Puerto Iguazu. Argentina

The Captain and Admiral were off on another adventure of epic proportions.  back to jungle life they went off to visit one of the  Seven natural wonders of the world – Iguazu Falls.

Iguazu Falls are waterfalls located on the borders of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil. The Iguazu waterfall system makes up 3.2 kilometres of the Iguzu River and consists of 275 waterfalls.

The name Iguazu originates from two words that mean ‘water’ and ‘big’. These words don’t quite capture the magnificence of this natural wonder. Iguazu Falls was declared one of the  Seven Wonders of Nature in 2011.
Located two hours by flight or about 1,500 kilometres away in a town of Argentina called Puerto Iguazu. The little city with 4,000 lucky residents sits amidst the tropical Atlantic rainforest.

The Captain and Admiral woke up extremely hungover as the night before in Buenos Aires, they had had a fancy dinner experience, which included free flowing wine, followed by an after party, followed by a night cap. Luckily for them the domestic airport that would take them to Iguazu was only a 15 minute ride from their Buenos Aires accommodation, located just at the outskirts of the CBD. After a short 2 hour flight they disembarked at a very small airport, instantly feeling a wave of heat. The temperature in the tropical jungle was 36 degrees Celcius and they had just flown from a city where the Mercury had barely touched 22 degrees the whole week. Jackets off and sweating instantly, they were able to grab a taxi that would take them to their hotel.

When dropping them off, the taxi driver advised that 500 metres down the road from where they were lodging was a tourist attraction, where they could see three countries Paraguay,  Argentina and Brazil. After checking in they walked down to the point.
It was exactly as described, a lookout point over a river with three bodies of land on each side.

In the middle of the lookout point was the Argentine obolix, painted in light blue, white and yellow, representing the Argentina flag colours. Likewise from the observation deck they could see similar structures, resembling the country flag colours on each of the bodies of land. This point was the meeting spot for three nations. Hanging out for a while, doing some touristy things, it  was not too long until the novelty faded. They walked back to the hotel and tried to kill some time before heading out again for dinner, only venturing out when the sun went down so the area would cool down. It did and it seemed that the mosquitoes had the same intentions. it was back to jungle life and they sprayed themselves once again with mossie repellent and headed for a walk.  They were surprised to see how lively the city became, the whole city seemed to come to life, there were restaurants and bars as well as tons of souvenir shops and street vendors out and about.  It was a  strip that felt long, going for about 5 blocks, which was a lot more than the Captain had anticipated.
Much to the Admiral’s annoyance, the Captain made it a point to visit every store to make sure he had an indexed memory of all the souvenirs sold in the city.

Since they only had one night in town, the Captain and Admiral had decided to book the best voted restaurant in town, a place where just the name oozes fancyness, Agva. They were not conservative when ordering, wanting to try the local specialties and as well as the grill. They ordered a platter of entrees which included Surubi, which was a river fish local to the region, a corn pie, also a regional dish, Heart of Palm and Yuka. All of it was presented nicely and tasted ok. For the mains they ordered the Lamb T-Bone and the Chicken roulade. Both these dishes were terrible. The Lamb was overcooked and very fatty and the chicken was just lathered in sauce. They were extremely disappointed and like spoilt children started reminiscing about food back in Melbourne. They finished up and strolled bank to the hotel, hoping for an early night as the next day was going to be phenomenal.
The Captain and Admiral awoke fresh and excited about the day ahead, although due to jungle duties (applying sunscreen and insect repellent) as well as doing the checkout dance, it ended up taking longer than usual. Just as the Captain poured himself coffee and toasted a slice of bread, the enthusiastic tour guide Miguel arrived.

As soon as they sat in the bus they could tell that something was wrong, the rest of the members of the tour spoke Spanish. Their tour was to be in Spanish! Luckily Miguel spoke great English and assured them not to worry, he said he would be doing the tour in both Spanish and English for them.
They drove along to the natural park, learning many things about the falls. There is a legend that explains how the falls were created. A god was to marry Naipi, a beautiful woman. This woman canoed away with her lover, angering the god. The god was enraged and sliced the river, which not only created the falls but condemned the two lovers to fall for eternity. We also learnt that Iguazu Falls is taller than, and twice as wide as Niagara Falls. It also has  the highest annual average flow, more than Niagara Falls. Iguazu river is wider than Lake Victoria on the Zambian/Zimbabwean border. However due to the outcrops that interrupts its water falls, it is considered smaller.

With all this all knowledge, the anticipation and expectation grew significantly for the Captain and Admiral.  They got off the bus and purchased the  tickets to enter the park. As soon as they entered Miguel the tour guide briefed them on the day’s activities and what they should expect.

The first thing they had to do was board an open air train, that would take them to the most impressive waterfall called ‘The Devil’s Throat’. They jumped on the train which proceeded to go deep into the rainforest. As they chugged along on the very slow train they discovered that that the rainforest delta surrounding that they were in contained 2,000 species of plants.
As they were going along the Captain noticed a weirdd animal lurking deep in the forest. He had seen a few glimpses of it and mentioned it to Miguel. He explained that it was some sort of Racoon/ Possum. Miguel did tell them the name of this creature twice but both times they did not catch it. The Captain and Admiral named them BushPigs.

He said they are seen everywhere around here and would often come up to tourists that are eating and steal their food. He also explained that they often got aggressive when they didn’t get food and have been known to bite tourists. He said they all should be careful not to entertain them by offering food. He also said that they would see plenty of BushPigs walking around.

After 30 minutes they disembarked at a small station with a metal mesh path trail emerging from one side. The metal trail was about 1.5 meters wide with railings on each side and disappeared into the jungle.  They were asked to follow that trail and in 1.2 kilometres they would get to see the devil’s throat waterfall. The Sun stated to rise and the temperature was slowly rising as they walked. Noticing that the jungle shade was providing some cool breeze. They came to a little breakpoint in the Forrest and saw their first BushPig up close. The Captain would describe it less like a racoon but more a cross between a possum and an anteater. They took some photos.

Slowly in about 200 meters the landscape changed, they were no longer walking in the forest, but rather on a path that was crossing a river.  Stumped foundations held the path up as under the mesh was flowing water. The path continued going over rivers and streams. In the water they saw tortortoises and catfish.

After about 20 minutes of waking over streams and lakes they started to see a wall of white in the horizon. It resembled a white cloud in the distance, they also could hear distant sounds of running water. This was strange as the lake and streams they had been walking on had been calm waters.  They continued to walk towards the white wall, which now has rainbow steaks running through it and birds circling overhead.  At the end of the path an observation opening appeared. They’re had been many people at the observation deck and it was not until done people moved, that they could get a clear view of what was on the other side.

Devil’s Throat.  What they saw instantly made their jaws drop, they let out a gasp, followed by whispering words such as ‘jesus, oh my god and wow’.  It was huge. It was phenomenal. It was overwhelming.

One again they found that words or photographs or videos cannot do any justice to what thier eyes saw. It was massive, the sheer volume of water, the pressure, the sound and not to forget the mist. They stood in awe, feeling goosebumps.  It was a as if they went through several phases when  standing and looking at the devil’s throat, these included feeling overwhelmed  followed by shock and finally awe. It was no surprise to learn that when Eleanor Roosevelt, the former USA President Roosevelt’s wife visited the falls. She exclaimed, “Poor Niagara,’ when she first laid eyes on Iguazu Falls.

The U-shaped chasm contains 14 waterfalls that plunge more than 350 feet. The mist that rises from the falls at Devil’s Throat reaches up to 490 feet at times. They needed to get back and meet the tour guide at the rendezvous point, and as much as they didn’t want to leave that time was getting close, they headed back.

Miguel then pointed out some stumps in the water and explained that previously that used to be a walkway. In the 2000s a massive storm happened and swept the walkway away, he mentioned that when that storm occured,  39 million liters if water gushed through per second. They continued along the walking trail getting to see many other waterfalls in the region.  Each of them stunning and each bigger than any the Captain and Admiral had seen ever before, yet after seeing the Devil’s Throat, seemed small. Each of the Falls were just Mesmerising. Along the hike they got to see many smaller Falls from a variety of different angles. Additionally as they were walking on the jungle path they saw beautiful butterflies, birds and lizards.  They discovered that the Falls can be seen in many movies including: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Miami Vice and Mr. Mago

Once they had completed the hike of the upper trail Miguel took them to an area where they could have lunch. Here there was a few school cafeteria type food stations, you picked a meal, grabbed it from the Bain Marie and then paid for it at the end. The shed was packed but the captain and admiral were able to get a seat inside. A big relief since it was overt thirty degrees outside along with a dozen  BushPigs walking around trying to steal the lunch off tourists. Staying safe from the Bushpigs the Admiral and Captain met Miguel who explained the post lunch activities. They had two options; hike the lower trail of the waterfalls and the other was take a jungle ride followed boat ride to see the waterfalls. His recommendation was option 2, doing the jungle and boat adventure. Miguel advised that they would get wet but they had some dry bags.

Captain and Admiral decided that despite the steep cost and the inconvenience of taking a flight back with drenched clothes, they wanted to do das boot – YOLO.

They headed to the jungle station where a open jeep picked them up. The guide onboard briefed them about the jungle, and safety proceedures on the vessel. He explained how branches of sticks could hit passengers sitting on the side of the jeep. Since the Admiral was sitting at the front on the edge it made her a prime victim. Surely enough 5 minutes into the ride a tree branch smacked the Admiral in the face. She was ok it missed her eye and may have left a bruise but nothing could have been done. They continued on the jeep with the Admiral paranoid and suffering from PTSD from the incident. They continued to drive deeper into the forest, on the way explaining the wildlife. They were able to see a toucan and a big lizard in the wild.

Finally they reached the last stop of the Jeep ride, this was the dock for the boat ride. It was down a path that decended a mountain. They walked down, thinking to themselves how much it would suck to walk up these steps later. As they reached the bottom they had a massive realisation, the so called boats mentioned were not a cruise ship as they had imagined, rather speed boats! They got given some dry bags and the captain advised to take off his tee shirt. When asked will they get ‘very wet’ the response was ‘Si’.

Upon the boat things seemed calm as they passed the Brazilian border, however this changed ‘rapidly’ as they got closer to the waterfall. Pushing the boat against the current, they went against some strong water flow. The boat was bouncing and being thrashed by the  white water rapids and the Captain was freaking out, holding on for dear life. The Admiral consoling him by explaining what to do if they capsized.  This advice was not well received as the Captain freaked out even more. Soon in calmer waters they stopped for some photographs. They had gotten close to the falls and the view was beautiful from the water. The pilot of the boat then asked everyone to put those phones away, things were going to get wet. The pilot then started inching towards the waterfall, getting deeper into the mist, little mist droplets landing on them, this proved anticlimactic as he then went full speed against the water current right under the waterfall. They got drenched! Everyone on the boat was screaming as the water hit them It was like a super high pressure shower. Invigorating

Getting soaked by the waterfall in the heat was refreshing and scary, none of them could open their eyes due the to pressure and all they could do was scream. In the brief moments that they did manage to open their eyes they saw that they had been piloted right under the waterfall. They sat getting soaked under one of the biggest waterfalls in the world! It was an awesome experience! Soaking wet all the way to their underwear they reached back on shore hoping the jungle heat would do its job and  dry off as they headed back to the tour meeting spot.

With that the tour ended and they said goodbye to the BushPigs and the most phenomenal and stunning waterfalls they had ever witnessed. They jumped on the bus still wet and headed back to the hotel, picking up some snacks to have whilst they waited for an airport pickup.

A few hours later they were airborne again heading back to Buenos Aires,  reminiscing on the day they had and what they felt and experienced at the Iguazu waterfalls. A life achievement and one of the 7 natural wonders unlocked.