Iguazu Falls!!! Ben and I are both so excited to finally see them, this was one of our must see sights on the trip. Everyone say you should see them from both sides to get the full impact - from the Brazilian side for the overall view and from the Argentinian side for the up close and personal view! We spent one night in Foz de Iquacu on the Brazil side before catching a bus over the border to stay in Puerto Iguazu on the Argentinian side for 2 more nights. From Foz de Iguacu we caught a bus to the National Park and followed the path along to the falls. You can hear them before you see them but the first glimpse across the river was really exciting! We walked all the way along until we reached a walkway which takes you out and over the river to a viewing platform. This was the best part as not only did we get an amazing 360 degree view of the falls and the river we also got completely drenched by the spray! This part of the river is know as Devils Throat (Gargantua Diablo) as it is where the river bed drops and the falls are created. I've never seen so much water! October is when it is in full flow so hundreds and thousands of gallons of water were flowing over the falls. It was spectacular, the most impressive natural wonder I have ever seen. It is actually higher and wider than Niagara Falls! After the walkway we visited the panoramic viewing platform where you can stand right next to the waterfall, it's deafening, you have to shout to be heard over it!
The park is home to Quitos which are cute and inquisitive, they move like badgers but they are brown and fluffy with longer snouts and bushy tails. They are quite a pest in the food areas and one snuck up on Ben and nearly grabbed his sandwich!
Walking around the falls had taken about 4 hours and we were tired on our way back to the hostel to grab our bags. That afternoon we caught a bus to Puerto Iguazu, crossing the border into Argentina on the way. We have been catching public buses as much as possible instead of taxis/transfers as it is more of an adventure that way and we've been really enjoying it/impressed with ourselves!
We spent 2 nights in Puerto Iguazu and a full day in the Argentina Iguazu National Park. We had booked the boat ride into the falls so as soon as we got to the park we set out along a trail that would lead us to the river. The park is really pretty and quite different to the Brazil side, there's more forest and wildlife (a deer crossed the path right in front of us and we saw lots of iguanas). There are also really pretty butterflies everywhere in Iguazu park - blue, purple, red, yellow and black and they flutter around landing on you regularly. The pathway lead us past lots of smaller waterfalls and down to the main river where we boarded the speedboat. This is what Ben's GoPro was made for - he looked like a right geek with it strapped to his head! I felt a bit nervous as we boarded, the falls look even bigger from this tiny little boat! The trip lasted about 12 minutes and took us right up to the bottom of 2 different falls. There was so much spray neither of us could even see, it was brilliant and there was lots of giggling and shrieking. I'm so glad we did it, we got completely drenched again!
After the boat we caught the land train up to the highest pathway which is a wooden walkway that leads out over the calm part of the river to a viewing platform at the mouth of the Devils Throat waterfall. It was beautiful, clouds of spray obscure the view of the river below, there are rainbows everywhere and the sound of the water crashing over the falls is indescribable. We could have stayed there all day. We both just kept grinning at each other,we were so happy and having the best day.
After a full day at the park we caught the bus back to our hostel and had a chilled evening ahead of our 8am flight to BA tomorrow morning!