Thursday 1st May
Today we went to see Iguazu Falls from the Argentinian side - they were very impressive, and then the weather turned to crap! It is a national holiday here today, so we were expecting the falls to get pretty busy, hence we decided to get there as early as possible for the best views.
We were at the falls by 0800, when the park opened, so we were among the first in for the day which was cool as it meant we got to see some of the falls with very few people around (by 1100 there were people everywhere, even though the weather was bad). The first trail we walked took us around the top of the falls, so we got great views of all the water going over the edge and looking down into all the spray. It was so quiet at the tops of the falls right up until you got within a couple of meters of the edge. If you had been on the river, you wouldn't even know you were coming up to the falls until it was too late to do anything about it! The power of the falls was absolutely amazing, the spray from some of them rose back up above the tops of the falls.
After the Superior Circuit we walked down to the Inferior Circuit and got our first view of "Gargantan del Diablo" (The Devil's Throat) the largest and most powerful of the falls - it was very, very cool! At the bottom of the path we caught a boat over to Isla San Martin, where we walked to another couple of lookouts. One of the lookouts is in the middle of a vulture roosting area, so that was interesting being surrounded by big, UGLY birds. One of the lookouts is also directly opposite a long line of falls, so we got pretty up close and personal with the water (but not as close as later on.....).
After our visit to the island, we decided to go on a speedboat ride around and up to the falls. We were given a waterproof bag to put all our gear in, and a life jacket, and then we were off with a boat load of other people. The ride started off pretty gently, zooming around the base of the falls to get some good photo opportunities. Then the guide said to put our cameras away, and next thing we know, he has backed the boat up and is heading full tilt into the falls! Needless to say we got absolutely soaked (including very wet arses, as the seats filled up with water), but it was exhilarating to feel the power of all that water.
The weather had been pretty overcast all day, and just as we got back to the dock, we heard thunder and saw lightning, and not long after it started raining. Luckily at this point it was only light, so our clothes had mostly dried out by the time it really started pelting down. After a quick stop for lunch, we caught the little train to the top of Garganta. On the way it really started raining, and so we got soaked on the 2.2km walk on a boardwalk over the river to the tops of the falls. We were gutted that the weather had turned to crap, as it meant we didn't stay as long as we would have liked, and we headed home just after 1500. But it was good to get back to the hostal and have a nice warm shower and get into some dry clothes.
On the way home from dinner we stopped in at the Heladaria (ice cream shop) next door and bought a large tub of ice cream each - equivalent to about 4 or 5 scoops each! But the ice cream headache was worth it, cos it tasted yummy (especially my Dulce de Leche ice cream - can you tell I'm a little bit obsessed with Dulce de Leche yet?)
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