Iguazu/Iguaçu
The only real purpose of visiting either Puerto Iguazu (Argentina) or Foz do Iguaçu (Brazil) is to visit the famous waterfalls nearby. That said, I arrived off an overnight bus in the morning with a day to spare (I’d decided I wanted a whole unrushed day to see the falls) so headed to the hummingbird garden nearby. A beautiful, tranquil space where you simply sit and watch hummingbirds of various sizes and colours darting and hovering between flowers. They really are quite fascinating creatures close up.
Back at the hostel I met some new friends and planned my trip to the falls the next day. The owner of the hostel and her husband were having a barbecue that night and invited us all to buy some meat and join them. We picked some up on the way back from Hijo de Tres Fronteiras, a spot on Argentina’s border from where you can also see Paraguay and Brazil, and all chatted while the meat cooked. I was pleasantly surprised by my ability to hold a conversation in Spanish with a couple of Colombians and the hostel owner. Around 11.30pm the meat slowly started appearing and didn’t finish until around 12.30am. We were then invited to go clubbing with the owner’s family, which I was sorely tempted by, but decided against as I had to be awake at 6.30 the next morning.
A quick aside about my Spanish: When I arrived in Argentina, I wouldn’t have said I could speak Spanish - just Portuguese with some words changed. I think by the time I left it was fair to say I could speak some limited Spanish. I’m quite proud of my improvement - I just hope it doesn’t disappear from my head as quickly as it entered!
We decided on such an early start because the heat makes the middle of the day quite unbearable. Starting early means you get as much time as possible while the heat is only slightly uncomfortable. At 7.30am, Sidse and I (after meeting the night before) caught the first bus to the national park containing the falls and headed to the boat trip we’d booked. We saw a toucan on the way, were accosted by multicoloured butterflies, and got front seats on the boat. It was quite the introduction to the world’s biggest waterfalls to first see them from underneath. We were driven directly under some of the falls and were immediately drenched. Luckily we had previously been given waterproof bags to protect our belongings, but my body and clothes were sodden in seconds.
I walked the high circuit, a loop of catwalks around and between the individual waterfalls before stopping for lunch and being accosted by a large family of coatis. They’re very cute until they sense an opportunity to score some food when they suddenly become vicious. One next to me in one motion tore through a lady’s bag (fabric, not plastic or paper!) and retrieved the bread roll it must have smelt through the hole it had created. I then walked around the low circuit and after spending a good, long time staring at the falls I decided it had become too hot and headed home to jump in to the small pool at the hostel.
The next day I got up relatively early as I wanted to see the Brazilian side of the falls too, but first had to cross the border in to Brazil. The process was fairly simple, but the bus driver forgot to stop at Brazilian immigration (they don’t unless you ask them to, but I had) leading to me running down the bus shouting for him to stop! After walking back down the side of the road to some confused Brazilian border guards wondering why I was wanting to enter Brazil given from their perspective I had arrived from Brazil, I got my passport stamped and had to wait an hour for the next bus to arrive and take me the rest of the way. Thankfully Jura, a nice Japanese lady, was in the same situation, so we had a long chat about our respective travels as we waited.
After leaving my backpack in the hostel (it was too early to check in) I headed straight to the Brazilian side of the falls. The Argentinian side has walkways that take you close to individual waterfalls, but from the Brazilian side you get a terriffic panorama of the whole area, putting in to perspective everything I’d seen close up the day before. At the end of the trail are various platforms from where you can see and feel the power of Garganta de Diablo or the devil’s throat, the area with the most falls and the most water flowing through it. I stood for a while and just took in the magnitude of and millions of litres of water passing by me per second. We all got fairly wet from the water flying off the falls, but nothing in comparison to being underneath them.
An unexpected subplot of the Brazilian falls was a pretty orange butterfly who landed on my arm. I let him sit for a while, but after a few minutes decided to start walking again. He clearly liked me, as he spent time on my arm, shoulder, neck and hat, and accompanied me for almost a kilometer, only leaving when the air was wet and the wind was strong around Garganta de Diablo. He was good company through the park.
And with that, the solo backpacking part of my trip was over. I’m now heading to Rio de Janeiro to meet up with friends from London for a couple of weeks, which will undoubtedly be lots of fun, but is a different kind of trip to the adventure I’ve been having until this point. In truth though, the journey felt at an end as I left Argentina on a bus a day earlier. As we drove through jungle heading for the bridge to Brazil I found myself sad to be saying goodbye to a country that’s brought me so much joy. I was guilty until this trip of simplifying Argentina to Maradona, Messi, steak and red wine, and those are certainly present, but the kindness of the people I’ve met, the passion in everyday life and the incredible landscapes are where it felt like the real beauty lies. I think back to sitting on my horse, looking out at a breathtaking view and despite being far from home, feeling somehow so grounded.
Reminder to self: get back in to nature soon.
