The Follow-up (Part 3)
Trip Start
Feb 10, 2006
1
17
32
Trip End
May 31, 2006
Foz Iguazu,
Brazil
Monday, March 27, 2006
I have to clear up before I go any further, that neither Ed or myself are great fans of tour groups. We both rather explore ourselves when we go somewhere but in this case, the group organized to go into the Brazilian side to see the Falls was much cheaper and hassle-free than if we had arranged it ourselves, especially since we couldn't cross the Argentina-Brazil border with the rental car as it did not have international driving permit. That was another totally different price to pay.
We got on the small tour van and soon realized what was the worst part of a tour: having to wait for other people
01 Notice the tour stickers
. We waited for other guests to leave the hotel, some who were running late and other who had problems doing God knows what. Nonetheless, we spent around 2 hours picking up other people in other hotels, playing the same waiting game. I thought it was a complete waste of time, when we could have been having fun somewhere else, but Ed and I amused ourselves quielty making fun of the tour guide who was quite funny indeed. The roaring laughter coming from the back of the dead-silent bus was ours. It might also be interesting to note that all the other people in the bus were elderly couples or middle-aged couples who seemed very serious about the tour. Ed and I then realized it was 100% up to us to make the most of the day.
After all the travellers were on the bus, we finally started our trip and the tour guide, all dressed in green, began to speak on the microphone which wasn't working well at all, so she had to pause herself every few minutes to readjust it. Ed and I were really trying to keep a straight face, but she had such a funny way of speaking and pronouncing words that we couldn't help it. For some wierd reason she did not pronounce the final S's in words, and also had problems conjugating verbs and pronouncing long words. This was not a foreign woman who learned the language only a few years ago, this was a native argentine who just spoke funny
02 Brazilian landscape
. Also, she told us that she would be walking around with a huge green flag so if we got lost she would be able to spot us. The first thing we did after crossing the border was stopping at a large department store meant only for tourists where you could get local souvenirs and things Ed and I really were not interested in. We walked around checking out some of the cheesy, tacky things being sold for excessive prices, and finally settled for buying two Brazilian beers (yes, at 10 in the morning) and waited outside in the sun for everyone to finish spending money. We realized it was time to go back to the van when we saw a big green flag being waved in the sky. We looked at each other, sighed, quietly threw away our beer cans and jumped in the bus.
We finally made it to Foz Iguazu National Park. One of the interesting things I heard our tour lady say was that 80% of the falls were on the Argentine side. Although this sparked up some competitiveness between Argentines and Brazilians in general, the Brazilians boasted that Argentines might have the falls, but they had the view. As we entered the Park and began to see the landscapes, we noticed how completely true this was. The overall view of the falls was amazing.
But how long can you look at something until you become bored? For Ed and I it wasn't long at all
03 Garganta del Diablo
. Not only did we have to follow our tour leader with her green outfit and matching flag, we also had to walk a long distance to keep seeing the same landscape over and over again. There was something missing. Even though it was beautiful, this hike didn't have the magical feel that the Argentine Park had to it. You couldn't hear the rumbling of the water or the spray in your face, there were no butterflies, hardly any lizards, too many people for poorly designed viewing spots, and all the while you were seeing the same thing from far far away. Not our idea of communicating with nature.We did however communicate well with each other. Ed and I became so bored we started playing hide and seek, we took pictures of funny looking tourists and our tour guide, and eventually we just grew tired of having to wait for the entire group every 2 minutes, so we said "to Hell with it" and started walking by ourselves, leaving the large green flag behind us.
We finally came to Garganta del Diablo, which in English means Devil's Throat which is a very suiting name. This isthe most violent point in the entire Iguazu Falls as far as amount and force of water falling. There were platforms on the Argentine side that took you further into the Garganta del Diablo but this year they were eaten away by the river a few months ago after a fierce storm
04 Garganta
. Having said that, it was no longer possible to do the Midnight Moon Tour of the Garganta del Diablo, where on a full moon's night, tours were scheduled to see the falls under the light of the midnight moon. Maybe some other year when the reconstruction is finished. Anyway, here on the Brazilian side, we walked the steel platforms taking us to the Garganta. It was really hard to take pictures because there were people everywhere, and if you were able to get a good shot, you had to hurry because the spray of the water was drenching everything.
Finally we saw the green flag moving in, which meant it was probably time to go. Ed and I made a bathroom stop and continued our tour with the entire group. Next stop: lunch at an all you can eat buffet. When we got there, we realized this restaurant was mainly functional for tourists groups. Not only was the place enormous, seating more than 1000 people, but the tables were arranged for groups of 30 or more. Some tables even had the name of the travel agencies so it was evident the reservations were made beforehand by the agencies. We found our table, and Ed and I who were ravished, were the first to rudely get up and run to the buffet. The salad bar was where I spent most of the time since I didn't really notice any vegetarian food, but I must say the buffet was large enough to feed an African nation
05 Pretty waterfall
. Ed made a staggering 6 trips to the buffet, including 2 desserts. As usual, he made me get his last desert since he was already embarrassed at how many plates he had brought back to the table. Overall, we could hardly move after we were done, I felt a little guilty since this was not at all how I planned to continue my day. Everyone knows that after eating so much, your energy just shuts down and concentrates on your digestion. After our generous lunch (and more waiting on other people at the restaurant parking lot) the tour guide handed our group over to another tour guide who was now joining two groups for the ride to the Itaipú Dam. It was kind of sad to part ways with out green tour guide, she did after all make us laugh more than once.
I wasn't very interested in seeing a Dam, but when I saw the huge bus we were gonna ride in, my face lit up as I reclined on the seat and dozed off. I was awoken by Ed who had also fallen asleep (I could tell by his face even though he denied it, he was only trying to make me feel guilty)as we approached the dam. I must say this was a huge dam. Apparently it was the biggest in the world, but not for long since the Japanese had started construction of a bigger one somewhere else. In any case, it had such large dimensions it's not even possible to describe it. The tour guide didn't mention it, but Ed and I were sure you could see it from Space. We felt so small and unimportan.
We took a few pictures, listened to the guide, and went back into the bus for the long ride back to Argentina, back to Misiones. Ed and I fell asleep once again on the bus all the way to the hotel, where we were miraculously woken up to descend
06 The Green Flag
. We took a dip in the pool with a few beers we bought at the bar and watched how the sun went down, and all the night bugs started to appear. Crickets, roaches, beetles, fireflies, lantern flies....when you're that close to the jungle you can't expect to not find any bugs, even if it's in your hotel.
We decided to order a pizza from room service and eat in. We were too tired to find somewhere decent to eat so we stayed in our room and watched some cable TV. Ed suddenly decided to take a night car ride in the jungle road. Since we had good music in the car and his idea didn't include walking or jogging I agreed.
We took the road that led to the National Park. We were amazed that there was no one at the gates and the entrance was wide open so we drove in and parked hidden away just in case a security guard came around. We sat there drinking beer and watching the stars. It's amazing how different the night sky looks in a big city. You don't see half as many stars and they're not half as bright as when you're in a less polluted place. If it were up to me, I would have slept in the car watching the sky, but we drove back to the hotel to get a good night's sleep.
We decided that we had make up for the time wasted that day on our Brazilian tour. Even though we did have fun with each other and we made the most of the day as we had set out to do, I would have preferred spending more time hiking in the other unexplored circuits of the Argentine National Park which was much more enjoyable, and that was precisely what we had in mind for the day after.
