Iguazu Falls

8-11 April 2011

Friday we arrived in Puerto Iguazu in the early afternoon, tired from a bumpy bus ride. We checked into our hostel, Garden Stone (which was lovely) and relaxed. Luckily there was a lavanderia around the corner so Lawrie sorted out the washing, which could be ready that evening! We planned a walk to Tres Fronteras (where you can see Paraguay, Brazil & Argentina). Lawrie chose a route along the river but it was closed due to roadworks (so Kitty was right)! After a quick backtrack we made it to the lookout and headed back to our hostel, grabbing some supplies from the local stores.

Photos to follow

That night we headed out to dinner at the expensive Italian restraunt across the road from our hostel. Hearing good things about the local river fish Lawrie got the Surubi, which was beautiful! Surubi turns out to be catfish, so maybe the Mackenzie river ones taste alright? Cost for dinner, wine & desert was around $AU50...

Saturday we caught the early bus out to the national park, we greeted by a 333% gringo tax but this was ok given the effective cost to locals. We booked a 4wd/boat/raft pass for the day and grabbed a quick coffee before jumping into the back of a Unimog (Lawrie was very excited!).on the way down the track Lawrie glimpsed the first monkey of the trip. The forest here is secondary and has only had 60 or so years to regenerate so it wasn´t amazing.

We arrived at the river and filled our dry bag with our gear and headed off on our 1350hp RIB boat towards the falls. The views to the falls were amazing and we´re pretty sure we crossed into Brazillian waters on the way (important since we´re not going to Brazil). We got right up and close with the falls and copped an absolute drenching, not one piece of clothing was dry! Lucily it was a nice warm day!

Photos to follow

We then walked up the circuito inferior, checking out the waterfalls close up again, from a slippery platform.
The amount of water going over here is absolutely, utterly breathtaking (around 1350 cubic metres per second).

Photos to follow


We stopped at a cafe to dry our shoes a little and were entertained by the antics of the many coatis, who took any opportunity to steal food from unsuspecting tourists!

We took the gas powered train up to Garganta de Diablo (Devil's Throat), where we walked along catwalks across the river, stopping at a few small islands along the way. We spent some time at the throat, looking at the vast amounts of water. The sound that this much water makes is extremely impressive.

To finish the day we got onto a raft for a guided tour down river. Along the way we stopped to see cayman, turtles & birds. This was a very peaceful way to end the day. Our transport back to the entrance was via a 4speed manual, electric, stretched golf buggy! We certainly experienced some different transportation on this day!

Photos to follow


Sunday we headed back to the park and walked the Macaccu trail, which was less touristy as it was around 7km return and no real boardwalks. We saw troops of monkeys, coypu, woodpeckers and a capybara. The walk culminated in a climb down and swim below a small waterfall, with very chilly water. We headed back out of the park and were disappointed having not seen a toucan. Just as we were leaving we heard a strange noise and saw a single toucan up in a tree! Animal goals reached!

Photos to follow

Monday morning we packed up and jumped on a bus to San Ignacio Mini.