Day 86: Baaaaa!

Wed. 7th November 2012

It was a day when we initially felt that we were being herded like sheep – a price we’d have to pay for the sights. We had been told by our friends Rob & Katie that we would absolutely love Iguassu, and so it turned out. By the end of our trip, we had forgotten about the crowds as we lost ourselves in the immensity and grandeur of the spectacle. Our memories will be of the falls themselves – the crowds were insignificant beside them!

Not a very auspicious start though as we nearly overslept. I had correctly set the alarm time on my phone, but I had forgotten to update the clock in my phone to register the additional change of hour as we drove across Brazil. We are now on something like Rio summer time and are only 2 hours behind the UK now. So, it was a quick breakfast – fruit, lots of coffee and some bread and then we were on our way to the Argentinian border. Iguassu is at the border of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. Hence some of the confusion as to how you spell the name Iguaçu (Portuguese), Iguazu (Spanish) or Iguassu.

Leaving Brazil was very straightforward, but as we got to the Argentinian border station we got our first inkling as to how the day was going to go. The car park was crammed full of buses and minivans and we were penned in a field for a half an hour wait whilst our guide went off to get our passports stamped. Once we got going, we joined the queue of buses to get into the National Park that surrounds the falls. The larger portion of the falls lie on the Argentina side and so the park there is correspondingly bigger. In addition therefore, the crowds were bigger too as we went through the turnstiles to the sheep dip ticket machine.

The park is sufficiently large that there is a miniature train service to take you from the centre of the park to the head of the falls and so we headed off for the train station at a brisk clip in order to try and beat some of the crowds. After a 15 or 20 minute wait, we get on the train for the journey up to the Garganta del Diablo (Devil’s Throat) station and to join the throng heading out along the walkway to the falls.

The walkway took us out, over 1km, across the broad river above the falls, crossing from island to island. It was barely wide enough for a single file of people in each direction and so it was slow going but eventually we hear the roar of water and see the mist rising up above the trees on the next island. Further on we start to see the rapids and the first signs of water disappearing over a cliff – and crowds of people standing and gawping. Then, we are there, above the falls, looking down on the Devil’s Throat and on the people standing where we stood yesterday as they look up at us. The noise of the falls is terrific, the volume of water immense – and this is only part of the falls. There is a short video below that shows a little of the sights and sounds.

After retracing our steps along the walkway and back on the train, we have time for a walk along the side of the river to see more of the falls before lunch (and before our boat trip which is booked for 1:45). Here we got some of the best views of individual waterfalls and also out along the length of the cliff giving us a better feel for the sheer extent of the falls. Against the sheer spectacle of the falls we forget that we are sharing the view with a crowd of tourists and we get lost in the view and the sights.

Before we left the hotel, we had been told to expect to get wet and, in the heat of the afternoon sunshine, that seemed like a really good idea. We loaded up into trucks which drove us through the jungle that surrounds the falls and down to the loading pontoon for the boats that would take us up close. For the first section, up the river and through some rapids to the falls we could keep our cameras out and we got some great pictures of the falls (and of us with the falls in the background). Then it was time to put the cameras away and to feel as well as see the falls. As promised, we got absolutely soaked – great fun, and I’m pretty sure that I have had colder showers in a couple of hotels on this trip! All in all, a great way to finish our visit to Iguassu Falls.

Whilst we went to see Skyfall last night, the rest of our group went to a restaurant close to the hotel and came back raving about how good (and good value it was), so we thought that we had better check it out. A good call – it was a BrazillianRodexeiro (?? should have taken a photo of the sign!) restaurant. For R$20 (£7) you got access to a buffet of salads, rice etc and the waiters would keep bringing out different barbequed meats until you beg them to stop. The highlights were some of the cuts of beef (singed outside, red inside) and the pork with crispy crackling. True or not, we felt that we have been deprived of (proper) meat for a while and so we gorged ourselves! A good way to end (another) great day.

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Day 85: Waterfalls and Skyfall

Tues. 6th November 2012

Facemasks were essential last night to get any sleep on the bus, as the lightening lit up the night sky and then the sunrise at 5ish according to our watches but 6ish in Iguassu time.

Soon after 7am we drew up outside our hotel and loaded all our belongings into the only room that was ready for us. This was quickly followed by showers and the  best breakfast we have had to date on this leg of our travels. Fresh fruit, recently cooked scrambled eggs, slices of sausage in onions, tasty coffee and lots of choice of cakes.

There was then time to stretch our legs and get our bearings in this new town. As we needed more cash we headed off to Rua Brazil, were the banks should be, but after 20 minutes walk and rejection of our card in two banks (including Santander, which we thought would be a safe bet) we gave up and headed back to our hotel.

At 10:30 we were off again, this time by minibus to see the Brazilian side of the waterfalls, but first stop was to a different bank where Zaida said we should all be able to get cash – success for most of us. Later there was a Skype session to NatWest by two of our group to unblock debit cards. Just over £1 for the double phone call to the UK to sort the problems – much cheaper than mobiles or hotel phones.  Thank you Skype for saving the day again.

Next it was off to the falls which are actually 22km out of town and part of a National Park declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986. We had expected it would be like Niagara where the town has been built around the falls. Luckily this was not the case as Niagara is far too tacky, this was much more natural surroundings (despite the man made walkways and other tourists!).

As some of our group had booked a helicopter flight they were the first to see the falls during their ten minute flight. Very spectacular was the verdict, but worth £6 a minute – only if you were not counting the pennies or it was on honeymoon!

The rest of us had to wait until we had got back on the minibus for two minutes, got off and walked through the entrance, back on the minibus for 5 minute drive then got off again and start walking along the marked trail!!

It was a case of following the path and the tourists to various viewpoints and wait for a space on the railings for the view and taking photos – and we took lots of photos.That said the views were definitely worth the wait and it is difficult to convey the sheer size and number of waterfalls in photographs. There are between 150 and 270 waterfalls depending on the season and the flow/volume of water.

I remember visiting waterfalls in Wales, as a girl, and my dad trying many different settings on his film SLR camera to trying and make the water look like water and not cotton wool, as he described it! Even with digital cameras that is still a challenge but good daylight and auto setting helped me.

The last viewpoint was up close to the falls called Devils Throat, so named because of the loud roar of the water. The waterfall is nearly 90 metres high and the spray on our faces was quite refreshing on such a hot day. However the ice creams and cakes in the local patisserie were even more welcome once we had finished sightseeing for the day.

It was good to finally return to the hotel, an hour or so later than expected, and find our rooms were ready for us. It only left us 2 1/2 hours before Dave & I were out again to go to the cinema to catch the new James Bond film, Skyfall in English with Portuguese subtitles.

As it was half price Tuesday the entrance ticket was only £2 each but the taxi was £5 each way, still a cheap night out. The cinema was small and the audience totalled 12 including us. The film was well worth it and very enjoyable and even better, it will stop Dave going on about how he is missing Skyfall in the UK. It did leave me pondering, however, as there was some amazing Scottish scenery featured in the film and there we were thousands of miles away, enjoying  it on a cinema screen!

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