Sunday, January 5, 2014

Iguazu Falls

Up to Iguazu
We left our hotel at 7am to catch the flight to Iguazu. Didn’t start well at the airport as we had to pay for excess baggage over 15kilos and mine came out at 20kg. I couldn’t believe it as I was15kg when I left Sydney and I had a bag full of presents! Then we boarded a small plane and as we were boarding the windscreen was being cleaned - I suppose it was good that the pilot could see where he was going!! But what a flight! It started okay with good views over Buenos Aires but just after we’d been given our snack and a cup of tea the turbulence started and didn’t let up and it was amongst the worst I’d been in. Good thing you weren’t there Kerry as you’d have been screaming!  Suffice to say we arrived unscathed and are now sitting in a pleasant garden!.We have had torrential rain since we arrived but at the moment it’s let up. There are humming birds coming to a feeder next to us so we are finally with nature and not in a concrete jungle.

The last two days have definitely been OMG!! experiences. The first day we visited the Iguazu Fall on the Argentinian side. As we entered the park we walked through the jungle for a short time before catching  a little train which took us closer to the falls.. We had to walk for at least a mile on bridges spanning the river and the power of the water was awe inspiring. As we got closer to the fall we quickly put n our plastic macs as the spray was really strong and we could see people returning with saturated clothes! Wow when you finally saw the falls you were bowled over by the amount of flowing water. We had our photo taken at one of the main lookout and as we stood there great waves of water erupted over us and we were soon very wet! We continued on different trails taking in the fall from different angles - you just can’t get over the size of them.

We opted to go on a boat ride close to the falls and as we got close we put the plastic mac back on added the life jacket and boarded. We had been given ‘wet bags’ to store all our belongings in and decided to take our shoes off and put them in too. There were people stripping off to their swimmers, which we thought was strange until the trip started! We were so naive! The short version is that we went under the falls and it was like having a bath full of water thrown over you! In seconds we were drenched - how did the water manage to get into my undies?! It was awesome and luckily it was warm enough to cope with wet clothes but wewere really glad that we had taken our shoes off! We were then driven back to the entrance of the park. They reckon that you walk about 8 miles!

Today we headed to Brasil. The border is very close to here and there was no trouble with getting in to the country. We had decided to take a helicopter ride over the falls and it was an awesome 10 minutes. Seeing the falls from the air gave a greater perspective about how big they are. We then entered the park and had to take a bus to the first viewing point from the Brazilian side. You were given another panoramic view of the falls. These have to be the most amazing natural wonder that you can see and anyone coming to this side of the world should not miss Iguazu  Falls.



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