The magic of Iguazu

November 20 -24:

After another long, but comfortable ride on a "cama bus" (about 18 hours), we arrived in the town of Iguazu, known as Puerto Iguazu. We had to take another bus to our hostel, a Hosteling International hostel - the cheapest we could find near the town center and with a pretty decent outdoor pool! We knew we were going to start heading towards warmer territory after leaving Buenos Aires, so the hostel pool was definitely an attraction.

Although most of the restaurants were already closed for lunch, we managed to find one with a front patio that was open. I ordered my first hamburger since we left the U.S., thinking that I would be getting a pretty nice grass-fed beef burger. Afterall, Argentina is a pretty big exporter of beef, so it made sense for me to try some in this country. Unfortunately, much to my dismay, the hamburger was not very good. It consisted of a very thin beef patty topped with a slice of cheese and ham (quite typical, as I found out later). The patty, however, looked like it was made from processed beef and it was totally tasteless. I'm assuming, I just hit upon the wrong restaurant.

At our hostel, we were given a map and told about the "meeting of the three frontiers" known as the "Hito Tres Fronteras". We ventured through the town and out to the outskirts to see what this was about. Indeed, we saw the meeting of the Iguazu and Parana rivers at the point where they divide the boundaries of the three countries: Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. It was a unique vista for both of us. In the meantime, while taking photos, a man from Puerto Iguazu approached us. He was intrigued by Rakesh (as were many people during our trip throughout South America). Of course, he wanted to know where we were, or rather where Rakesh was, from. During our conversation, in spanish, the man admitted that Rakesh was the first person from India that he had ever met. He also asked us if we had ever tried mate ("mat-eh"), a typical and highly popular herbal tea of Argentina. We had it in the US, but told him that we had not tried any since our travels began in Argentina. We said our good-byes and later he approached us again. This time he had a cup filled with mate tea in his hand and offered it to Rakesh, and then to me. The man at this point wanted to take a picture of us, though I'm sure it was mainly because he was quite fascinated with meeting Rakesh, his first Indian from India!!

By the way, it is not unusual for Argentinians to share their mate tea with others. The cups are handmade from dried out hollow squashes, or factory made from wood or metal. The mate tea is added to the cup and hot water is poured on top. The tea is sipped through a metal straw with a strainer like bottom, so that it sifts out the herb leaves. It was common to see people carrying a thermos of water, which they used to top off their mate drink.

Later, we began to walk back towards a bus stop in order to take the bus back to the hostel. We stopped by a couple of stores to buy some produce and other groceries for making dinner and then waited a while for the bus. Finally, after flagging down 2 buses which were not heading our way, we got onto the right bus. The ride was one of the most long drawn out since traveling. It seemed to take forever to drop us off at our hostel and we couldn't understand how this was possible in such a small town. Every time we thought we were getting closer, it would make a turn and then circle all around another part of the town, before continuing on. Very frustrating, especially, after a long day and fairly late in the evening.

Once back at the hostel, Rakesh and I managed to put dinner together - a tuna, bean and potato salad that I made and a rice dish that Rakesh made.

The next day, after breakfast at the hostel, we headed to Iguazu falls. We initially, stood out on the road across from the hostel, to wait for a bus. A man approached us from his Remis taxi office and quoted us a price which was the same as what we would have paid for the bus. We gladly accepted, as the bus would have taken a little longer. Remis taxis, unlike regular taxis do not have a meter, but work based on a pre-determined rate between the driver and the customer. This taxi service is very popular in Argentina, as they are usually cheaper than regular taxis (or so we were told!).

During our first day at the falls, we decided to visit both the "Garganta del Diablo" (Devil's throat), the upper and lower circuits. We had been told by a spanish couple in the Amazon that it's worth allocating two days to visit the falls on the Argentinian side. We completely agreed. Once we looked at the map and got a feel for the grounds of the park, we decided it would have been too much of a rush to do it all in one day.

We began walking along a dirt road, by the side of the train tracks toward the Garganta del Diablo falls. The trains were far and few between, but when they passed they were filled with tourists heading toward the falls. We were among very few people to walk the dirt road and while doing so, we were very thrilled by the vast numbers of beautifully coloured butterflies we saw along the way. We also saw some very interesting birds. Although the songs of the birds were very luring, the birds themselves were not always easy to spot.

Before arriving at the Garganta del Diablo, the largest of the falls in terms of water volume and height in all of Iguazu, we walked along walkways crossing the Iguazu river. Along the way we saw huge catfish, a few tortoises, more butterflies and many birds with black bodies and thick blue eyebrows (unfortunately, I do not know the name of these birds). Finally, after about a 10 minute walk we came to a fairly crowded walkway bordering the Garganta del Diablo. The view was unbelievably breathtaking. As we took it in, we were showered by the mist coming from the falls. The amount of water cascading down, was incredibly powerful. The views were spectacular: fierce water falls laced with surrounding greenery and the site of the Brazilian border from which more water cascaded.

After viewing these falls, we headed back toward a snack shop where we sat down for a while to relax and eat some cookies. In no time, however, we were accosted by a very cute but pesty coati rodent. After seeing terrible warning signs with pictures of a bitten hand, we quickly put our cookies away and continued on our tour.

Next, we headed toward the upper circuit. This consisted of more walkways heading in different directions with lookouts onto various cascades. Each and every one was very beautiful. From some lookouts, one could see one or more cascades, however, toward the end we arrived at a lookout in which we had more of a panoramic view of the cascades seen from the preceeding lookouts.

After grabbing some expensive and very average lunch, we headed toward the lower circuit. Again, walkways led to various cascades. One of the lookouts, however, was by far one of the nicest we had seen along the upper and lower circuits. The site was an overall view of most of the upper and lower cascades all together. Similar to what I described above, but fuller. Toward the end of this lower circuit, we saw a baby toucan peeping out of the hole of a tree trunk. It was my first viewing of a wild toucan (I had missed spotting the red beak toucan that Rakesh sighted in the amazon).

On the second day we still had to visit the island of San Martin, in the Iguazu national park.
We had also been told about a motor boat ride which was highly recommended, in order to get a more close and personal encounter of some of the cascades. We first reserved a boat ride for the morning and slowly headed toward the embarking area of these boats, near the lower circuit. on the way, we revisited a couple of the lookouts we enjoyed the previous day. We also spotted what we think was the "mother" toucan of the baby we saw the day before.

Before boarding the boat, we were provided with life jackets and sacks to keep our day packs dry - we were in for a pretty wet ride, no doubt.  We boarded, the engine revved up and the boat sped out toward one side of the cascades. The boat stopped for a few minutes so that we and other passengers could take photos of each other in front of the falls. Next we sped up toward the Garganta del Diablo, but then turned toward a relatively small cascade. The boat went straight up to the cascade several times so that everyone was well showered and drenched by the water. This was just an appetizer. Next, the boat raced back to the previous side, from where we all took pictures and then dared to nudge a larger waterfall, several times. We were all welcomed by even more powerful showers of water on us. It was definitely a thrill, but then we did feel guilty about succumbing to this very polluting activity...

Next, we boarded another boat for a short ride over to the small island of San Martin. There are about 4 trails on this island, each of which lead to a different waterfall. We visited a couple and then sat on a bench to have our picnic lunch that we had prepared the night before. A friendly family from Buenos Aires approached us and we began to talk about where we come from etc. Again, I believe that Rakesh was the first person from India that they had ever met. When saying our goodbyes, the lady gave us a kiss on the cheek. This was the first of several encounters in Argentina in which locals gave us a kiss after chatting with us for a little bit.

We had a pretty early end to our day and managed to get back to the hostel in time to enjoy a dip in the pool. After walking around in the hot and humid weather all day, it was a blessing to be able to spend some time in the pool. We then contemplated whether or not to visit the Brazilian side of the falls the next day, which would cost us  another $30, or so, each. We decided we would and bought our bus tickets directly from the hostel.

The next morning, we woke up to torrential downpours and our chance of going to the Brazilian side of the Iguazu falls (Foz de Iguacu) seemed less and less likely. Also, Rakesh was feeling under the weather again, whereas I was feeling 100% after my bought of cold symptoms in Buenos Aires. We thought, it would be best to stay in and relax. I asked if we could cancel our bus reservations and luckily the hostel receptionist accepted and gave us a full refund.

The rain looked like it was beginning to subside around noon. Since Rakesh and I are a little stubborn at times, (we had a bee in our bonnet to see the Foz de Iguacu), we decided to head out and attempt to catch the next bus to Foz de Iguacu. Murphy's Law, however prevailed and as we stood outside, it slowly began to rain again and then pour. Rakesh was wearing all his rain gear, including pants, but I wasn't. We ran back to the hostel where I managed to make a call to Foz de Iguacu in order to ask what the weather was like on their end and to see if it was really worth going there. It was determined that we should go. I put on all my rain gear, the hostel booked a remis taxi for us and off we went. Foz de Iguacu is not such a far drive from Puerto Iguazu. Only about 30 minutes or so, but what made it longer was having to go through the Argentinian and Brazilian border controls!

Fantastic! It was no longer raining by the time we arrived on the Brazilian side. Before entering the Foz de Iguacu national park, we decided to do a fairly brisk walk through the "Parque de Aves" (bird park) across the street. We saw all sorts of wonderful birds, including  toucans,  owls, parrots, flamingos, eagles and many more. There was also a butterfly section, of which some of them were huge and bigger than those we had seen in the wild.

Back at the Foz de Iguacu, we had to board a bus in order to get to the first lookout. From there we walked to several other lookouts. From this side of the falls, we could see many of the Argentinian falls from a distance. One of the highlights was walking along a walkway that gets very close to cascades on the Brazilian side and which faces the Garganta del Diablo. The views from here are magnificent. The feeling of being near such powerful cascading waters was incredible and a little frightening at the same time.  Hearing the loud gushing sounds of the water and being sprayed with mist, added to the whole experience. We were seeing the falls in such fullness due to the fact that it had rained most of the day (a bonus!). It was a site and experience we will never forget!

The same taxi picked us up to return to Puerto Iguazu. But, again, we had to go through the two border controls...a bit of a hassel, but nevertheless, very worthwhile!! It was our last night and we asked our taxi driver to drop us off at a restaurant (a recommendation by the hostel). I had wanted to try my first Argentinean steak! On a backpacker's budget, it definitely wasn't cheap, but being in Argentina, I had to try at least one steak! It was worth it!

The next day, we made our way to the airport in the late morning to catch a flight to the city of Salta.