Round The World: Iguazu Falls - the never ending thunder

First view of the falls

The next bus trip was interesting… I was aiming to get from Paraty to Foz do Iguazu (probably close to 13 – 15 hours bus ride) but there are no direct busses. The wonderful thing about the Brazillian transport system is that you can’t book anything online if you don’t have a Brazillian national security number. You generally have to physically go to the bus station to book your bus. Sigh. Not that well organised for visitors yet…


Brazil side - check out the bird soaring!

To get from where I was to where I was aiming, you have to stop in Sao Paulo. The trouble is, from Paraty, you can only book the bus to San Paulo. The bus company who runs from Sao Paulo to Foz do Iguazu does not have an office in Paraty and no travel agent can assist (I did try)… So this was my most risky bus trip to date. I had to take the bus to Sao Paulo, and pray that the next bus I needed to catch that night had space for me. But all turned out alright - I ended up getting one of the 6 last seats on the overnight bus. I’m learning to be able to sleep anywhere no matter the comfort or the noise levels or the lumpy pillow or the persons of various sizes snoring around me! The last one is the most difficult to overcome!

The forest looked like it was bleeding water...

I had a number of really large Brazilian men around me on the overnight bus to Iguazu. One even managed to pop my travel pillow. I think he tried to get past my aisle seat to his window one and he must have sat down on my seat where my pillow had innocently been placed only to shift over to his seat... With a pap pillow (which happened about 3am) I had little sleep for the rest of the trip but much laughter thinking of how it had happened! The men were great. They understood no English and I no Spanish / Portugese, but we still managed some commuication by body language and all shook our heads at the snoring coming from one extra large man that entered the bus at about 1am. He had arrived on the bus, taken the seat in front of me, leaned it back to it's full stretch (I felt like he would land in my lap), tucked his full sized pillow under his head, pulled up a full sized duvet and promptly started snoring really loudly. You don't always need language to communicate!

Brazil side - the walk way before the wet rain/mist started

Iguazu Falls. This must be one of the largest natural wonders in the world. The thunder of the falls can be heard long before they come into view. Iguazu falls means “big water” in the local language. I think it’s a little of an understatement.

Rain / mist started. Camera slightly damp...

K - now I'm getting wet!

Completely soaked! Thanks Mom & Dad for my tent of a poncho!

Sarah and I touring the Brazilian side of the falls.

Local legend says that long ago there was a god called M’Boi. Each year the people of the region used to sacrifice their most beautiful woman to the god. One year, the god demanded that a beautiful woman named Naipi be sacrificed. But Naipi and her mortal lover, Taruba, fled in a canoe down the river Iguazu to escape. The god, in a rage sliced the river creating the waterfalls. Naipi fell over the falls and M’Boi turned her into a rock so that she could never again run away. Taruba, was turned into a palm tree that overlooks the falls. Hence the lovers were separated and the Iguazu falls stands between them.

Flooded - you can see why this walkway was closed!

The falls were in flood while I was there. The person working at the hostel who seemed really knowledgeable about the area said that the river seems to flood about every 5 years. This was one of those times and the river could be as much as 10 times higher than normal. Whatever the real figures are, it was impressive. It seemed like the forest surrounding the falls was bleeding water. It was everywhere and a sediment brown colour, showing that this was flood waters.

I dare you to walk there!

Brazil side flooded - stunning

Brazil side again

The falls can be visited from both the Brazilian and Argentinian sides. Brazil is often said to give a more over-view of the falls and the Argentinian side is up close and personal. Both sides have built nature sanctuaries around the falls.

The group of us that visited the falls together.

You stay in the town close by and bus into the sanctuary. There are still lots of natural forests around and a couple of animals can be spotted. They have also built a number of walk-ways out over the water. A couple of these were closed to the public while I was there. You would have been washed away if you had attempted a couple of those. Walking around, a poncho was essential as in certain areas there was permanent rain from all the mist. I was really fortunate in that the sun came out when I visited both sides of the falls.

View of Argentinian side

Probably the most impressive part of the falls is known as the “Devil’s throat”. This is a U-shaped area of the falls. I visited the Brazilian side of the falls first and the bottom view of the Devil’s throat was closed cos of the flood.

Proof I was there

Walking over walkways on water

But when I visited the Argentinian side, the walk-ways had opened for the top view of the Devil’s throat the afternoon before. You walk out over walk-ways constructed over the river. It’s between a kilometre to a kilometre and a half of walking over a solid river before the world drops away beneath you in a roar. I’m not too sure how to quite describe the sound and feeling.

It was one of those amazing places in the world where, when you see it, your breath catches and you are unable to speak for some minutes just because of the magnificence of it all. You lose your want to speak and your want to try to describe it – because how can you? It’s one of those things that must have frustrated poets for a long time.

Argentinian side - Yay for rainbows!

Wow!

The boat for the boat ride

On the boat...

The photos of it don’t give you the full picture, but you can imagine the real thing being more real, more wet, more thunderous, and a lot bigger and all half engulfed in the misty spray created by water falling into itself.

On the Argentinian side of the falls, I also went on a short boat trip. Expensive and worth it. It takes you right up close to the falls in powerful speed-boats and makes you really wet! I was really grateful for my ultra-large tent of a poncho. It kept me nicely dry and warm! (You do get sopping, but they provide a water-proof-bag for your belongings to stay dry.)

View from the boat.

More than 1km of walkway over flooding river. All was water.

Another absolute highlight for me was the bird sanctuary on the Brazilian side of the falls. There were a number of different aviaries that you could go through and a number of different species. My favourite were the Toucans. There were a number of different types. Absolute favourite was the humming-bird aviary. The noise of whirring wings cutting the air around you as these tiny amazing birds literally zoomed around you to pause briefly at a feeder to suck nectar or on a branch for a fraction of a second. This in my opinion was well worth the visit.

The Devil's throat - Argintinian side.

Devil's throat

Devil's throat - the never ending thunder

Oh, we also saw a Toucan in the wild on the Argentinian side while doing a small hike to some pool where you could swim if you were brave enough to face the freezing water! We also saw a couple of animals and I have no idea quite what they were. One I saw twice really quickly and couldn’t decide if it was some type of pig or a small duiker-type buck.

Local wildlife...

Argentinian replacement for the Vervet Monkey...

Toucans in the wild!

Dear, I'm getting a headache from all these tourists!

Working hard.

The dinner crowd

Sweet pizza???

Foz do Iguazu is the small town on the Brazilian side. Here I met up with Sarah, a friend I had initially met in Rio. Small world when you travel. Everyone seems to do a circuit one way or the other. So, meeting up again with people can happen! Also, I went out for all you can eat pizza with a person from Switzerland and a couple of Brazilians. There wasn’t much English spoken that night, but there was a lot of laughter and I really enjoyed it. Amazing how you learn to communicate enough with other languages to still enjoy an evening. The Swiss woman could speak a little English and so that helped a lot.

After the normal savoury pizzas they served sweet pizzas. Mmm – I’m still not sure about that one. I mean chocolate and banana on a pizza, strawberry and white chocolate. Being on a backpacker’s budget I obviously ate too much (the second stomach for pudding was put to the test)!

At the corner of the three countries, Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay

On the Argentinian side, I stayed in a lovely hostel and met a number of lovely people from Australia and England. We ended up going out for dinner for the two nights I was there, touring the Argentina side of Iguazu together and of course visiting the view point of the three countries, Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. It was really pretty and we enjoyed a beer while waiting for sunset.

Picture - Standing in Argentina, Brazil to the right behind, Paraguay to the left behind.

The crowd enjoying a beer at the rivers.

This is an area of South America that I really enjoyed. It is in my opinion a must see if you are at all a fan of nature. All I can say is WOW. The photos will prove it. Although they are nothing to actually being there!