Iguazu Falls

Iguazu Falls.  
 Iguazu is a Guarani word for - "Great water" 

Pronounced  "Eeee Gwar-Sue"

Iguazu Falls is supposedly the world's most spectacular waterfall and is one of the New Seven Wonders of Nature. It's a horseshoe shaped gorge, 2.7 ks long and splits Brazil and Argentina.

The Iguazu River flows over the Parana Plateau, resulting in up to 300 waterfalls. Half of the water volume goes through Devils Throat, then falls 82 metres.  

It's subtropical, and February is THE WORST month to visit. Extremely hot and humid. Yay. But this is when I am here so that is when I will see it. 

You really need to see both sides of the falls.  Basically the Argentinian side is where you look down, the Brazilian side you look up.

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After my big day yesterday of flying to Buenos Aires, I climbed out of bed at VERY stupid o'clock to be at the airport in time for my flight to the falls. Boarding was at 4.45AM.....But that is in real time - not South American plane time.  We were on and taxiing by 7.30

View was pretty nice flying in over the rivers at dawn.

I went to the Argentinian side, the top side of the falls. You ride a train that carts you around the park, through light jungle to the various points, and off you go to do your walks. I went straight to "la Garganta del Diablo" - “The Devil's Throat”. AMAZING!  So much water!

 

The boardwalk out to "La Garganta del Diablo" was sensational. A 1.1km walk each way through jungle and across water. Across huge brown rivers, then more like a lake. Giant catfish, butterflies, many birds and many tourists. I even saw a deer thing. And there was humidity. Lots of humidity.

My wonderful new hat - that I really like - went as a sacrifice to the Great Fall Gods! Very sad. In the 30ish minutes it took me to walk back and buy a particularly attractive (NOT) hat, I was baking! It was only 32 degrees but 100% humidity. And virtually no breeze. Tomorrow was going to be 36. Yay.

Giant Catfish live in the river. I guess they have to be giant to survive the current.  This guy was over a metre long.



Plush-Crested Jay.



Coatis (or Coatimundi) were everywhere. They are a member of the Racoon family and so cute! Yes - I did want to bring some home. They have a soft flexible snout. The lower jaw only comes about half way forward.

There nose is squishable and very handy. They are kept as pets……but need to be bottle raised and disciplined. Oh and don’t let your children play with them as they can be violent and do bite!

I spent ages watching them.

After many hours in the park walking and riding the train I headed out to meet my taxi (from the morning).

I saw SO much water.

We then crossed over to Brazil. It was about a one hour trip - including the two stops - one at Argentina border control, the other at Brazil border control. (600 peso) There was a huge storm so it cooled down for about 7 minutes then became even hotter and muggier - How that is possible, I do not know. I had to put sun block on every 30 minutes as it just sweated off.

I was dropped off at my 'very cheap and cheerful' hotel, then headed off to walk to the 'Jungle Bird Park'. It is set in rainforest and was lovely. Muggy but lovely. It’s a botanical gardens and collection of South American Rainforest birds. Pretty impressive. When I first walked in, there were some not nice cages and I nearly left. But further in the cages were lovely.

Never again can we complain about the noise of White Cockies.  Check this lot out. Maccaws! Make sure the volume is up and click below.

This is what happens when you get back from a huge day of touristing and are too hot even for a shower.  Shoes off and into the pool.  Washing and cooling done in one effort!



I missed dinner. 
I got out of the pool and was ready for early dinner - 6pm.  But that doesn't happen in Brazil.  So I slept instead.  Maybe tomorrow I will get some food! Lucky I have my stash of nuts and apricots.

Tomorrow I'm off to the Brazil side of the falls. 

Sunday 15th

I slept well on my hard bed and got up at a sensible time of 8am. Breakfast was horrible!  But oh well.

It has some "western breakfast foods" - scrambled eggs that probably win the price as the worst. And  big bowl of chopped up hotdogs in sauce! And cakes.  So many cakes.

Then off to Iguazu Falls, Brazil side for 9am opening and a big day of adventures.

First - a helicopter ride over the Falls.

It was $100US and was really amazing. It was a huge 7 seater - and Yay, I got a window seat. And when I say amazing I really mean Amazing!

The Helicopter base was just outside the park, so I headed in ……… after about 45 min in line, and onto the bus that takes you to the different sites.

What a good business these guys had. You paid, got a number, and waited. The queue was about 30 people long at opening time and the chopper ran all day!

These falls are spectacular. They just keep going and going.

The big 'U' shaped part is "La Garganta del Diablo" - The Devil's Throat where I was yesterday. Huge! You don't get a real idea of the size from the Argentinian side. There are hundreds of falls scattered around. Some tiny. Some huge. 
AMAZING.

See the boardwalk way to the Devil's Throat that I walked yesterday.

Straight to the famous boat ride under the falls - and it to was amazing. It started with a jeep thing ride through the jungle, then a walk, then into the boat.

'

The jungle was beautiful - and so much cooler! They have Puma's and Jaguars - but we didn't see any. They are very shy and nocturnal. We did see one of the live cams for watching them at night though.

At the boat you stripped off to the level you wanted to get wet. Some people in swimmers, others dressed in plastic bags (coats). Damn. We were sweating like piggies in normal clothes. Don't know how they managed in their portable saunas. And yes they all said they were wet after the falls. Probably all sweat. I wore all but my shoes - and was dry within 15 minutes.

It was a 15 minute trip up the river against a huge current. Our boat had 2 x 200 horse engines and they both worked hard on the way up. All the web sites talked about going through Level 5 rapids. Sure thinks I...the scale only goes up to Level 7. Well.....you should have seen some of the said rapids. Pressure waves nearly 2 metres high. At the worst point the boat seemed to be stuck and couldn't get through the narrowest, strongest part. Next to a huge rock and pressure wave. We took about two minutes to get through - even being pushed backwards a small amount. I'm sure it was all a show for the tourists. Fun though.

And so pretty. The river banks were made of amazing rock.

And then there they were. Iguazu Falls. Huge. The photos doesn't really give an indication of size.  Our boat was much smaller then the rock in the middle of the river.

We went under the waterfall - and got wet.

Totally wet. So much fun. The water was like a fire hose. So hard it almost hurt. Definitely hurt your eyes.

We all squealed and whoops with joy. The floor of the boat had about 150m of water in it.

The jungles were full of butterflies. All colours and sizes.

Such an amazing trip.

The park bus and went up to the tourist area just opposite the Devil's Throat.

I meet some more Coatis today. Called Coatimundi in Brazil. 

Then I got mugged by one.

I had been carrying around nuts and apricots etc for my food when I had no time to go for real food.

I put my backpack down to take some photos and up walked a big sleek fatty.

He leapt on my bag, I laughed and told him there was no food in there - just as I remembered. At the same time he got his nimble little paws up, pulled at the closed zipper and stuck his very dexterous snout it and grabbed my food. Fat piggy.

I yelled at him to stop, and pulled at my bag, then saw the glint in his eyes - more of a "crazy eyes" then a cheeky glint. I yield to him. I was not going to wrestle him for it. He was happy. Off he went with his TWO bags of food.

Absolutely gorgeous animals. But after seeing the "crazy eyes".

I shall not bring one home!

I also saw a native deer - Red Brocket Deer.

Down to another amazing look out, out on to the walkways and soaking wet again! So worth it. The place is stunning. It was a five story high observation deck with more amazing walkways out into the falls. Of course I went out again and got soaked again.

Such an amazing place. The amount of water that flows past is phenomenal. 

My taxi driver was waiting on time at the arranged spot, so back through the Brazil border and the Argentine border to the airport.

The airport had NO air conditioning. Yuck! And was wild. Two flights for the other airline were cancelled so cross people everywhere. That and no air-conditioning.

Have I mentioned Argentina's people and their love of queuing? If a plane is due to board at 8 - they queue at 7.40. They just line up! Even before the cabin crew arrive. The seats are assigned...but still they strive to be in that queue. No idea why. Maybe I would find out when I am at the end of the line and they say "sorry".

You can pick the tourists as we all sit down until the line is gone, they board. And remember the flights always seems to be late....so on this occasion the line was in tact for over an hour!

I was finally getting to see a tiny bit of Buenos Aires. And was going to get my first meal. I arrived 48 hours ago.

I sat at a street cafe, as at 10pm the temperature was amazing - and ate beef - About 8 tons of it. (Well I ate half of one of the four strips I got).

A man played an accordion, the owner of the restaurant and a lady tangoed. The lady did more Tango.

All the restaurants have Tango. So much so that I didn't end up going to a Tango show.

Welcome to Buenos Aires (pronounced Bwono Sar-res)

Ready for another early morning and my flight dow to Ushuaia.  

TIME TO CLICK ON THE NEXT TAB - USHUAIA.