Today is what we made the special trip to Iguazu for - to see one of the worlds greatest waterfalls. The park is based in a National Park that spans both the Brazil and Argentina sides. We are seeing the falls from the Argentina side which has a bit more to do and enables you to see me from the bottom and the top. We set off at 7.30am for the short drive into the park.
The plan for today is he Grand Adventurer tour which involves taking a ride rough the jungle to the river (bottom left on the map below) and then getting a speed boat up the river towards the falls. There are then a number of trails throughout the park to explore the falls from different angles.
I didn't know Iguazu was voted one of the new seven wonders of nature. We are not doing too badly with this list having seen four of the seven.
We get on board a converted old Mercedes truck for the 5km journey to the river. It's a fun ride and we are glad we didn't have to trek it in the end as the heavy rain from the night before had turned the road into a mud river.
We get to test our ponchos out very early into the day as it started to rain.
Making our way down to the river to get the boat.
If anyone has ever wondered what four giant condoms wearing life jackets looked like then here you are...
We take off up the river and it literally feels that way, the river is pretty strong and has rapids in places as we get closer to the falls but the boat rips through them with ease. We are already getting pretty wet through from the spray which makes it easier to see.
So is what it feels like to have massive boobs. Quite restrictive rally!
This is by far the best way to approach the falls as it is like you discover them yourselves as the river bends around and he first of the hundreds of falls are unveild before our eyes (or at least in the split seconds we can keep them open due to the spray).
We get to see the first main set of falls and it is truly spectacular. I have never seen so many waterfalls.
This part of the river is in a U-shape so we explore a around the area on the boat and get some great pics.
Then we get the instruction to put the cameras away and in the big waterproof bags they provide for you. Time to go in!!! The driver revs the engines and goes full throttle against the powerful current flowing away from the falls to get us right up to where the water is plunging into the river below. We get absolutely soaked as the front of the boat actually goes under the falls. We are so glad we got tipped off about this and purchased ponchos. There were four other tourists laughing at us earlier for putting our ponchos on - we well and truly had the last laugh here. They were soaked. There was so much water even we were socked underneath our ponchos and as Nat hadn't sealed her bag properly her change of clothes was soaked as well. Seriously good fun though. We then go around the corner and get thrust into another one of the falls just in case we we not wet enough already.
Rather wet getting off the boat.
As the sky starts to turn blue the light starts to make the waterfalls look even better.
We then set off on the first of the three trails to explore around the bottom of the waterfalls and manage to get right up to some of the smaller ones a bit further downstream.
We get to see just how close you get to the waterfalls when the next boat appears ready for a dunking.
Closer.
It gets pretty far in. About as close as you could get without the water most probably sinking the boat.
The walk ways through the thick jungle to the different waterfalls are lovely - there must be over 30km of metal and wooden walk ways in total, often suspended over the water and rocks as you walk across them.
We then stop for a bite to eat and a drink that turned out to be far more eventful than we would have imagined. Everything started OK...
But we did wonder about the signs on every table... Turns out to be an understatement! It should have read "beware aggressive giant rat like creatures who steal your food and all but attack you in packs whilst you eat".
It started off as one and everyone was mesmerised by this creature. Then his ten other mates descend on the eating areas and havoc ensues. One family lose their food which then gets fought over and torn apart by about ten of them. They start fighting and shrieking as they apparently get very aggressive over food.
Hilariously one then jumps up on the table and before we can shoe it away licks the top of Nige's Coke bottle then proceeds to jump off the table and have a massive dump in the middle of a restaurant that another tourist them immediately walks through. It's like a comedy sketch as we are trying to dodge these things and protect our stuff at the same time. Exhausted we decided it was time to move on.
There were some huge ants around the place. This was about the size of my thumb and having a great time pulling some very sticky lava apart with all it's mig and eating it.
We then make our way to the second trail which is a 2km walk along the top of the waterfalls. There are so many rivers following across this it is like a giant bridge over the water right along the edge. Really great to see and fantastic views of the falls.
As the sun is beaming now there are rainbows all around as it shines through the mist of these great falls.
And then we stumble across a great surprise - a caiman just lying there under one of the walk ways as if he is waiting for some unsuspecting tourist to fall in or foolishly go for a dip in the gorgeous pools.
On to the next viewing platform.
After loving the top of the falls it's time to go to he third and last trail - the one that takes us to Garganta del Diablo - the biggest and most impressive of the waterfalls here. To get here we need to get a little train like the ones you get at Disney Land to the other side of the park and then make a 1km trek literally across vast open spans of water, all making their way to the falls. Walking across his you now understand where all the water comes from to keep these falls flowing.
As we walk to them we see some great wildlife - lots of fish, another caiman, thousands of butterflies (luckily Nat's fear has almost been conquered by now) and this little fella. This has got to be one of my favourite pics of the day.
Disappointingly we don't see any toucan's. Making our way to the falls. As we approach there are huge plumes of mist being pumped high into sky by the power of the falls.
As we reach the falls we see the huge gap appear in the earth as with the water dropping into it deep below.
The mist is really impressive.
I don't think I have ever seen so much water in my life. It looks seriously impressive wih the millions of litres of water flowing over the edge.
After, we make our way back across the walk ways in the now searing heat and get the train back. We get picked up at 3.30 and hit the gorgeous pool at our hotel again.
We spend the rest of the afternoon lounging around the pool having a few beers getting splashed by kids. That evening we head into town again, trying to find a restaurant that was closed and ended up at one called Quita Penas which looked nice from the outside but didn't turn out so good. Even me, the most unfussy person in the world when it comes to food had to send my steak back. Unfortunately the chef disagreed that the steak was the worst one I have ever had amd refused to knock it off the bill. After a few arguments which ended up in me asking for my steak back that hadn't returned (and was subsequently in the bin) I had to face defeat and token gesture of 30 pesos off the bill we leave. No tip for the waitress.
Time to move on again tomorrow and to finally meet Eric who will be waiting for us in Montevideo and in the air as we speak. Very excited but I am concerned about who is going to comment so enthusiastically and consistently on the blog while she is with us??? Any volunteers??
No comments:
Post a Comment