn't work out what it was stuffed with! Parrilla's are available throughout Argentina, but will be sticking to straight meat form here out.
Iguazú Falls day, Argentinean side day. A local bus took us out and we joined the short entrance queue. Good to see there are discounted rates for Argentinians and interestingly, further discounts for those living in the province and also discounts for neighbouring countries. South Africa really needs to be doing more of this.
You have to take the world's slowest train to the central station and then a mother train to the Devil's Throat. We met Nick, a young South African doctor in the queue and had a good catch up with him and his interesting national service stories about bullets and machetes.
The Devil's Throat was heaving with people. We shuffled along to get views and for photos. The different view further shows the river demonstrating it's power. The water spray here was much stronger than the Brazilian side so we were soaked in seconds.
A train back to central station and we headed out along the trails towards the Jungle Tour start point. This was the boart ride that that takes you right up to the falls.
The boat was the largest semi-rigid inflatable I'd ever seen. It had seating for forty people and the captain had a specially built two meter hight platform at the back of the boat to get his advantage point. We were taken to two waterfall points first for photo time and then right into the spray and the waterfall base. What power! We had to close our eyes at stages with the water lashing across. The closer he got to the falls, the more the boat would cheer, egging him on. It's a short powerful 15 minutes, but worth every Peso!
In the afternoon we walked the upper circuit, along the top of the waterfalls and again incredible rainbows encircled each waterfall.
The final waterfall had an unexpected "treat" waiting, an older man was sitting in his underwear, legs crossed, meditating and rocking forwards and backwards. Of course I snuck up and had a photo in front of him.
Now which side is better to visit? It's worth visiting both, but not to sit on the fence on this one, I'd choose to walk on the Brazilian side if only doing one.
Back at the hostel we cooled off again with a swim, Mands had her last play with the kitten an we headed off for a pizza, before the start of our longest, coldest, hungriest bus ride ever...
Awesome photo - looks just like the picture books. Gerry
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