"... makes Niagara look like a trickle ..."

Trip Start Oct 16, 2008
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Trip End Apr 16, 2009


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Flag of Argentina  , Litoral,
Monday, December 15, 2008

Initially the bus trip promised to be the most comfortable to date, with super-wide seats, food and drink service, and the fact we had chosen to sit downstairs to avoid being thrown from side to side on the corners.  There was even a glorious Chaco sunset to send us off.  But soon enough we discovered our run of bad luck with buses was to continue.  The air-conditioning was playing up so we were either sweating or freezing.  They couldn't get the audio quite right on the movie, either too quiet when there was dialogue or too loud when there was music or action.  Then someone lost control of their bladder on the way to the bathroom and peed on the stairs.  To cover the smell, the bus hostess (or whatever she might be called) sprayed copious amounts of air freshener all over the bus.  I was just about ready to vomit.  But the seats were the comfiest yet and we did manage some sleep once they got the aircon figured out, so I guess it wasn't all bad.  We arrived in Puerto Iguazu in the wee hours of the morning, found a hostel very quickly (they are abundant), dumped our bags and went out for coffee and medialunas.

Within a few hours of arriving in Puerto Iguazu, we had achieved our first objective and acquired our visas for Brazil.  The consulate was a poky little office in the converted garage of a house around the corner from the hostel, very handy, and very efficient.  While there we heard the sob story of an Aussie man and his two teenage sons who, within an hour of arriving in Buenos Aires, had their daypack stolen from beneath the table they were sitting at, with their passports inside.  Not only did they have to replace the passports, at great expense and with great difficulty (having to get approval from the mother in Singapore!), but also the Brazilian visas they had waited three weeks for in Australia.  This elicited another story from an Aussie girl who had been mugged at an ATM in Puerto Iguazu the previous night, to the tune of about US$200.  The bandit simply pushed her over and grabbed the cash from her hand.  Needless to say, on hearing all this we were counting our blessings nothing of the sort has happened to us.  Yet.  The only thing we have had go missing is a little pair of binoculars, and we couldn't rightly say when or how that happened, whether stolen from our backpack or carelessly left behind when packing.  We hadn't even used them once.

That afternoon, after siesta of course, we walked the few kilometres through town and out the other side to the edge of Argentina and the monuments at the triple frontier.  When the Iguazu River flows into the Parana there is a T-junction where three countries meet: Argentina on the south bank of the Iguazu, Brazil on the north, and Paraguay on the west bank of the Parana.  It was very cool.  On the way back we couldn't resist the lure of live music and cold beer at a tango bar, so stopped for "a couple" at a sidewalk table and watched the town go by.  Patrick even got up and danced.

Much to our surprise the pool at the hostel, which was filthy on our arrival but with the promise of being cleaned that afternoon, had actually been cleaned!  So we spent the better part of the evening in it, and it was lovely.  That night there was a barbecue at the hostel, and we made some new friends over a delicious Argentinian feast of beef, sausage, salad, bread, and wine.  Patrick took a liking to a young Aussie bloke who was kind enough to "play" pool with him, a game which included painting each other's faces with the blue chalk and dancing on the table.

We got a pretty slow start the next day and after a magnificent breakfast (the first hostel we've come across that does eggs!) we decided to just take it easy instead of going to the falls, which we figured weren't going anywhere.  I really can't remember doing anything other than eating, sleeping, reading, and swimming in the pool.  No doubt there was a bit of Lego thrown in there.

The next day we were well-rested and ready for the big one.  Off to the Cataratas!  We caught the little local bus the 20-odd kilometres to the national park entrance, grabbed a map and figured out how we might possibly see everything without having to come back a second time.  We had prepared Patrick for the amount of walking he would have to do (the Run for the Cure and the Terry Fox Run combined!!!!), but we weren't sure a four-year-old could manage it all, especially in the heat.

It was a glorious sunny day with a brilliant blue sky, perfect light for photographs, blazingly hot, and the air thick with humidity fit for a jungle.  We had a feeling we would be impressed by the falls, every guide book and gringo had told us how amazing they are, and when a place gets such rave reviews there is always a danger of it falling short of expectations.  But if anything, Iguazu Falls exceeded them .... they are absolutely magnificent.  I'll let the photos speak for themselves.  Generally we were pretty impressed with the facilities of the national park, they seem to really care about the preservation of the surrounding jungle and have tried to minimise the impact of so many visitors by installing wide concrete trails and extensive boardwalks out over the river to allow you to get close to it safely. 

We spent the day walking the trails through the jungle and over the river to all the various viewpoints, some of which take you up close and personal for a more-than-welcome soaking.  There is an island in the middle of the river where it is safe to swim, so we took the little boat across and spent a couple of hours there eating our picnic lunch, looking at the falls, and cooling off in the river.  We also watched the Argentinian tourists (apparently ignorant of the concept of a national park) feeding ham and cheese sandwiches to the fat, habituated lizards.  Back on the mainland we took the little train (all transport today seems to be little) to the end of the line where you walk along a 1km boardwalk almost to the other side of the massive Iguazu River.  At the end is the enormous Garganta del Diablo (Devil's Throat), a Niagara-type horseshoe waterfall that is by far the biggest of the 275 falls that tumble over the cliffs.  The roar was deafening and the soaking total.

As well as fat, habituated lizards, we saw a coati sniffing garbage cans (think South American raccoon), fish, turtles, copious amounts of brilliantly-coloured butterflies, and lots of different birds, (including some with crazy blue eyebrows and some vulture-type creatures that sit with their wings open).  But the wildlife highlight of the day had to be the hundreds, if not thousands, of swifts which flew like the wind in great flocks, swooping soaring diving around the mist of the Devil's Throat, and returning to roost on the slick rocks under the roaring falls.  We must have watched them for an hour.  All in all, a brilliant day.  Hats off to Patrick's endurance, he didn't complain once and only had to ride on Blair's shoulders for less than an hour and only on the really steep bits.

When we got back to the hostel, we were ready for a beer and Patrick was ready for a swim, so we sat by the pool and watched as he frolicked in the water for the whole evening with a cute little Brazilian girl one year his senior .... I wonder if he'll have the same luck in twenty years time.

We spent one more day in Puerto Iguazu, recovering from the big day at the falls and trying to catch up on the blog (it never ends), doing laundry and swimming, more frolicking with the Brazilian beauty.

Speaking of Brazilian, tomorrow we're crossing the border.
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