17-18.09.24
I have, perhaps rather foolishly, let this rather a long time to write up. Practically three weeks! All rather silly and entirely my fault for being a) busy and b) lazy with regards to writing as I go. I’m going to have to change format on the next leg of travel.
But anyway, here we are! The text for this post will be relatively short but let’s be honest, Iguazú Falls is gonna be all about the photos.
I’ve wanted to go to Iguazú since I heard about them, probably about six years ago. Five and a half years ago, I went to Brazil for the first time, but didn’t get to go to the Falls. Rather naively, I thought it was day-trip-able from Rio. It really isn’t.
We did two of the three sides of Iguazú, the Argentinian followed by the Brazilian. Alas, we had to leave out the Paraguayan. We arrived in Argentinian Iguazú relatively late, and just got a taxi straight to our digs for the night. The taxi driver, rather usefully, had all of his details up in the taxi itself and explained how he could do the national park drop off as well as take one over into Brazil. All in all, a very useful and civilised service. Also reasonably priced. We took him up on his offer and after some back and forth via WhatsApp and Google translate (other services are available) had it booked in.
We headed to the park early next morning, having pre-booked tickets. There was a short passenger train to the first stop but we walked it, as it was about 300m. Seriously. Anyway, all you really need to know is that we beat the crowds, had a good plan for which circuit walk to do in which order (there are a few) saw some cool wildlife such as monkeys and coaties (little jazzy guys that look like a cross between a raccoon, to whom they are related, and a possum, to whom they are not. I think), birds and innumerate butterflies. I became something of a butterfly whisperer. This became evident just before we walked back along the road that ran alongside the passenger train from the first trails to the final over-the-waterfall trail. What will come next is a massive pile of photos:
As I said, we subsequently got back in the taxi of the guy who picked us up from the airport, and he took us to Brazil. Or rather, he didn’t. He had a doctor’s appointment so he took us to his wife, we transferred cars, paid the man and then his wife took us to Brazil (typical men, eh?).
It was, by far, the easiest border crossing we’ve had, my only regret is that we didn’t get Argentinian passport stamps when either entering or leaving the country, so they’re the only ones we’re missing. We had dinner at a Japanese restaurant (I had a very nice Ramen, or Lamen as they’re called here) and we had an early night. I immediately realised that my language skills were now useless. Even though I had been to Brazil before, I had entirely forgotten over the previous eight weeks that my Spanish was going to become more or less useless in the final two.
The experience of the Brazilian side of Iguazú Falls was shorter and relied more on buses. What it lacked in hikes it made up for in views though; having walked over the falls the previous day (on well maintained paths, don’t get any ideas about me being intrepid) it was fantastic to see it all from the other side, and see just how far we walked! We also got right up close and personal to some of the Falls and the swallows that zoom in and out of them. Again, incredible. Please see many photos:
We finished off with a little walk trail through some forest near the big entrance/exit/giftshop area and exited. You may think that was the end ouf our day, but WAIT! There’s MORE! Very close to the Brazilian-side park of Iguazú Falls is a ‘Bird Park’. Those of you from Farnham or the surrounding areas overlapping Surrey and Hampshire may be thinking of the place of wonder and childhood delight that is “Bird World”. This was, my friends, SO much better. We saw many, many birds. Water birds, flappy birds, big birds, small birds, bright birds, dull birds, quiet birds, LOUD birds. So many. A highlight for me was the hummingbirds, right at the end. The Macaws were also pretty cool, even if they were being bothered by some idiot Brazilian woman who didn’t get bitten by a macaw and I am still annoyed about it because she definitely deserved it, the meddlesome bessom. Who wears all white to a bird park? She could have at least been shat on. Anyway, I digress into a pit of rage about one woman who bothered the birds. The birds themsevles were majestic.
After birds, we collected our bags from the pousada and headed to the airport. Next stop: São Paolo!