An overnight bus took us up the narrow corridor between Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil to Argentina´s North-Eastern corner; Puerto Iguazú. As Argentina appears to lack a railway network, such long-haul busses are the only way to get around and come with a wide variety of comforts. On our better journeys we have had seats as wide as couches, so much leg room that I cannot touch the seats in front, hot meals and frequent snacks and an impressive selection of pirate DVDs. My Spanish appears to be improving more from watching dubbed Adam Sandler films than talking to the locals, but I´m not complaining.
Waking to the sight of jungle surrounding the road we could feel the proximity of Brazil. We were here to see the awe-inspiring Iguazú falls, a UNESCO world-heritage site boasting the world´s most impressive collection of waterfalls. When Eleanor Roosevelt first saw these falls she exclaimed ´Poor Niagara!´ and it is true that all the other supposed ´big´ waterfalls pale into insignificance compared to this monster. The power, size and sheer noise of the falls simply overwhelm you and the beauty of the surrounding jungle coupled with its highly visible animal life is rather breath-taking.
Dropping our bags at our (Argentine) hostel and taking a much-needed shower we immediately headed to the border for a day trip to the Brazilian side of the falls (and of course the lovely new stamps in our passports). The Brazilian side is the more panoramic of the two and gave us a chance to appreciate the falls from a (mostly dry) distance.
From this vantage point we noticed a submerged boat and thought nothing more of it until we returned to the hostel and heard how that afternoon a tourist boat had strayed too close to the falls and overturned. Two of the passengers on board died and another was in a serious condition at hospital. We had planned on doing that very boat ride the following day and had that mixture of sadness at the death and thankfullness that it wasn´t us. Needless to say we quickly decided not to venture into the water. You can see the upturned boat being dredged up in this picture;
The evening was spent in the swimming pool and cooking dinner. I decided to make roast butternut squash stuffed with courgette, tuna, tomato and onion - a dish Tom nicknamed ´Utter Glut Nosh´ as I ate over a kilogram of the stuff. Whilst cooking it a French guy came over and congratulated me on changing his (previously low) opinion of English cooking. Unfortunately I soon undermined his image my hacking a tuna can to death with a penknife and drinking a whole packet of pasta sauce as an approximation of a Bloody Mary.
Josie reached into her biscuit packet and pulled this bug out. I may never eat another Oreo again
This time we viewed the falls from the Argentine side. Instead of the Brazilian panoramic view, today we got to get right us close to the waterfalls and drench ourselves.
The indigenous Guaraní legend has it that the falls stem from when a god planned to marry a beautiful woman named Naipí, who fled with her mortal lover Tarobá in a canoe. In rage the god sliced the river, creating the waterfalls. Naipí fell to the bottom and turned into a rock whilst her mortal lover survived as a tree overlooking the falls. Considering the number of rainbows surrounding the falls and the fact that they resembled (rather dangerous) marshmallows I feel a somewhat less violent story would have been more apt.
The falls are surrounded by thick clouds of colourful butterflies who seem to swarm and settle everywhere. At various point I had the critters covering my hands, face, camera and, amusingly, my bum.
Equally omnipresent are the racoon-like coatis
We also saw iguanas, monkeys, turtles and crocodiles
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