how does Iguazu compare to Vic falls

Day 59, 29 March 2011

Yet another nice early start at 5.15am. (Anne knocked on the door 20 secs after the alarm).

We grabbed our small back packs and headed off to Jorge of Newbury domestic Airport.

The plane seats! You sit in the plane seats and they are made off pure soft leather, it feels like business class! The plane flight was a bit bumpy, W may have grabbed my hand once or twice. Albeit the plane was hitting some turbulence

We caught a taxi straight to the falls and started to explore the falls. The infrastructure to explore the falls is quite a step up from Victoria Falls (having been there a week earlier we kept comparing). It is definitely very family friendly with ramps and toilet stops everywhere. There is even a miniature train that takes you up to the top of the falls.

We caught the train and traveled up to the head of the falls – called the devil’s cauldron. Supposedly, these falls are the widest in the world (versus the highest at Victoria falls). At heads you walk for about 1km along ramp suspended above the waters until you get to main falls (W – it was pretty hairy in some parts). You can see the main drop. If you look over you can also see the Brazilian side. We got bit wet but nothing serious.

On the way there are some stop over points, W became enamored with the butterflies, they just fly around and land on you if you stay still long enough. She also had some attention by a Brazilian tour guide – she guessed he was Brazilian because he told her she was cute within 1 min of meeting him. He then tried to convince her that not all Brazilians are flirts!

Anne, Wendy and I progressed through the circuits until we got to the lower falls. The Poncho W souvenired from a wallabies game became Anne’s best friend, we got drenched.

To finish of the day, we headed off to the Sheraton for some farewell drinks. It makes life very hard drinking cold beers on the balcony of the Sheraton hotel overlooking the falls.

Into the taxi and we dropped Anne off at the airport and we were very sad to see her go. It really makes us miss home, but on we go!

W and I continued into to the hostel, Che Lagarto, sorted our gear out, got some supplies and got ready for bed.

Days 60, 30 March 2011

No sleep at the hostel. Potentially the loudest and most party driven hostel we had ever stayed in. If you are planning on sleeping, do not stay here. Although we received an email from Anne that informed us she did not fair any better.

Anne told us that her flight was delayed for 2 ½ hours and flew into a different airport, so her transfer was wrong. Eventually she got home at 11.30 and was struggling to stay awake. I bet Anne will sleep on the plane flight back to Australia! We’re missing you already Anne!

W and I got our bearings and headed into the town of Iguazu and looked around, that took 3mins. Then we headed out to the ‘points’. It is where the three rivers that dived Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay all meet.

We caught a taxi and picked up our bags and back to falls. We met local taxi driver who was very patient with us and started to explain the local culture to us, in Spanish only! Between the two us (mainly Wendy) we managed to have a conversation and find out about the falls, why the boat wasn’t operating, the favorite spot to commit suicide and why his son was calling him ( mainly to ask for money we figured out). All very interesting.

We decided to take a walking track out to some waterfalls down stream. The track was muddy from the rain the night before. It was about 3km and took about 45mins, however, we were dripping with sweat from the humidity and the temperature was rising steadily.

When we arrived, we saw some people swimming. I quickly changed and went for a swim and climbed into the waterfalls. Quite a temperature drop. A quick lunch and back up the track.

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We finished back up at Sheraton. There was some medical convention going on, we couldn’t figure out from various sources if it was anesthetics or plastic surgery. I saw the biggest poster ever promoting a brand of silicone breast implants, and the partners/ wives would have made Barbie proud.

Same taxi driver, asking if we had seen pumas, jaguars or deadly tarantulas! Back to airport and we left early! Back to hotel. We were told we received an upgrade (Anne, do you know anything about this?) and dumped our bags.

We headed out to local pizzeria. When we sat down we met a nice American gentleman who explained to us the history behind the restaurant, apparently it was quite famous and had long history. The pizza had the most cheese on it I have ever seen.

Back to the room and repack the bags, apparently the flights in Argentina are 15kg limit, so day packs are bursting at the seams!

We fell asleep pretty quickly