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Today I was up super early as the other two Couchsurfers were up packing early to catch their 6am flight. After breakfast I packed my things then headed to the bus stop where I took a bus into the city. I then had to take a bus over the boarder back into Argentina to the other side of the falls. I managed to get bus ok and amazingly there was only 4 others on bus, however immigration staff took longer to enter my passport details and when I exited the office the bus was taking off. I couldn't believe that driver couldn't even wait the 2 extra minutes for me and so my adventure began. I tried hitchiking to the city centre but no one picked me up so in the end I walked and instead of walking right into the centre of town I figured I would walk out to the Falls road and hope a bus would come past. After a long walk in the hot morning sun and then a 20 minute wait a bus did finally come past and stop - amazingly the price was over double that of the bus from Brazil to Argentina and the distance to the falls was far less. When the bus arrived it became obvious I certainly wasn't going to be alone at the falls today and there was certainly going to be many more people today. I paid the entrance (even though I had a hand-drawn map to show me a hidden entrance) which was far cheaper then the Brazil side and then made my way into the park. The Argentinian side has even better infrastructure then the Brazilian side and far more things to do; three different walking platforms, boat rides, tours, eating areas, lookouts and an array of different resteraunts. I started off at the info centre gathered some info and then started to trek the lower platform. The sun was out and every angle and platform overlooking the falls was breathtaking - the nice thing was there wasn't so many people yet so I had some time to enjoy the views before the masses descended on the park. After a few hours on the lower platform I made it to the boat crossing but unfortunately there was too much water in the river and the boat rides over to the island were cancelled for the day. Not to worry I headed to the final fall which had a platform right to the base and i was able to literally stand under it. I continued to the upper platform and unfortunately the masses of people had now arrived and there were 100s of people crammed onto the platforms trying to take photos. The view from above the falls was also spectacular and even with all the people it was still awsome. After 3 hours or so on the platforms I headed to the station where there was a train that took us to the final site: The Devils Throat - a 1km platform out over the river to a huge gorge surrounded in a massive fall. The Devils Throat was surely the highlight and just writing about it brings shivers down my spine. Imagine a huge whole in the ocean with thousands of tons of water falling 100 meters into a put and the spray flying 100s of meters in the air as if creatings its own clouds. I stood in awe with 200 other people unable to comprehend what was being seen. In the end there were too many people so I called it a day and went back to the station. After some lunch I took the train back to the entrance and waited for the bus back to the city centre. It ended up taking a few hours to get back to the city - I decided to have a walk around and try and spend the last of my Argentinian pesos before catching the bus back across the boarder into Brazil. This time I made sure the bus driver wouldn't leave without me and was back in Foz do Iguacu by midday. I went straight to the supermarket and brought a few things for tonight's cook-up. When I arrived back at Sheila's she was home and just doing some washing which was great as I could chuck a few things in also. We chatted a while before she had to go do some tutoring and I started on tonight's dinner: Spanish Tortilla. As always with my cooking I took hours and prepared everything to perfection in the hope I could convey my gratitude for Sheila's wonderful hospitality. Sheila loved the tortilla and the fresh guocamole I had made and I had also brought her some of my favorite Argentinian sweets back from my day in Argentina. After dinner we sat and started watching an old Brazilian film but unfortunately I kept falling a sleep so we had to stop it and watch again tomorrow night.
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