Iguazu Falls Weekend Adventure

Check out the link to pictures to the right to see the highlights from this weekend trip!

We left Buenos Aires at 7pm Friday night and arrived in the small tourist thriving town of Puerto Iguazu at 11am Saturday morning.

This town is at the tip of the Argentine province Mission, and borders Paraguay and Brasil by two surrounding rivers. The town survives due to the high flow of tourist traffic to Iguazu Falls, one of the world's largest waterfalls. Four times the width and taller than Niagara Falls, the only other waterfall I have visited, it was awesome in the true sense of the word.

We started our adventure Saturday after we landed and found our way to the hostel in which we were staying. After unpacking and laying down for a minute we walked to a local place for a good lunch to start our day. After some food we decided to walk to Tres Fronteras, the lookout area onto the intersection of the River Parana and River Iguazu....meaning the point where Argentina, Paraguay, and Brasil meet.

We enjoyed the view of the rivers and the surrounding countries and took a path alongside the river and enjoyed the calmness of the countryside. We walked to the end of the trail, up to the highest point in the town, and down again through the local market area. After a few hours of wandering, we returned to the hostel to rest and get ready for dinner. After asking around we found the perfect place, La Rueda (the wheel) and enjoyed the fine wine, great food, and fantastic live jazz music. After dinner we met up with some other IES students visiting Iguazu this weekend and partied a little with them. We called it an early night since we were starting bright and early the next day.

On Sunday we woke up, walked to the bus station, and took the short 15 minute shuttle from the town to the National Park Site. After paying our entrance fees and entering the park, we spoke with the Tour Providers and made a reservation for a waterfall boat ride at 2pm. We walked from there and explored the upper circuit, a walkway along the top of one part of the waterfalls. The walkways consisted of metal grating, and took us to the edge of a few waterfalls. It was so close and so dangerous it was a little unnerving. We finished the upper and lower circuits before our 2pm appointment for the water boats. The girls bought ponchos, but of course I thought my raincoat would be fine. Little did I know how close to the waterfalls and how soaked I would really get. The boats brought us close to one of the smaller falls, and literally got under the water. Since Kate and I got lucky with the first row seats, we were literally getting water pounded on our heads. Then the driver took us close to the Devil's Throat, the main large gigantic waterfall, and got as close as possible. We were absolutely drenched. After toying with us under the water, we took the speed boats down the river after the falls over rapids. After a while of rapids and figure 8's, we arrived at a dock in the middle of the jungle and got off the boats, dried off, and got onto Jungle Trucks. From there we had a tour guide and drove through the national park preserved jungle back to the main gate of the park. During the tour, in Spanish, I thought I misunderstood the tour guide when she pointed to a spot in the forest and said, "Here, about ten years ago, a little boy was feeding the Coaties (large raccoons) when a hungry Puma mistook the boy for a Coatie, and ate him.....This is why we encourage all of you not to feed the animals." We all laughed and looked at each other thinking we misunderstood.....nope, it was true. After the ride we took the train and walkway over to the Devil's Throat, a enormous overpowering massive waterfall that makes Niagara look like a creek. The millions of gallons pouring over the falls created a turbulent cloud of mist coming from beneath. It amazed us how close the walkway came to the falls, and the the edge of the cliff no less. The railing was only up to my waist, and I was scared that if I tripped over a crack in the walkway I would fall sideways and topple over into the pit of the falls. Even the best pictures in the world can not even start to describe the power that you feel standing at the mouth of this giant work of mother nature. Wow

We left the park at closing and went home to rest, after another great dinner at the same restaurant from the night before we called it an early night again.

On Monday, we only had a little time in the morning since our bus left at 4pm back to Buenos Aires. We woke up early, checked out of the hostel, and checked our luggage at the bus station lockers. We took an early bus and decided to go on the last trail we couldn't fit in the day before, the trek around the Isle de San Martin, and island formed by the falls, in which you took a water taxi over to the beach and walked and hiked around the island. We spent about 2 hours walking around the island and since it was the National Holiday and most tourist had already begun their trip home, the park was empty compared to the day before. We could spend some significant time at the lookout points and we were able to soak in the beauty without having to take a quick picture and move on.

We got back to the town with enough time to have a nice lunch and buy some sandwiches to enjoy on the bus ride home. The bus left exactly on time, and we started our departure back to BA.

After an hour, the bus stopped, and men in official looking uniforms came on the bus and asked for every ones passports. We had thought we had mistakenly taken the wrong bus and that we were going into Brasil, where Americans need special passports to travel, and got very nervous. It ended being a simple security check in Argentina looking for drug smugglers.

Our bus was scheduled to be back in BA for 7am, but we didn't arrive till 10:30am. Although we all felt dirty after the long bus ride, we had gotten a good amount of sleep.

This trip was a great start to an amazing semester of weekend trips to come. We made sure not to forget how special Buenos Aires was, and that we should not travel to much and miss out on all BA has to offer. Iguazu was a natural beauty that will never be fully explained in photos or literature, just a sight I will encourage all traveling in South America to make sure they go and see.