Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Iguazu fly by

I think I pulled out the ´O for Awesome´ too soon. I could put an expletive in front of it, but my grandma may read this and there´s a small chance she thinks I don´t know those words. I was thinking ´Iguazu is the schizz´ but I´m not entirely sure what ´schizz´ means and it might be a bit rude.

Anyway, Judith Bassett told me in tutor training that ´wow´ and ´awesome´ are not appropriate descriptions and stating why things are so good is required.

So, we flew from BA to Iguazu and the pilot took us over the falls. Twice. They look great from the air with plumes of mist coming up into the air. Lorna from our group tour come with us and we all stayed in the worst hostel in Iguazu for the next two nights (Debbie and I have now moved and Lorna has gone back BA). El Guembe Hostel House is crap. The shower doesn´t work and the toilet only flushes when it feels like it. It was also very, very noisy last night. (Rant over.)

We got up early on the first morning and caught the first bus to the Argentinian side of the falls and arrived at 7.30am. Unfortunately, the park doesn´t open till 8am so we had a nice sit. The park covers quite a large area and I thought there was no way we´d see everything in a day, but it´s not a bit as it looks and we managed to see quite a lot. Getting there early was a good idea as we had several of the walks practically to ourselves.

There is so much water going over the falls that there is a mist in front of them and it´s quite hard to see from some angles. They closed one of the walks because there´s so much water. Just one of the falls by itself would be impressive but seeing them lined up one after the other is amazing. And they looks so neat and tidy. Huge amounts of water go over the falls, especially at the Devil´s throat. I was almost mesmirised watching it. They have a walkway out over the river and the islands so that you are right beside the fall. The photos simply don´t do it justice.

We took and inflatable boat ride down the river and saw a baby alligator and the river from a quieter angle. Then it was in a jeep from which we saw toucans and down through the jungle to a boat. It was an 6km boat ride through some rapids which were fun, but nothing on the next bit. The boat goes really close to the San Martin fall >(second highest in the park) and the water just sprays out at you (screaming in delight is compulsory and Lorna, Debbie and I complied). The boat also goes into the beginning of the Devil´s throat and practically under a waterfall. Just to make sure you´re really wet. Saturated but happy, we then made our way home and went out to a lovely chinese restaurant (wok) which makes a chocolate volcanoe which we all had to try.

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