Day 296 - Puerto Iguazu and Argentina sum up - Tuesday 7th August 2012

We arrived into Puerto Iguazu and our first job was to find the hostel, usually we (Soph) has the road name, directions, local landmarks, weather charts and star guide formations to help us get to the hostel!! This time we only had the name of the road. It was still pretty early so we grabbed our bags off the bus and looked for someone to ask, luckily there was a guy outside selling some funky looking bread out of a small basket in the middle of the road (I love south America!). We asked him if he knew where the road was and he looked at us as if we were taking the mickey him before saying that we were standing on the road we wanted!! Two blocks to our left and down the hill four hundred yards and we arrived at Garden Stone hostel. We literally chucked down our bags, grabbed a shower, changed and headed back to the bus stop so we could get to the falls; we just need to get the bus…the internet said it so easy, you just buy them off the touts for $10 pesos, the lady in our hostel said it was a piece of cake, we could buy the tickets on the bus $7 pesos, the lady at the bus station said it was simple, we could buy them at the central office $12 pesos……..we eventually bought them from the driver for $8 pesos so the advice and research was awesome. The bus ride was about forty minutes and once we arrived at the entrance there was no queue and the tickets were about £20 each; this included a train to all the falls and to the Devils throat - this is the name of the main huge falls! We decided to walk the first half of the trail and on our way we saw loads of coatis. These are basically small half raccoon, half badger looking animals that seemed pretty friendly to us but once they saw someone with food they were different. We saw some actually grabbing onto bags that were in people's hands, desperately trying to open it and eat whatever was inside!! On the walk we passed some of the smaller falls that we really nice and picturesque, especially as there were thousands of really colourful butterflies everywhere. Sophie was doing her best to get them to land on her whilst I was trying my best not to tread on them! As we walked further along the trail you start to hear the sounds of the main falls getting louder and louder, then you catch your first glimpse… you see the falls from about a mile away and it really is amazing!! When I have seen pictures of Iguazu Falls in the past there are always loads of rainbows by the falls and I assumed they were superimposed but I can promise you they are for real. They are the perfect rainbows too and the whole scene is amazing. Once we saw this we took a few pictures then caught the mini train to the main falls, the Devils Throat. Here on the Argentinian side you can actually stand on the rim of the falls and see the water explode off the edge and down to the river below, the sound and scene is brilliant and the mist is everywhere - we got completely soaked!! I find it very hard to explain it in words and I think I have probably failed to do it justice but just checkout the photos Sophie took and you might see what I am trying to say?!! That night we ate a stir fry and grabbed an early night as tomorrow we are off to see the other side of the falls at our final country and destination - Brazil!!

Sum up Argentina

Ah Argentina - what an amazing place! We had a blast………….from skiing in the south, to gulping mucho vino in Mendoza, to eating far too much meat in the vibrant capital and then being rendered speechless with the impressive Iguazu Falls - who could have thought that one country could provide so much!? Argentina was definitely one of our countries that we could have spent a lot more time exploring and getting under its skin. The people were friendly, just as long as we didn't mention anything to do with the Falklands, but I think the stand outs for us were the quantity and quality of the red wine and red meat - we had our best ever wine and best ever steak in this country. I think that sums it up really - fantastic place, enough said.