Iguazu Falls (May 7 - 9, 2006)

Our last day in Buenos Aires was mostly spent re-packing our bags, updating the webbsite and getting ready to leave. In the afternoon we went to El Alamo (the bar that serves free beer, pretty much all day). The last time we went there for free beer their draft taps were broken, but this time they were working again! We ordered food though, because we felt guilty just sitting there drinking free beer and watching the futbol game on their tv. It was the final championship game for La Boca and of course they won. We had to leave before the game ended though, to get back to Adam & Andrea’s, grab our packs, say goodbye to Roger, Andrea, Adam and Pooch (very sad!) and get to the bus station. We cut it pretty close, and made it on the bus just five minutes before it pulled out of the station, exactly on time at 7pm.

The bus was very comfortable, and we had the two front seats on the upper deck (there are two levels to the long-distance buses here). Right off the bat they brought us candies, soft drinks, then whisky (?). The meal came shortly thereafter and looked pretty good. I didn’t eat much of it because I was still feeling terrible from the cold and had lost my appetite. Lincoln ate it though, and said it was good. We slept most of the night, despite the crying baby. We had earplugs and eye shades, which helped. We pulled into Puerto Iguazu exactly on time again, 11:30am the following morning. There were the usual touts trying to sell us hostels, but we had already decided to check out the one that was just across the street from the bus station. We are only staying one night, so didn’t really care if the place was super nice or not. Hostel San Fernando was basic, but okay, and cheap at only 40 pesos including breakfast, so we stayed.

After showering and getting settled in, we headed for the park. The public bus to get there was more expensive than we expected (7 pesos each, return), and the entrance fee for the park was 30 pesos each as well. The park provides a little train to take people around, and we hopped on it and went straight for the Garganta del Diablo (devil’s throat), the biggest and strongest waterfall in the park. There is a walkway about a kilometre long to get out to it, across the top of the river before it plunges below. It was awesome! We took tons of pictures, and a couple of videos, which we will post later. Have to get them off the camera first. Next we walked the Upper Circuit, which is another boardwalk that goes along the top of some other waterfalls (there are tons of waterfalls in this park, along a cliff face that is one or two kilometers long, I’ll have to find out the facts on it). More pictures were taken, of course. By this time it was nearing the last train out, so we caught it and headed back into town, planning to do the rest tomorrow.

We ate dinner (at 7:30, a bit closer to our normal time!) at La Fratella, which had great empanadas and a vegetarian pizza that wasn’t too bad, even with corn on it. Then it was back to our room to read and go to bed early. We are both still sick with this stupid cold, so it was great to be asleep by 10pm. We slept until 7:30 the following morning, which was a little later than we had hoped. We had to pack up our things again, and left our big packs at the hostel for the day. We had to bring our day packs with us though, jammed with stuff we usually leave behind, so they were heavy. We made it to the park by around 10am, and started off with the Macuco Trail – 6km round trip on a nice jungly trail to a small waterfall (25 metres high). Next we headed for the Lower Circuit path, which winds around below the waterfalls that we had walked above yesterday. Tons more pictures! The water levels were low enough, so we took the boat across to San Martin Island, which has more trails that get even closer to the falls, which had the best views of all. Lincoln said there was much less water than the last time he was here, and there were quite a few less waterfalls as a result. It was still spectacular though. After around six hours of solid walking our feet were pretty sore, but it is good practice for the hikes we will be doing in Bolivia. We headed back into town around 5:00, went straight to the Internet cafe to post an update, and let our parents know we arrived safely here. We’re going to grab something to eat now, and wait for another overnight bus.

The bus leaves Iguazu at 9:30pm tonight, gets to Tucuman (a city in northeastern Argentina) at 5:15, then we have almost three hours wait in Tucuman until we catch another bus to Salta, our final destination. We arrive there shortly after midnight. Ugh. 27 hours on the bus. The good part is we have “cama” seats which look super comfy and recline fully. Yay!

The Iguazu pictures are posted! To see them, click here

P.S. Lincoln discovered this morning that he forgot his rain jacket in Buenos Aires at Adam & Andrea’s. He was very grumpy and angry at himself!