Iguazu Falls

Puerto Iguazu is a 2hour flight from Buenos Aires. It's main attraction are the famous Iguazu Falls. As we were starting our landing, Robin commented on how the jungle canopy and the brown water of the meandering river reminded him of Guyana. As soon as we stepped off the plane, the humidity was unbelievable. Took a shuttle to the charming Los Troncos Bed and Breakfast. The best sight was that of a swimming pool, which was surrounded by a large deck, a clubhouse and lush vegetation.  Didn't take us too long to change into our bathing suits and jump into the pool to alleviate the humidity.

The town reminds Robin of any small jungle community. Red earth roads, some cobbled with bricks, and lush vegetation with brilliantly colored flowers and birds. The falls are some 20 minutes from the town site.

Legend has it that the falls originated when an Indian warrior named Caroba incurred the wrath of a forest god by escaping downriver in a canoe with a young girl, Naipur, with whom the god was infatuated. Enraged, the god caused the riverbed to collapse in front of the lovers, producing a line of precipitous falls, over which Naipur fell and , at their base, turned into a rock. Caroba survived as a tree overlooking it.  The geologists mind you have a totally different view...surprise! The Rio Iguazu course takes it over a basaltic plateau which ends abruptly just short of  where a lava flow stopped. Just before going over the falls, the river divides into many channels with hidden reefs, rocks and islands, separating the many distinctive cascades that together form the famous cataratas (waterfalls). In total the falls stretch around for more than 2 kilometers.

We went up to the falls for two consecutive days...lots to take in for just one day. We took the local bus to get there...much better than an organized tour; we just seem to shy away from those type of things. The falls are located in a National Park of Argentina, one of the oldest.  The park is well designed and is very clean. They have a visitor centre when you first arrive, which is well done. Then you have an option to see the falls from various locations, which we took in over our two days/three nights here. The first option was the lower circuit, then the upper circuit and finally the Devil's Throat (Garganta del Diablo). All three locations gave us very different views of the falls. It is very hard to describe how huge the falls are and don´t really know if the pictures do it justice.

The first day, we also opted for a truck tour through the jungle (about 1/2 hour) with a guide, then onto a jet boat tour of the lower Iguazu River, which took you up to the falls. Must say that this was a blast.....we got totally soaked. We were given dry sacks in which to put our shoes, socks, backpacks, cameras, etc. The boat roared up the river, then came to a stop just below the falls. At this point we were told that we could take pictures, and about 5 minutes later, we were told to put the cameras away in the dry sacks. The boat then proceeded to get as close to the falls as possible and needless to say, this is where we got totally soaked. Thought the soaking had finished, but alas, onto the Brazilian side of the falls, to get wet once again.

During our two days here we say hundreds of coatis (adults and babies), agoutis (Robin says that he and the young boys in Guyana used to hunt these and eat them....tastes like chicken he says!!), capuchine monkeys, a couple of very large lizards , beautifully colored Mariposas (butterflies) and lots of spiders, army ants, etc. We have certain friends that would not do well in this environment!!

It was great to come back to our hostal every afternoon to slip into the pool to cool off and enjoy a caipirinha, a wonderful Brazilian drink ....could easily get hooked on these on a hot day. Our hostal conveniently had a restaurant, so didn't even have to go into town...nice after a long day.

We noticed, in our walks around town,  huge line ups at the two gas stations. When we asked the staff at the hostal about this, they told us that Brazilians come over the border to buy gas, groceries, eat in the restaurants, etc. as the cost of goods in Argentina is much less than in Brazil.

This is an amazing place and we would certainly recommend it as a must see destination.