We are awaken at 7am on the bus for breakfast, we are almost
in Puerto Iguazu! Breakfast is not the greatest but does the job. We arrive and Ann wants to take the taxi to
our hostel which we booked a couple of days ago. I am sure the hostel is just around the
corner but we get into the taxi anyway.
Sure enough we turn the corner and get out of the taxi 20 peso’s
lighter. We have tagged along John the
American who was on our bus, he is coming to the hostel as he hasn’t booked
anywhere. This hostel was a disgrace so
no surprises that there was space for John.
We leave our bags at the hostel to get ready to go to the Brazilian side
of the falls. We thought we would give
it a day to think about whether we were going to change hostels. We get to the bus station and book our return
bus tickets to the Brazilian side of Iguazu Falls. Well Ann and I book the tickets, John can’t
come. Since he is from the United States,
he needs a Visa to enter Brazil and it costs a bit of money to get this. In hindsight though he could have gone
through to Brazil. When we boarded the
bus, we drove ten minutes and arrived at the Argentinean immigration, went
through customs and the normal process and then jumped onto the bus. We then crossed the river separating the two
countries and drove straight through Brazilian immigration. I thought this was kind of strange but then I
had another though that we might get stamped into Brazil when we get off the
bus at the entrance to the waterfall.
Well I was wrong. We arrived at
the entrance and bought our tickets (R$41 each) boarded the bus that drove us
through the national park for 20 minutes and we were at the walkway to the
falls. In theory we were illegally in
Brazil. I can understand customs not
wanting to go through the process of everyone in Argentina wanting to go to
Brazil for the day to see the waterfalls but why do we get stamped out of
Argentina? Argentina must have strict rules requiring everyone to go through
customs, which is fair enough.
We exit the bus and as soon as we get off, we can hear the
thunder sounding Iguazu falls. The
sounds they were making, even from a distance, was incredible. We then got our first glimpse of the falls,
albeit from quite a distance. It was
incredible. Really put the waterfalls in
Banos, Ecuador that we went on about to shame, this was a sight and sound to
see and hear! There are so many
waterfalls, and the Iguazu river must be in flood because the water is very
dirty and the waterfalls are a lot more powerful than what we have seen in the
pictures. We walk down a path specifically designed to capture the best images of the falls. We start from a fair way back but as we continue down the path we get closer and closer to the water. The Brazilian side of the falls gives a good panoramic scene as the majority are on the Argentinean side of the river. We do however reach the end of the path and the might and fury of the waterfall is evident. We are getting very wet with the spray, the spray is that evident Ann mistakes it for a rain shower. We arrive at a platform and the falls are in touching distance. The water is falling down at a ferocious pace and we cannot get to the edge of the platform or we will be drenched (and probably knocked over by the force). We walk around the area for a bit and then decide to go onto a platform which goes over the river and gives a view over a water fall but is also below another waterfall! Very hard to accurately explain. I have no idea when or how this platform was constructed but they did a good job. As long as you don’t mind getting soaked (as we did, with our passports in our money belt that were well covered) you can have a great time on this platform. The views of the waterfalls are spectacular and you are so close to the ferocious water. The platforms are not for hooligans though as if you fell in the water, no one would be jumping in to save you.
When we were soaked and a bit cold, we then went up a lift
that took us to a fantastic panoramic view of the falls from high above. We got some photos up here and then as we
were walking off the platform we got our first glimpse of some animals we were
told about called .Coatis. These pests were climbing in and out of
rubbish bins looking for anything to eat, we had even heard of a lady who had a
chocolate bar in her pocket and the pest climbed up her leg, pulled the
chocolate out of her pocket and started eating it. It is fair to say we did not bring any food
with us. We then had some lunch and
caught the next bus into town. Once
again on our way back to Argentina we did not stop at Brazilian immigration but
got stamped back into Argentina.
On arrival in Puerto Iguazu we walked back to
our hostel and decided to change. We
thought we would wait for John and tell him what we were doing (since he
couldn’t come with us to Brazil he went to the Argentinean side of the
falls. We would have joined him but we
have been told that the Brazilian side of the falls has to be done first or
otherwise you won’t appreciate them as much – this is because the Argentinean
side is better, apparently!). When he
got back, he agreed that we should change so we did. As we were walking out the hostel manager was
not happy, but we told him our concerns and we expected a decent, liveable hostel!
It was cheap, but you can see why it was cheap!
We walked to a new hostel a couple of blocks down the road and then went
out for dinner. Another steak and red
wine of course. We then went to a bar
down the road where the owner of the restaurant we dined at gave us free drink
vouchers. Of course there had to be a
catch, we had to buy a drink before we got the free one. That was fine though. Our free drink was a caipirinha, which is a
Brazilian alcoholic drink. We had been
told about this drink by our Brazilian friend who we met on the Inca Trail (now
living in USA), who said it was fantastic.
Well she wasn’t lying, it was a very nice drink, and we were drinking it
in Argentina! After a good chat and a
couple of drinks we went back to the hostel.
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