Brasil/Argentina: Iguaçu Falls

8 februari 2017 - Iguaçu, Brazilië

The Iguaçu Waterfalls, a first highlight from our journey!
On 5th of february, we flew from Rio de Janeiro to Foz do Iguaçu. This village is situated on the northern, brasilian side of the Iguaçu River. When we arrived, it was raining. We checked in in our hotel room.
The day after, it was warm, sunny weather. We took a bus to the Iguaçu Falls, brasilian side. There you have a 1.4km trail with beautiful views on the falls (and many asian tourists, but dont say "Ni hao" to them, because they re taiwanese!). Also there were many of this coaties, intelligent animals who steal the food of unattentive tourists.
Actually, the Iguaçu river, before falling, spreads and meanders over a wide flat field, between the forest. So,the falls are very large as well. It is difficult to get an overview, it feels like everywhere are waterfalls around you! Very impressionating!
In the afternoon, we booked a boat tour. A friend told us to book a boat tour, he said it is great. Unfortunately, it was not as great as that: we drove on a speedboat to the first waterfall and drove through it several times. Everything got wet, the sunscreen and insect repellent ran over the face, into eyes and mouth, and than we returned, and they asked us to by the photos which they had token during the tour...
(As a little remark, Tamar liked it much more than I did, so I must admit my blog text could contain some subjectivity...)
The day after, we took the bus and travelled over the boarder with all our luggage. We checked in in a guesthouse in Puerto Iguaçu, on the southern, argentinian side of the river. There was a nice garden, where we sat the whole afternoon.
On the next day, we visited the argentinian side of the falls. There are much more trails than on the brasilian side, and you can go closer to the waterfalls. You can walk very near to the under side of some falls, where you get wet from the water dust. You can walk just on the upper side of some falls, where you see the calm water getting quicker and quicker, and finally jump from the cliffs. Finally, a little train full of tourists brings you to a trail where you can walk to the upper side of the Garganta del Diablo, in english "devils throat". There, the water falls in big volume from three sides, which creates so much water dust that you can not see the down end of the fall.
During this whole day we suffered: it was hot, very very humid and so hot! At 9 am already, while waiting for the bus, the skin got wet without moving at all. At noon, we just wanted to sit in the shadow, it was difficult to eat something, and in the afternoon, we bought an icecream which we had to eat while waiting some minutes in the queue, before we had even payed it, because it melted so quickly.
We were really happy to travel to the south, which means here, to colder weather zone...

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