After two days in Buenos Aires, we flew out to Puerto Iguazu to visit the Iguazu Falls. While I knew it would be amazing, I simply had no idea just how spectacular it would be. Puerto Iguazu town is in the middle of a jungle and basically exists to support tourism to the Iguazu Falls. However, it is a rumbled collection of stuff and looks and feels pretty desolate: broken pavements, stray dogs, tacky souvenir shop after tacky souvenir shop, cheap hostels and dodgy takeaway joints.
Our hotel had a bright yellow sign and looked like one of those dodgy motels in the movies, but actually turned out okay. We even had a pool! Derek was just stoked that we had air conditioning. At 10pm it was still incredibly hot and humid so we were already dreading the heat tomorrow!
After an early start, we took a short, 30-minute bus ride to the Falls. Our plan was to see the Argentinian side today, which you really need a full day for, and the Brazilian side tomorrow, which only takes a couple of hours (depending on what you plan to do).
After reading a few articles about the Argentinian side, we decided to start with the Paseo Inferior – roughly 1.5kms of trails. Inferior does not mean less impressive, but simply indicates the trail runs below the waterfalls through the jungle before it takes you within meters of some of the smaller falls.
We started at about 10.30am when Derek turned to me and said: “I need to apologise upfront. I am going to be grumpy all day because I am HOT and very irritated by all these people.” Oh man, did he stay true to his word… In all seriousness, he had his own – pretty strong – waterfall of sweat and we hadn’t even reached the sunny bits yet…
For a moment, all of this was forgotten as we turned a corner and had our first glimpse of the mighty falls. WOW!! We were both speechless. Millions gallons of water were thundering down a 2.7km wide cliff in 280 streams of water. In the Guarani language, Iguazu means “great water”, but clearly this is a slight understatement by the Guarani as there is little doubt these are the most spectacular falls in the world! There were rainbows everywhere, it was simply magical!
Walking through the jungle, not only did we have a constant view of the waterfalls to our one side, but the jungle itself presented so many surprises it was often hard to decide where to look. Plus, I was convinced I was going to spot a toucan so my eyes were all over the place and thus treated to butterflies, the odd coati (similar to a bandit racoon), super-sized spiders and various birds and insects. And, of course, the almighty falls.
After about two hours we continued onto the Paseo Superior, a short trail that runs along the top of the first few waterfalls. We experienced more jaw-dropping views, but both of us agreed the lower circuit was perhaps slightly more impressive.
As a finale to the day, we boarded a small train that would take us to the heart of the falls – the truly magnificent Garganta del Diablo (Devil’s Throat). It is impossible to describe the power and force of this section of the falls – 1800 cubic meters of water per second hurtles over a semicircle of rock into the misty river canyon below.
In fact, at times it was so misty that we could barely see a thing! It was also pretty crowded, as one would expect; so after about five minutes we decided to head back to the train. At this stage Derek was also near boiling point, or in his words “sweating more than schoolboy on his first date…in a sauna… in a desert… on Mercury (or for those of you who know him, sweating like Gary eating a vindaloo!)”. Enough said.
On our way out we encountered a curious capuchin monkey. They are normally quite shy so we were pretty lucky!
As soon as we got back to the hotel we were in the pool – bliss!! All we needed were a few cocktails and beers.
Derek had one last thing he wanted to see in Puerto Iguazu. Just on the edge of town is the point (in the middle of the Iguazu river) where the borders of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil meet, so we could stand on the cliff edge and see the three frontiers at the same time. Initially I was not too keen to go, but it was actually pretty cool and also quite odd. The topography was the same, the jungle looked the same, the weather was obviously the same (very hot!!) and yet each side had different rules and taxes and custom and patriots.
Paraguay to the left, Brazil to the right and Argentina below our feet
Our plan was to walk through the town and sit down for a cocktail or beer, but Derek was close to boiling point again so we headed straight back to the pool! The air felt extremely thick and was actually difficult to walk through. A huge thunderstorm that evening took some of the pressure off.
Tomorrow we are off to Brazil!
Ok. Maybe not as small as Vic Falls. Absolutely stunning!