Another dream come true! To see Iguassu Falls!And they were wonderful. :)
AERU sur redeemed itself by flying on time and with our luggage, to Buenos Aires. This is a huge, busy city, but we had an ok feeling about it, considering we don't like cities much.Anne marie had warned us about the holes in the wall only giving out small amounts of money and to stock up on us$ which was great advice. We stayed in a modest hotel which was right in the centre, in the street which is not open to cars. I was still not well from the burger bug, so we only ventured out for a while onto the two main shopping strips, Florida and Lavelle.
The next morning we were up and away, back on LAN and heading to Puerto Iguassu, without accomodation, because our booking was confirmed and then rejected, and it looked as if it was a major weekend there as everywhere seemed booked out. This was confirmed again at the airport when a very helpful tourist rep phoned endless places without luck. He finally got us a room at Hotel Alexander, which proved very tired, with grumpy staff.I didn't like it at all, but it was a place to sleep, which we did well, and shower, with hot water! and it was right near the bus station for us to get the falls.
The falls are as wonderful as Therese implied when she talked to me about them.You just ooooh and ahhh all the time. We went over two days and got a slightly different perspective on the second day, as there had been athunder storm and more rais on day one, which made the amount of water tearing over the falls increase dramatically. On day two the mist from the falls was greater and the island San Martin was closed because the river level up too high for the little ferry boats to land.
When we arrived we went to the upper level walking circuit. This takes you to the falls on the Argentinian side.These are wide falls, with many falls making the overall scene. They are quite magnificent. Then we went futher up the Iguassu River and walked the very very long walkway to the Devil's Throat Falls, just across from the Brazilian side.These falls are astounding! The power of the water falling over the rocks , unbelieveable.The spray rises so high that it then falls down over you as if it is raining! You get soaked.
It was so wonderful that we did these walks each day, just to take it all in.
The second day we did the lower level circuit for a different perspective.We also had a power boat ride to see the devil's Throat Falls from the river and went into where the San Martin Falls flow, but the driver didn{t go into these falls as with the rain they were too powerful. We went into a smaller one next to it. The spray was so powerful, it stung your eyes and you could not open them.
We also took a quiet raft ride up on the Iguassu River, top end.Here we ahd one of a few special moments with animals.A small turtle swam right up to the raft, and popped its head up as if to say hello. We were amazsd as usually they take off as soon as they sense someone nearby.We had stood and watched a 2.5-3m caimon from the upper walkway, before that. it was just redding water there by the river bank. Some young boys got impatient and tossed some leaves over. You can imagine how gently they would have touched the water, but boy, that caimon reacted so quickly, pity any animal that ventured by there that day!
The first day there were many butterflies about. One attached itself to my backpack as the blue in its wings matched the blue of the bag. It hitched a ride for ages. The same happened to Peter the next day, only this butterfly had a strip of red that matched his bag.On the outside of its wings it had a cream and brown pattern that had a perfect 8 on each wing.
We were surprised to see a huge cream Sheraton Hotel, with a wonderful view of the falls, as everything is so well run.It does not dominate the landscape fortunately.
We are looking forward to seeing the photos.We have not had the opportunity to get more mountain photos for Greg, but might do so in the fjords.
So this was a really wonderful two days, even though the second day was a bit wet, it brought its own uniqueness to the time.The place was pure magic!Peter and I just have to pinch ourselves sometimes.
