Puerto Iguaz are next stop to see the great South America waterfalls! Due to money and time restraints we decided only to see the falls from the Argentina side(this is the recommended side!). The bus journey down was ok, compared to some of our other trips it was luxury but still long. We arrived at Foz de Iguazu in Brazil which was our final stop then took four different local buses and had to pass through three different immigration stops to finally cross the boarder into Argentina. We had attached ourselves to an Argentina girl who was doing the same trip so we cheated a little but we deserved a language break, however saying that both Becki and myself were so pleased to hear Spanish again, Portuguese was a crazy language and for us didn't sound similar to Spanish at all.

We arrived at our final stop and manged to walk to our hostel from the station, it is always a great achievement when that happens. Our hostel was small but nice, the lady owner was the nicest person ever who couldn't help enough. The hostel was an extension of their family home which was nice if you liked dogs! There were five huge dogs who loved to be played with and a few cats. That night we got some dinner as we didn't trust the kitchen but also secretly wanted to have are first Argentinian steak which was beautiful if a little over done but we dont think they quite understood rare and relaxed by watching a film (something that is a rare homely treat!) then off to bed.

To keep with the low cost theme we decided to do the waterfalls ourselves, so we hopped on the local bus and soon arrived at the entrance. We had decided to treat ourselves to the baptism boat trip from the falls so once we had paid to enter we rushed to book our boat so we didn't miss out.

After we were all booked we decided to walk towards the top of the second set of falls first, most tours head towards Devils Mouth first so we wanted to miss the typical tourist route. Our first walk was through the jungle and by George it was still a jungle. A few months ago one of the keepers children had been eaten by a jaguar as he had walked of the track. Sadly we didn't see any cats but we saw our fair share of rather large spiders and even larger spiders web. The jungle walk was only about 15 minutes and we soon came to the cross roads. We got out our map and in true tourist styke turned it around and around trying to work out which way to go. Typical none of the names on the map match the names on the signs, we must of looked a little lost as a tour guide pointed us in the right direction and we trundled off.

We were following the orange walk first. It was crazy the number of people that were walking the routes, we had tried to take what we believed to be a random route hoping it would be quieter however we were wrong. You could tell immediately the areas that had the best picture opportunity as it was crowded. You could hear the roar of the waterfalls increase with every step and so did the number of tourist, but between the people you could see the white water cascading over the rocks. As we pushed our way through the crowds our breaths were taken away by this hugh phenomenal waterfall. For as far as you could see was just a circle of waterfalls with thousands and thousands of tones of water just flying over the top with such force. I believe it is said that the amount of water that flows over the falls in one day is equivalent to the amount that flows down the Thames in a year!

It was so picturesque it was set in a lush green jungle and the sun was shining making the water glisten as it rushed over the top. It was just beautiful. We walked and walked around the routes each one taking you closer and closer, allowing you to see the falls from lots of different angles. All the time walking in and out of the jungle area. After walking for about 2 hours we reached the boat launch pad. As we weren't in a tour we kept being pushed back until we finally managed to get a boat where we rush to the front so we would get thrown into the waterfall, (well if your going to do it you might as well do it right?) We tied up our life jackets, ignored our safety brief as it was in Spanish and screamed "faster, faster..." We were first taken to Devils mouth where we could see the largest flow of water and both Brazil and Argentinian sides of the fall. This time we didn't get wet, hoping that it was only because there was other boats in the way and not that we had a wimpy driver we zoomed round the corner of the falls almost in a 360 degree style and raced into the full flow of the water. Becki somehow convinced me to let her keep my camera out for the baptism but each time I freaked and I quickly hid it once I realised. We did this about three times and each time the build up was full of over excited tourists screaming at the top of their voices and the photographer pointing the camera in your face. After the boat took all it could handle we speed back round to our starting point where we went into some small off flows of Devils Mouth and even this filled our boat with water. The boat trip was expensive but worth every pennie, what a feeling, there was nothing we could do if the falls wanted to flood the boat and drown us it could.

We sat on the docks and laid our clothes out to dry off and ate our packed lunch, it was very cute as we were surrounded by lots of different cultures and countries who all had huge smiles on their faces as we had just been baptised! After we were a little dryer we continued on the same path where we got socked again as we could get really close to the falls for the classic photo of the water coming down on you. After that we decided we should try and stay dry as it was getting late and we still hadn't seen Devils Mouth. We took the train, which was so sweet, it was an old steam train which looked like the Hogworts Express. The train ride was about 15 minuets long with lakes and the top of the waterfalls on one side and jungle on the other. We arrived on the last train and did the 2 km walk to the edge. It was very busy and we had to keep an eye out for tourist randomly stopping to take pictures. The mouth itself was incredible but there were so many people it was hard to really appreciate it. You had to fight to get a space on the edge and when you did there was soon someone behind you trying to get your spot as soon as you were done. You could see nature for miles on the left you could see up the falls where there was clam water and to the right you could see how powerful it really was. The rest of your vision was filled with trees and rocks it was really beautiful. We caught the train back and jumped on the bus home, back to our hostel dead from a wonderful but very tiring day. That night we were spent and got ready for our bus to BA our last stop in South America, but more importantly our last long bus journey! :)