Misiones province - Iguazu falls

Iguazu Falls... yep, one of the natural wonders of the world.  But first, the trip to get there...

After our ten nights in a tent, we where quite happy to stay in a clean but very basic hotel in the neighbouring hick-town of Aristobulo del Valle.  Hot showers, an internet cafe and pizza went down well, but most memorable was an incredible tropical downpour that came in just before sunset.  The skies darkened as lightning and thunder abounded. Then the heavens opened and within minutes the drain along the main street was an overflowing river.  There was even a short hail storm which Hero couldn't quite understand, but was still pleased to be holding little balls of ice. After about 45 minutes, the skies suddenly lightened again, and then gradually the most peaceful dusk set in.

The next morning we set off at midday on the 'direct' bus to Puerto Iguazu, which promised to be a 6 hour trip, even though it was only about 300 km long.  Pretty soon we realised that this was because the bus picked anyone and everyone up as it chugged north through the heart of Misiones province. As it was a public holiday, smaller bus companies were not operating, so there were a lot of people wanting to travel.  It was amazing how many people were squeezed on that bus - luckily we had found ourselves seats near the back, so we were sitting comfortable.  The bus 'conductor' would weave his way to find newly arrived passengers and sell them tickets.  It turned out to be a good way to get a feel of rural life in this frontier area of rapidly receding forests.  Hero, of course, managed to sleep for almost half the trip... We managed to get her on a toilet during a stop over which was fortuitous as there wasn't one on the bus.  It was at a place called Eldorado, and coincidentally we bumped into Dr Juan from the weekend workshop in the bus station - he doesn't have TV and was there watching his favourite soccer team play.

On arriving in Puerto Iguazu, we walked a couple of blocks to our hostel and before long Hero and I were asleep, though Delia managed to find cable TV and so stayed up getting her fix until the early hours of the morning!  The next day after a leisurely breakfast, we bought some hats and food, and took the bus out to the Iguazu National Park to join hundreds of other tourists.  The Argentinian side of Iguazu falls boasts several kms of paths with some spectacular views of most parts of the falls (which are more than 1 km wide with over 2000 cubic metres of water going past each second).  We started off with the 'upper' circuit and as we got closer through the forest could hear a mighty roar.  The first view of the falls was quite moving...

Hero soon tired of looking at water, and was far more interested in the lizard population of the seating area where we stopped for our picnic lunch.

The Bump at 19 weeks!

After completing the Upper Circuit, we set off on the Lower circuit, which included passage over a "small" waterfall where Delia and Hero got happily soaked.

From the Lower circuit we also managed to get some views upstream to the 'Garganta del Diablo' which was almost completely masked in spray due to the high river flows at the time, and of some of the main falls near the Argentine side of the river.

There were boat rides up to the falls that we would have gone on, however, Delia was again thwarted because of being pregnant...

The park is over-run by possums called coatis who wander around scavenging what they can.  Initially they look kinda cute, but we soon tired of their antics.

We had dinner that night at a small italian take away that made very tasty gnocci.

For the second day at the falls we found out that the walk out to the main part of the falls, the 'Garganta del Diablo', was now open as the river levels had dropped slightly.  So we set off on the little train which seats about 200 people and wanders along at about 5 km/hr.  Where the train arrived, we joined other camera wielding tourists to marvel over a cloud of yellow butterflies who had found a salty patch of drying mud to fuss over.  After a long walk out over the mighty river Iguazu we arrived at the look out over the Garganta del Diablo.  Trully astounding!  The sheer power and majesty of tonnes and tonnes of water rushing over an abyss.  The Garganta had a perpetual plume of spray that blocked the views of the Brazilian side of the river.  This probably meant the views from the other side, which are normally the most spectacular weren't as clear - which made us feel a little bit better as we elected not to cross over the border into Brazil.

 

We spent the last of the afternoon wandering slowly along the Macoco trial, a less frequented walk in the park through some of the sub-tropical forests.  Much of the original forests that covered the area from Paraguay into southern Brazil is now gone, cut down for timber and in the path of agriculture.  The main information centre in the Iguazu park shows a telling satellite composite picture from 1996 where the main concentrations of forest were pretty much only located in Argentina's Misiones province.  These remnants are under threat.  It is not hard to foresee that within a few decades the only original forests will be limited the national parks.  Another sad story of humanity's insatiable greed for land and resources.