17.07 - Day 28 - Puerto Iquazu, ARG
Puerto Iguazu, Argentina
Saturday 17th July 2010
Wake up on the bus at 9:30 after nine hours sleep to the undeniable sound
of splashing puddles under the bus wheels. Outside the landscape has shifted to
how I imagine South East Asia to be – lush
greens, forests, roads filled with red clay, runoff water in puddles. The bus
isn’t actually running to time but we don’t know this as we can’t understand
the announcements. Luckily the stewardess stops us getting off at Elderado by
mistake.
At
Puerto Iguazu the rain is still falling. Undeterred, after checking into a
Youth Hostel dorm and showering we catch the public bus to the falls. The rain
may have put off some weekend visitors and this exacerbated by our
Donning
our fetching ponchos – Krish’s making him look like Homer Simpson (in the
episode where Homer works from home, and who’s only responsibility is to periodically
hit the Y key on the computer) – we power walk to the Superior Circuit (when
offered Superior and Inferior, who’s going to pick Inferior first?) where the
band of waterfalls are released into our view one by one, eventually creating a
length of deafening surging waters cascading into the depths.
The well
positioned walkways have you walking along the top of several just as they drop
away. The best guide to the power is the height that the spray reaches back up,
which combined with the rain creates an eerie mist.
From there we catch the free train to
Garanta del Diablo (Devils Throat) where after another walk we can see three
quarters circle/semi-circle of water disappearing beneath us.
The persistent
rain has us moving along a little quicker than we might otherwise have done –
though our relatively late entrance also contributes to our haste.
The
Inferior Circuit allows us to approach the first set of falls again, this time
from below – the spray coming off is intense and we don’t envy those in the
rubber hulled speedboat on the river on this particular day.
As we leave we are lucky enough to spot
a pair of toucans resting in a nearby tree. The bus back to Puerto Iguazu is
filled with other sopping tourists as the park closes.
Dinner
consisting of pizza, chips and beer as reward for all the walking which catches
up with us anyway soon after so it’s off to bed.