After visiting the Iguacu Falls yesterday in Brazil, I was more than excited to also see the “heaven” from the Argentinian side. Everyone I met until so far was even more amazed by the “other side” and I could not wait to step over the border.
Since I was not bothered to deal with the administrative burden by myself I asked Nestor, the local tour provider from the hostel, to book me in for the next possible transfer to Argentina. Together with me there were also two other girls from Chile who did not speak a single word English and so I got in touch with the beautiful language of Espanol 😀 Equally not existing as my Portuguese I was trying to speak a combination of Italian, French, German and English… and my more than basic Portuguese, lol. Funnily, also here we could communicate a tiny bit but most of the time it was thankfully Nestor who made the translation perfect.
On our way to the border I found out that one of the girls was illegally staying in Brazil since one of the border control agents forgot to give her a stamp into the passport when entering the country, hehe. We were part of an illegal transport of an “immigrant”, lol. I was wondering how easy it would be since I have read already a lot of stories regarding people who got victims of forgotten stamps. As we reached the border we got simply waived through and did not have to show strangely enough our passports. It was just me who had to join Nestor for the immigration office… Great, first complication of the day fixed! 🙂
As we approached the entrance of the National Park of the Iguacu Falls, it reminded me actually more of a fun park than visiting a natural reservoir park. Masses of people were waiting at the entrance and also in enormous queues in front of the “little toy train” which was supposed to bring the masses to the Devils Throat which apparently is the most popular tourist spot. Nestor already told me to try to reach the famous spot as early as possible and only afterwards to check out the other sights.
On my way to the amazing falls which I already experienced the day before I passed, I don’t know, how many hundreds of people. Unfortunately I was not the only one who was trying to skip the “toy train” and so I had to fight with the many school classes, families, grandparents and European tourists for arriving at the falls first 😀 Luckily, I still had some training from my outdoor adventures in New Zealand and left most of them easily behind, hehe.
My enthusiasm came to early when I arrived at the platform of the Devils Throat where already plenty of people were standing in order to catch some views at the falls. Like an eagle I was spreading my wings and was fighting with the mean average tourist who was a true master in martial arts. Instead of swords he was using selfie sticks, lol.
If I would have known what was expecting me I would have saved the morning shower and simply brought shower gel and shampoo, lol. A combination of upward wind and again tiny rain droplets let us experience the longest shower in a lifetime. Since I gained already experience from the Brazilian side, I brought my motorbikes rain coat along and stayed most of the time dry.
It was again more than impressive to see the masses of water falling down into the endless depth of the devils throat, vanishing in the “grey zone”. Black little birds were cruising in the winds and could only be identified as little spots in between the white wall of water coming upwards. From time to time the wind calmed down and the whole beauty of the falls were shining through. Astonishing!
However, I could not enjoy the moment as much as I would have loved since the “Bruce Lees” were not only using their selfiesticks but learned in the meantime also the technique of the mighty eagle – and spread their wings! I just wanted to get out of there and tried to make my way out of the masses. On my way back, finally also the school classes and rest arrived in order to built a km long queue of people. It did not matter if people were in wheel chairs, little kids etc…. people just tried to get to the falls ASAP without respecting others.
“The true animals are humans”, I thought while fighting my way through!
Relieved, I was breathing deeply in and out while I felt immediately the calmness of the jungle after walking 10 minutes away from the “animals”.
Contrary to my first part of the day I highly enjoyed the rest of the national park. In total, there are three circuits which visitors can walk and I did all of them with enthusiasm. I highly enjoyed walking just by myself, discovering a lot of animals along my way like butterflies, various birds, monkeys, quatis and even a bambi 🙂
At the end of the day I was totally tired and felt in bed quite early. Tomorrow I should be getting myself prepared for the way up north into the so-called “Pantanal” to encounter one of the most majestic animals on this planet: The jaguar!
