Argentina, part 2: Iguazu Falls

- October 15, 2008

Hello again~

And I´m back with the promised pictures and update from our little side trip in Argentina. If you´ve never heard of Iguazu Falls, don´t feel bad, I hadn´t either until Marianella began telling me about them (she had been there once before). I had seen a few of her pictures of her previous trip, but didn´t really have a conception of it until we visited. How to describe it? Words don´t do justice. Pictures don´t do justice. Video can give you some idea, and we´re working on trying to figure out how to link that onto here. Anyway, I will do my best through a few words and pictures to give you an idea. As I stated in the first post, Iguazu Falls serves as a natural border between Argentina and Brazil. When Marianella informed me about Iguazu Falls, I initially thought of one big waterfall. However, as you´ll be able to see in the pictures that follow, it consists of numerous waterfalls, too many to count (and numbering more because of a recent stretch of rainy weather which we were able to avoid).

Tuesday-arrival & boat trip

The flight from Buenos Aires to Iguazu took us about an hour and a half and after being shuttled to our hotel (we stayed in Brazil), we elected to go on a boat tour that took us down two rivers and allowed us to view the countries of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay simultaneously. A pretty quiet day as we prepared for our trip to the waterfalls.

Argentina to the left, Brazil to the right, Paraguay straight ahead:

Wednesday-the Argentina side of Iguazu

The saying goes that you visit the Brazilian side to view Iguazu Falls and you visit the Argentinian side to touch Iguazu Falls. I think that saying should be amended to state that on the Argentian side, the Falls touch you. There are three levels that you are able to visit on the Argentinan side-at the top, in the middle, and towards the bottom. We started at the top and we were probably soaked within five minutes from the mist crashing off of the waterfalls. As we proceeded towards the middle and the bottom, we continued to get occassional showers thrown upon us, and we finished our day with an "adventure boat trip" where we were seated with many other brave tourists in a power boat that was driven as close to the Falls as possibly, where I received the most thorough shower I have ever received in my life. Our tour guide had told us that if we chose this option, our bodies would be 99% wet at the finish; he lied, it was a full 100% soaking. We retreated that night to the hotel for dinner and a very solid night of sleep.

This translates to "Devil´s Throat" (gulp!):

The first of many soakings:

Thursday-the Brazilian side of Iguazu

The Brazilian side held true to the saying-it was a beautiful opportunity to gaze out upon the full majesty of these waterfalls. That doesn´t mean we didn´t get wet too-I think it´s impossible to avoid if you step out onto any of the catwalks that allow closer access. Regardless, it was well worth it, as we were really able to soak up the entire waterfalls this day (you can´t see the entire waterfalls from the Argentinian side). One comment as you look at the pictures-it appears that the water is quite dirty. Some of it is dirt, attributed to the heavy rains, but also it has to do with the content of iron ore in the soil around the Falls. So that coppery brown look doesn´t mean it´s polluted.