Iguaca Falls Day 236 12/05/2015

Another day, another country, although this was only a fleetingly visit. We were up at 0700, breakfasted and at the bus station for the 0830 bus to go to the Brazilian side of the falls. Whilst it is across the border and further away, the tickets cost less than the previous day even though we were using the same company. Only in South America! At the Argentinian border we got off the bus, passports checked and another Argentina stamp. We drove over the bridge across Rio Iguazu arriving immediately at the Brazilian border. Here the driver just collected our passports and was back in 5 minutes with them stamped accordingly (although it's rather a plain, boring stamp - how sad are we!!). We bypassed the town of Foz do Iguaca and headed up to the visitor centre which is situated north of the town on a peninsular. We paid our entrance fee at the gate (which was about half the cost of the day before) and once inside the park, boarded a bus to journey the 4km to the falls. We got off half way along, at the first mirador point and managing to get in front of the first tour group of the day, walked down 20 odd metres. Across the river was the whole panorama of the falls and we were virtually opposite where we were on the upper and lower trails yesterday. The view was quite breathtaking, with over 100 waterfalls cascading over the green cliffs. The sun was behind us and the sky was blue so perfect for viewing and pictures. We then walked along the terraced trail, stopping at the many viewpoints to drink the wonderful sight of the many different aspects of the falls. We then came to the Garganta del Diablo balcony (the Devil's Throat), which extends 90m across the river, in front of a huge waterfall, enabling you to see the "monster" right ahead. We looked up to the viewing balcony on the other side which we were at yesterday. The waterfall created sprays of fine mist and this coupled with the sun, created a huge complete rainbow spanning across the falls and river. It was truly magnificent and magical to behold. From here we climbed up the stairs (we could have used the glass elevator but the tour groups had caught us up and we didn't fancy queuing) and from the top of the viewing platform looked down onto the Salto Floriano waterfall. We had noticed lots of swallows and swifts swirling above the water and in between the water cascading down, and we saw where they perched on the cliffs and built their nests. Whilst it must be a good place to catch their food (insects) it must be a very tenuous place to nest as they must get washed away when the river floods and the waterfalls increase from c150 to c250. Above the walkway was the point of the peninsula and the end of the trial, so we sat in the warm sunshine, had croissants and coffee for early lunch and looked across at the serene waters of the river, ready to cascade down the falls only a few metres in front. From there we went two thirds of the way back along the road and got off the bus as we wanted to walk a 2km trail in the jungle to the other river. However we were stopped at the entrance to be told we would have to pay extra for this, so as we had spent enough and weren't that bothered, caught the next bus back to the visitor centre. Our bus back to Puerto Ignazu had just arrived, we jumped aboard and reversed our journey (and border process) to the bus station in town. After a couple of drinks in the centre soaking up the pleasant sunshine, we headed back to our b&b to check in for our flights tomorrow and write the blog! That evening we headed to a very pleasant local restaurant where Simon enjoyed a local river fish dish (suribo) and Diane had a tasty pumpkin ravioli and over a glass of wine reminisced on our two days. The views of the falls were quite different from both sides; the Brazilian side was marginally more spectacular as you could see the whole panorama but the Argentinian side enabled you to get very close the the falls and with the Devil's Throat in particular, really feel with awe the power and majesty of Mother Nature. We would recommend that anyone who visits here has two full days as it is certainly worth going to both sides.

Looking across to the cascades in Argentina 

The view as we walked upstream alongside Rio Iguazu 

Looking into the Garganta del Diablo 

Salto Floriano on the left (the tiny black flecks are swifts) 

The full arc of the rainbow was just visible

The incredible panorama from the viewing platform 

Looking across to where we'd been stood yesterday 

More rainbows...

The calm waters of the Rio Iguazu above Garganta del Diablo 

Crossing the border back into Argentina