Iguazu Falls, Argentina.

We arrived in Puerto Iguazu after a 16hr bus journey from Buenos Aires. This may sound like a long time to spend on a bus but man do the Argentinians have bus travel nailed!! The seats are super comfy, like loungers that recline right back and you get a fleece blanket and pillow to keep you toasty. During the journey you also get a snack and a warm meal with drinks, if only the megabus was this good!! Our bus got in to Puerto Iguazu at 6:30am which meant we could check out the Iguazu Falls on the day of our arrival which gave us an extra day to play with, our in our case lounge in the sun drinking beer.

Before I go on about the falls there are a couple of things I would like to point out about Argentina. First of all when converting some money at the airport we realised that Scottish tender is worth around 7% less than English tender, enough said on that one. Secondly we have discovered that Argentinians LOVE bread, ham and cheese. This is pretty much 90% of what is available to eat here on our budget and it gets dull fast. We are pleased to have discovered empanadas which are basically wee cornish pasties filled with usually either chicken, beef or, you guessed it, ham and cheese. Not exactly a healthy diet but it tastes good. Lastly Argentina is CHEAP and when I say CHEAP I mean CHEAP! Beer is around 60p for 350ml, a quid for a liter and a lunch of 6 empanadas is 15 pesos which works out at around £2/£3. This is a welcome change from Rio which was much more expensive!

Ok enough about empanadas and back to the falls.The Iguazu Falls are waterfalls of the Iguazu River located on the border of the Brazilian state of Paraná and the Argentine province of Misiones. Legend has it that a god planned to marry a beautiful aborigine named Naipí, who fled with her mortal lover Tarobá in a canoe. In rage, the god sliced the river creating the waterfalls, condemning the lovers to an eternal fall. Anger issues there god.




We only saw the falls from the Argentinian side (two thirds of the falls are within Argentine territory) as we heard they were much more impressive and man were they impressive!!!! After arriving at the entrance of the park you get a wee open train that takes you to a central station where you can follow different routes to view the falls. We headed for the upper view of the falls first which entailed a trek through the rainforest where the route opens up to reveal an abundance of powerful and breathtaking waterfalls that fills your line of vision for as far as you can see. You can hear the falls before you see them, a loud rumbling that gets louder and louder until you feel the spray of the mist and finally see the beasts themselves ripping through the mountain scenery. Words can't describe how powerful these falls are and as we stood there we wondered how many unlucky souls had the misfortune of falling in to the river which gets sucked over the cliffs and luscious green vegitation before tumbling down in to the white, rainbow filled cloud below.

The Devils Throat, Iguazu Falls from Katie Guthrie on Vimeo.

The strongest of the falls was 'The Devils Throat' or Garganta del Diablo which is a U-shaped, 82-meter-high, 150-meter-wide and 700-meter-long cataract which marks the border between Argentina and Brazil. You could hear this bad boy from around 5 minutes away and when we finally reached it we were just utterly gobsmacked at the strength of it. If the legend of how Iguazu Falls was created is correct, the Devils Throat is an accurate example of just how pissed off god was.



After seeing the falls we decided to spend a day doing the Macuco Trail which is a short trek through the rainforest which leads you to a waterfall that has a pool below that you can swim in. It's a really nice walk and the entire time you are being bombarded by hundreds of different, brightly marked butterflies. Iguazu is like the west coast of Scotland in summer time but instead of swarms of midgies it has swarms of butterflies, I have never seen anything like it! The pool and waterfall were a refreshing treat after the hot trek and we spent an hour or so basking in the sun and water which was deceptively cold despite the 26 degrees air temperature. We luckily got changed to leave at the right time as we spotted a sneaky possum waiting to steal what he could.

Having come to the end of our stay in Puerto Iguazu we feel refreshed and relaxed. The town seems to depend heavily on the falls with not much else to do or see. But we've enjoyed our stay here and lucked out with a really nice hostel (despite the rude english and american people staying here at the same time) and even met an Aberdonian sitting outside our room one night. The falls were breathtaking and we're definitely stoked to have seen them and even swam under one.

Back off to Buenos Aires before we fly to Bariloche to start our winter season, we can't bloody wait!