Iguazu Falls

Ain´t it a bitch when you press "Publish" and you lose your hour´s worth of typing? Oh well, we go straight to the second edition folks! I really was not sure what to expect about Igazu Falls, I mean I knew there were falls there, and that you could see them from Argentina and also from Brazil, but beyond that I was not sure.We arrived at the airport and were very pleased to see Dani, our guide from Adventure World, waiting with our names. We are realising that tour companies in Australia just sub-contract to people or companies over here - not necessarily a bad thing, but it doesn´t make it cheaper or give more money to the locals.Anyhow, Dani was great as she shepherded us through the Arg. and Brazillian borders and the National Park entrance. Its really a big place (supposedly 300,000 people, but that may be a translation error) and goes back over 70 years on the Brazil side. It was so good not having to queue up and find out what to do.I really wanted to go for a tour of the Arg. side (as we were staying on the Brazillian side) today, so we´d know if we wanted to go back, but I realised that it just didn´t make sense with all the border crossings and palava.Our hotel at Das Cataratas was really nice. It took about 3/4 hour to drive there from the airport (like I said a big place) and it was an old world kind of resort place, quite tastefully designed as a low 2 storey hotel with everyone helpful, friendly and smiling, but genuinely so. We put bags into the room, wondered how we were going to sleep on a bed that challenged concrete in hardness, and headed out to see the falls.I must say that when we first saw the falls, we thought, oh yes, they are falls, how nice - but we were not blown away by them. More was to come!We walked along a really nice walkway with about 500 steps and 1km long (maybe longer) that was tastefully set into the hill that was one side of the river valley. There were some people, but it was not overly crowded. The attraction of the falls is how wide spread they are and on how many levels. Some fall from the "top" to the river below, and some fall from the top, part way, then feed many other falls that fall eventually to the fast flowing river. Some falls have lots of water and some have a little, but it is the combination of it all that is spectactular.The falls are higher than Niagra and the river flow is less. We were told there is more water in winter, but there was pleanty enough for us!As we walked along we were adopted by a Brazillian guide who chatted to us and took photos - he was so much fun, he even laughed at my jokes! (OK, I know that means he had no sense of humour, but it was fun).As we walked along there were lookouts that went further to the side of the cliff to see falls, but the most spectacular was when we neared the end towards the Devil´s Throat falls, with it masses of water - unbelievable. They had built out a platform on the flat part at the top that went out maybe 100m to the edge of the chasm. All the way along there were huge falls, pounding their water down to run past the bright green islands of grass near our platform, and crash down the cliff on the other side of our platform. At that time of the day the sun was behind us, and the rainbow was small, but added a nice touch.We looked along to the actual Devil´s Throat and could see only the top part of the falls as there was so much spray. We were covered in fine (and not so fine) mist, and it was a nice relief to the 30 degrees and high humidity that we were in.We were very plesantly surprised when at 6pm the Park ranger said the last bus was going and we had to leave as they close the park. We could stay of course as we were in the hotel that is in the park, but it was so nice when we were really the only people on the whole platform (OK, there WAS another person), and the walk back alone was really special.We found a really nice wooen walkway through the jungle that we followed - it would NOT have been possible to build this in Oz as it was very steep (people might slip) had few railings (people might sue) but it was just perfect. We saw lots of lizards from 2 to 15cm long and many butterflies. When we walked back we were treated to a magnificent sunset over some of the falls. It was very relaxing!We had dinner in the hotel at the really nice pool (my teperature, like warm soup) as they had a HUGE smorgesbord with lots of salads and a really large grill area that offered about 10 different kinds of meat - the ribs being really huge.Desserts! They had tons of froots as well as cakes.There was no lady with the breakfast tray that came at 8am like in BA, so we slept in, but made it to the breakfast which was just as well, as there was an equivalent smorgesbord there too! More froots than you could shake a Rudi at and cakes that were too tempting to resist.We decided today to go to a boat ride, that we had booked with a really friendly travel person in the hotel - he just wanted to chat and show us his big smile.There are free busses that do the 10km or so run through the park and also go to the start points for various activities along the way. They have aircon bottoms and open sided tops.Our boat trip consisted of going on an electric vehicle thru the forest, while a tri-lingual guide explained the fauna and flora. We saw a monkey, but it was little more that branch movements. After that we walked a bit on a track thru the bush, and that was really nice, before bording our 20-30 seater boat. We had life vests on, and armed with my wateproof camera we were off. A bright blue butterfly had taken time to visit on my hand, but flew off as we started.It was SO much fun, bumping along through the rapids, heading upriver to various falls along the way. The man at the front kept putting on more and more wet weather gear, and when he finally pulled on a hood we knew it was going to get wet. We drove under one of the falls, and it was fantastic! Now we knew why some people had taken off their shirts (not Eva).Through the mist, spray and water we could see up to the balconies/lookouts that we were at the day before. It was so different looking at the falls from below, and was a nice change. We were very happy afterwards.We´d planned to go to the bird sanctuary, just outside the Nat Park, but we´d forgotten the slip of paper to show we´d already paid entrance, so we went back to the hotel to laze by the pool and have cocktails (its a hard life, but someone has to do it).Dinner was the same, with us prefering not to go to the more formal dining room. The same trio of ever-smiling musicians came by to play for the diners. The food was different in many ways, giving us quite a bit of confidence that the food was freshly prepared.We visited the tower at the hotel, which goes up another few levels to see the sunset over the falls to the west and the rising full moon to the east.Previously we´d gone on another walk to the end of the falls, and although there were more people that yesterday, it was very pleasant.Last day, we were picked up by Dani after another amazing breakfast, and went to the Arg. side. It was quite a drive and palava at borders etc, but we finally arrived in the Arg Nat Park (more fees of course), and we had to catch a train - a small electric thing with open sides that went thru the jungle. There were queues and more people than we´d seen. The train went quite slowly and was plesant, but when we arrived at the next station and were told we needed to catch another train and we wouldnt fit on the next one, I suggested we walk the 30 mins to the end. It was OK doing that as we walked next to the train line, and I had fun as the first train passed us, trying to hitch a ride. It got lots of laughter, cheers and comments from the passengers. We were all having a great time. We arrived before the second train, so it was a good call.People people everywhere! The Arg side follows a longer walk on a metal platform that goes over the river side quite a distance from the falls. There were many more butterfiles and we saw a crocodile (missed the photo) and it was nice looking at the fast flowing shallow river.The Devil´s Throat falls at the end were simply amazing. There was so much water, noise and spray - you could feel the power. The only annoying thing was there were touts there trying to take commercial photos and getting you to move away from the edge so they had a clean target. There was enough room though and we stayed there a while, a lot closer to this mass of water than on the Brazillian side.We went to some more falls on another track and it was good to visit them to put the picture of the whole area in our minds.We were sad to say goodbye to this place as we headed to the airport, and would have been happy staying another few days.Next was our 3 hour wait, 4 hour flight to Lima, overnight then to Cuzco.More walking - our bodies miss it!Hasta Luego!