Iguazu Falls

This past weekend my roommate, Christina, and I went to Iguazu Falls in the Missiones province of Argentina. Iguazu Falls is located between Argentina and Brasil; however, because I do not have a Brasilian visa (and did not feel like trying to sneak across the border) we only visited the Argentine side.

The trip began with yet another 18-hour bus ride. This time I did bring homework to do and was able to read for a whole 2 minutes before they put on a very loud and stereotypical zombie movie. So much for studying on that bus trip.

We arrived at about 9:00a, checked into our hostel, changed clothes and left for the park. Let me say, Iguazu has been one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited EVER. Unfortunately there were lots of school groups and tourists, but you were able to eventually shove your way through them to get a good spot to take pictures.

The first day we walked the Upper Trails, went to La Garganta del Diablo (The Devil's Throat) and walked the Lower Trails. The upper trails gave you a good view from the top of the falls and some great landscapes. The Devil's Throat was insane with the amount of water pouring down the falls. I couldn't help but wonder where it all came from. It was a bit difficult taking pictures there due to the large amounts of mist coming from the falls. The Lower Trails were my favorite part of the day because you could see the whole falls and get up-close and personal as well.

The following day Christina and I took a "hike" along a path to the Salto Arrechea, a more hidden fall that not all of the tourists get to see. It was a 6k walk in total along a very secluded and peaceful path. Well, secluded minus all of the beetles, flies, butterflies and spiders that Christina kept trying to fight off. I felt our journey was well worth it when we finally arrived at the fall and it's own little lagoon. We waded in the water a bit, took some pictures, relaxed and then headed back to the main part of the park. Our walk in was a lot faster than the walk out due to the fact that all of the falling water everywhere made us realize how much we needed to use the facilities.

After eating a HUGE salami sandwich we headed out for la Isla de San Martin, a small island in the Rio Uraguay, which provides other views of the falls. We had decided not to take one of the boat rides under the falls because it seemed a bit unreasonable to pay $50(pesos) for a 5minute ride under the falls. Everyone I have met who did it says it was amazing, but I have no regrets about saving my ever-dwindling funds. Isla de San Martin was relatively abandoned and for good reason. What looked to be a promising spot to walk around was a bit of a disappointment. Aside from two look out points (one of which had a bunch of buzzards), there was really not much to do. Even the "swimming" was a bit of a disappointment as you could really only wade up to about your knees and were not able to swim at all. It was so hot that I took a dip anyway.

One of the best things about visiting the park was seeing all of the wildlife. Christina spotted a walking stick and praying mantis (that looked like a leaf). I found a Toucan in the trees. We also saw lots of Coati (South American raccoons basically) and these giant lizards/baby dinosaurs. The highlights however were seeing Cai Monkeys, a Coral snake (poisonous) and King snake (looks like the coral but isn't poisonous) and Guinea Pigs!

For Sunday we had planned to simply lie by the pool and relax before our plane left. Those plans were thrown out when we woke to thunder, lightening and a HUGE tropical downpour. It was such a big storm that the power in our hostel was out for the entire morning! So instead of drinking Caprahinias by the pool, we had coffee and played cards until we left for our flight back home. That's right, flight not bus ride, and I wouldn't have done it any other way.