Post the hustle and bustle of BA, I took my sweet time getting to Igauzu Falls, one of most impressive in the world. Suck it Niagra! No chance I was taking a 20 plus hour bus ride to get there. I’m on vacation damnit!. The falls are 82 meters tall, twice as wide as Niagra, and have a volume of 450,000 cubic feet of water per second between November and March. Woah. On my snapchat story I said it is one of the seven natural wonders of the world; however, I goofed. It’s not on the official list but it is both natural and wonderful, so there’s that.
After spending a few days in Rosario and Posadas, I got to Puerto Iguazu ready to get to view this waterworld. The park itself is pretty small with only three main trails and another one that near the entrance that not many people even walk. The three trails are the lower, upper and Garganta del Diablo (The Devil’s Throat). Compared to the other national parks I’ve been to thus far on this trip, this one was definitely the most tourist friendly. It had paved walkways, real bathrooms and little restaurants. I actually didn’t care for how commercial it all seemed, weirdly enough. I must be getting too used to roughing it a little bit.
Anyways, me and a random British girl I met in line got the show on the road. Raj, myself and everyone else must have figured that the upper trail was best, as that path was obnoxiously crowded. For that reason we decided to switch it up and do the lower trail first, which I’m glad we did. Each trail offers different perspectives and great views; however, you get to feel the awesome power of the falls on the lower trail. There are multiple places where the mist completely envelops you and oh my, does it feel good. The weather was hot and humid, so any respite was absolutely welcome. I would have happily gotten soaked to the bone, but I needed my phone to work for all the pics we were taking so we had to keep on moving.
The upper trail is also really cool; however, I’m not sure what else I can say beyond the views continued to be amazing. I’d say the best part is the view of the San Martin island in the middle of the falls, which you can actually visit via boat if you want to see it up close and get absolutely drenched by the falls. Turns out the mist and the forthcoming afternoon monsoon would be more than enough!
The cherry on top of the falls is the Garganta del Diablo, with the viewing area essentially on top of the falls at the point where the majority of the 450,000 cubic feet of water cascade into the abyss. To get to the viewpoint you have to walk across multiple steel walkways connected by little pieces of land in the river. Since I’m not an engineer, I have no idea how they built these bridges in the middle of a flowing and at times, raging river; however, walking across these was surreal. All you could see in front of you was the water on the bridges leading to a giant plateau where mist continued to rise. After the 20 or so minute walk with the noise of the falls ever growing, we made it! And what an amazing view it was! Beyond the deafening roar of the water, we could see Brazil on the other side and the occasional rainbow as the sun kept peaking in and out of the clouds. We made it just in time too as on the walk back we were completely drenched head to toe by a torrential storm that lasted the next four hours. No other trail at the beginning for me.
You can add Iguazu Falls to the list of the simply amazing things I’ve seen on this trip. I do like big cities, but there is just something else about big time nature. I think the videos I took did a good job of showing just how powerful and deep the falls are, as well as how brown the water is! Apparently the water used to be more clear, but it’s become brown due to deforestation as there are less tree roots to absorb rain water. Thus, additional sediment gets washed into the river. Science. Moving on from the rainforest like conditions of Puerto Iguazu, let’s get to northwest region of Argentina, where more beautiful landscapes and some indigenous culture await. Only another combined 20 plus hours of bus rides to get there...
