Puerto Iguazu

Brazil

February 2007

Puerto Iguazu
16th to 19th February

Now we'd come to enjoy these bus journeys yes, but this one was a whopping thirty arduous hours. Add to that three changeovers and you'll understand whilst this was enough to test even our endurance. Now please do me the decency to stop and think about what I just said.... THIRTY hours on a bus. So lets run through this in your world and see just how long this is to have ones buttocks sat firmly in a seat without more than a five minute trip to the loo. So lets say we insert ourselves on this bus at 9am on a Monday morning as you sit down at your desk, coffee in hand, ready to take on a new week at work. Three long hours go by and you let out a little exhale as you realise its time for lunch... so you toddle off to the canteen and we, are indeed still on the bus. Back from lunch feeling in need of a little nap as you overdid it with the pudding and hey ho, we're still happily on the bus. The afternoon drags a little but you break it up with a trip to Starbucks and you jump with glee when the clock strikes 5:30 and you race for your train, but its not a train seat we are seated in, its the same bus seat now eight and a half hours in to our journey. A mere quarter of the way in...... anyhow lets not talk about our tales of woe, lets get back to you and by now you're cosy at home having just eaten a microwave meal and are now slumped in your favourite chair glued to Eastenders or Top Gear. A cup of tea or two, a few trips to the loo and then its clean your teeth and bed maybe around 11pm... how nice and snug you are and oh yes... we're still on the bus. Bless you.

What a beautiful nights sleep you've had and of course you deserve it, because yes its back to work you go.. musn't miss that train, pick up a copy of the Sun, run run run..... Wonder how Jon and Sarah are getting on with their round the world trip, probably sunning on the beach or on some extravagant excursion. But no, for we are, naturally still where you left us at exactly this same time a day previous. Oh OK but surely they'll be getting off soon, I mean you can fly all the way to Australia in 24 hours. So you login to your work computer and pretend to be productive whilst really you are playing Solitaire and the clock goes tunk with each movement of the minute hand. Lunch again, oh goody its spag bol, my favourite, you cry and get stuck in. Back to work, groan. and now its 1pm you're doing well almost there, another days work under your belt, another few pounds contributed to your pension fund, nice. And then just as you'd forgotten all about us, the clock strikes three and hoo-bloody-ray, the bus finally crawls in to its final destination and we whimper with happiness as all sensation in our rear ends had ceased long ago. So, that is thirty hours in your world, so imagine that on a bus watching badly dubbed Spanish movies. Its actually not the torturous ordeal you'd think! We love it.

But we got there eventually and we didn't care, for we had saved the best 'til last and had arrived at the main tourist attraction in Argentina and possibly one of the top five or ten in the world. Iguazu Falls! Iguazu Falls sits in a town called Puerto Iguazu and the falls and river actually act as the border between Argentina and Brazil. This is a massive bonus for these countries, due to the tourist pulling power it holds. If I were Paraguay and having this precious piece of land just outside my border I´d be tempted to toss a few missiles at the Argies and Brazilians in order to try and obtain a chunk of the revenue. Lucky I´m not, so i'll just stick to writing this here Blogskie.... forward and on....

We'd done our minuscule amount of research and had come up with one good piece of advice. Go and see the falls from the Brazilian side first! From that side you get a far off vantage point offering a wonderful panoramic vista of the entire falls. Then you should go to the Argentinian side a day later to get up close and personal with them and of course rather wet. Doing it in reverse order would simply be disappointing, so guess what, we followed the advice and headed for Brazil. This was rather easy, book a cab, pay him a large sum of cash, he drives you across the border and drops you right at the national park gate out of harms reach. Once inside this safe haven all is miraculous and wonderful and I kid you not. You are in a tropical paradise, with butterflies the size of your palm flapping around gently like small angels. He hee.. it really is marvellous, except for one small factor... its 34 degrees Celsius and you are one hot dog.

The falls themselves are in a word.... average, no of course not you fools. they are stupendously breathtaking and go on forever and ever. Big ones, small ones, tall ones, short ones and everything in between. Each with its own unique beauty that only nature could have played a part in. But the annoying thing was the cab driver would only wait for two hours which wasn't much by the time you got the bus in and out of the park but it was enough to fire off over a hundred photos you see. How did we ever manage with rolls of film, how jolly primative. Back across the border, and straight to the nearest hotel with a free swimming pool to extinguish the heat that was building up on ones skin!

We decided not to go to the Argentinian side of the falls the day after as that may have been overload on our senses so we took a rest day in between. Our hostel had no more nights so we did the only correct manoeuvre and inserted ourselves in one of the 5 star monsters down the road, equipped with a bed big enough to sleep a hippo, plus an extra room with a couple more singles for good measure, cable tv, spa, indoor and outdoor pools, gym, sauna and a superb buffet dinner. Right-e-o then, lets be using all the facilities and free shampoos we can lay our hands on, hair or no hair, its all going on my head. Lovely. But before I continue with our new found luxury, one great thing did happen before we left our hostel though and it was in the garden where we ate breakfast. The garden was dripping with the remnants of the tropical rain which was now visible on the over sized leaves. Dotted around the garden where five humming bird feeders loaded with nectar. We sat for over an hour watching these little avian bullets darting around, not staying in one place for more than a second. Their wings are just a blur and they are so so tiny, but did that stop me from getting one decent shot of one. Negatory and that's why you can see one in the photo gallery and I'm very proud to have taken it.

We woke on Sunday around 10am and as you do, left it to the last possible minute to slip down for the free buffet breakfast, which was enormous. Back to the room to let the food go down, shower and then we caught a cab to the falls once more. What better way to spend a Sunday, I tell you. A much better day as it was overcast and after the recent rain it was a comfortable climate. Butterflies were once again out in their droves, brightening up the place. I've never seen so many and the variations in size and colour seemed boundless. We spent a lot of time trying to get up close to get a really detailed shot only to have the inconsiderate specimen flutter away. But patience is key and we got lucky with some great shots, and I bet you've never seen a butterfly poo or do-the-doo.. well we have now and its going straight on my CV under miscellaneous achievements.

As well as the butter flies, we saw giant soldier ants, bugs, gekkos and larger lizards. But these were not what we had come to see. The falls were the star of the day, and there are plenty of them. Over 100 I think, spread out across a few miles of jungle landscape. We spent a great afternoon strolling around at our own pace admiring each one in turn. And I can't really elaborate on this so you simply must look at the photos and read about them on Google. Or even better, come and see them yourselves one day. Argentina is probably our favourite country of our trip thus far, and although its not highly promoted as a holiday destination for UK-ers, its brilliant.

Rock, Paper, Scissors
You should all know this game 'rock paper scissors' well how stupid really... we all know you can't harm a rock simply by wrapping some flimsy paper around it. But we now know of a new a much stronger adversary for our granite friends. Water! Over the past seven months we have seen a lot of these two foes, rock and water. And although at first thought you may say well of course rock is stronger than water but in fact, and even though it may take time, water is all powerful. It provides life to creatures and plants everywhere but also has the power to kill in the forms of tsunamis and heavy rainfall or snow. It can disguise itself, one minute docile inside an innocent looking bottle of Evian, or a teardrop.... the next hiding high above as a cloud, or underfoot as treachourous ice. I tell you, what else can warp its very being in to so many shapes and molecular structures. Water always looks so very busy and no more so than here at Iguazu where its running around, gotta run, gotta go go go, racing down the stream, over the fall, busy as can be, you can't stop us, for we are on our way out to sea... and why... invariably to meet more water. We've seen how this constant movement of water can carve stone and move mountain of rocks.... So I ask you.... If it were Rock, Water, Scissors.... who would you lay your money on.. rock right? Nope, its water all the way! You can't cut water with scissors! Unless its ice maybe but that's not in my script so don't even think it. Think water!

To complete our two month round trip of the country we headed back to Buenos Aires to our favourite hostel. That night we treated ourselves to a great restaurant we may have mentioned before, Broccolinos, who serve the best pasta. But strangely as had happened before my pasta dish would arrive looking a little dry and lacking in flavour whilst Sarah's would roll up looking saucier than a direct hit on a Heinz factory. figure that! So to cheer myself up I got the old barnet cut the very next day, which is quite easy to ask for in Spanish as I simply point to the shaver and say 'numero dos por favour'. Coldplay believe it or not were playing three nights across from our hostel (small world) but sadly tickets were rarer than something very rare indeed so we missed a cool event.

So that's it from Argentina... and where next you may ask, We intend to pop across the bay to Uruguay for six nights and then back to here before flying to Chile. So please do come and visit Argentina one day, even if you hate Maradonna, just do it. But be warned, the men here all kiss each other, which Sarah rather likes but I find more than a little disconcerting.

Roger that, over and out!.... is this thing switched off now.. crackle, click ...ahhh that's ....

NOTE: Please also check Argentina Puerto Iguazu for more photos.