The Great Wall of Waterfalls
Today we are spending our time waiting… and waiting… and waiting, to get on a bus to Montevideo, Uruguay. Well, technically to Concordia, Argentina, then another bus to Saldo, THEN a bus to Montevideo. But I digress. While we have nothing but time, I’d thought I’d share our impression of Puerto Iguazu and Cataractas de Iguazu (or the waterfalls of Iguazu).
Basically, they are fucking immense and impressive. We spent two days in the park (85 pesos the 1st day, 45 pesos the 2nd day). The first day we toured the upper and lower circuits, which have fantastic viewing areas for the Adam and Eve waterfalls and Bossetti waterfall. We also did a 6km “jungle hike.” We saw hundreds of butterflies, large and small lizards, huge ants and even a capybara (the largest rodent in the world). Over all, it was a great experience. The park was very well maintained with tons of shops, restaurants and space.
The second day we woke up late and slightly hungover. We missed breakfast but didn’t think it was a big deal, we’d just get something on the way to the park, right? WRONG. It turns out the ENTIRE country or Argentina was off work. Why? The national census. Yes, that is correct. NOTHING was open. We had two cereal bars and some crackers. We thought there must be something open at the park, I mean the park was still open and all those tourist need to be fed right? WRONG. The park was open, nothing else was. We were sooooo hungry. But we soldiered on.
The only thing we had left to see in the park was Garganta del Diablo (The Devil’s Throat). It was a 1km walk over a catwalk to get to the lookout. OMG, it was one of the coolest/ frightening things I have ever seen in my life. Dan and I say it probably takes our #2 spot on “best places in the world” (#1 is the Great Wall of China). There is just an insane amount of water falling, you can’t even see the bottom.
After that we chatted with an American couple on their honeymoon (on their way to Patagonia, jealous!!) and made it back to the hostel with time to shower up and get to the store. It opened at 4:30pm and the line was out the door with tourists, starving just like us! Dan made ravioli, and it was possibly the best thing I have ever eaten.
If anyone is curious our budget so far looks like this:
Hostel: $15 dollars each per night, TOTAL $30
Spending for food ect. Daily: $30
Bus trips overnight: $75 per person
It’s not incredibly expensive, but we are definitely traveling on a shoestring. We are lucky to have found a bus company that will give us a student rate even though I don’t have a student ID card. :)
So jealous. It's definitely high on my 'to visit' list, and the photos look great.
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