Iguazu
Friday November 17, 2023
After a very early flight with much turbulence and old people coughing, we arrived into the town of Puerto Iguazu on the Argentinian side of the Iguazu River. We met with our driver and he took us to the Iguazu National Park where Phoebe and I immediately signed up for the boat tour.
It took a while for everything to get started, but after a short journey on the road, we walked down a small path to the pier and boarded the boats. We took off at speed up the river; the water had turned a brown colour from the amount of mud that the river had taken on from recent heavy rainfalls. I remember that feeling of awe as the falls slowly came into view. It just kept getting bigger and bigger, the thunderous roar of ten million litres of water rushing over the several cascades, the massive amount of spray hitting us as we drove in and out of the two areas. The sheer force of the falls is truly something you have to experience up close. By the end, we were soaked; and this may have been due to the captain being a bit cheeky by purposely steering through some big waves.
The rest of the day was spent walking the upper and lower trails of the falls. Part of those sections were closed due to damage from the flooding a few weeks ago, which was a pity, and the Devil’s Throat was also inaccessible. The viewpoints along the trails were excellent, and everything was so well placed and built. We also saw many reptiles and coatis!
We had a nice slow start the next day to go to the Brazilian side. Immigration was simple and now I’m at 32 countries visited. We spent a few hours at Parque das Aves, a fantastic bird park by the Brazilian falls. I thought it was so well planned - there’s a single linear route that takes you through a plethora of enclosures and you can really get up and close with some of them. The colours of the parakeets and macaws were absolutely stunning, as was the scarlet ibis.
We walked over to the Brazilian falls park and had lunch, then took the bus to the hiking area. While less impressive than the Argentinian side, the Brazilian side makes up for it with its proximity to the other set of falls and some stunning angles of the Devil’s Throat, which was also unfortunately closed from the flood damage. However, there’s one section where you can practically bathe in the spray of the falls, so I did just that, and got soaked. It was a welcome shower on a humid day that hit 37C.
Our driver took us for a quick tour of downtown, and then we got some food from a supermarket before heading to the airport. We’ve got some rough night flights to Patagonia over the next few hours!
Posted by Jeremy at 2:51am on Friday November 17, 2023 :: 0 comments :: 