Falling for Iguazu!

What a fabulous last 2 days!!  We just got back into Buenos Aires after 2 nights at the astonishing Iguazu Falls.  According to Wikipedia, Iguazú Falls or Iguaçu Falls are waterfalls of the Iguazu River on the border of the Argentine province of Misiones and the Brazilian state of Paraná. Together, they make up the largest waterfall system in the world. Apparently, the falls shift a million and a half liters per second!  That is a shit ton of water!!

Our adventure had started fairly early on Tuesday morning, with a 7am pick-up from the hotel for the short drive to IEP airport (yet again, our driver was Hector – I think he must like us).  As we were coming back to the Fierro Hotel after our Iguazu Falls side-trip, we were able to leave the bulk of our luggage with them and just take what we would need for the next 2 days.  The hotel sent up a plate of ham & cheese and toast at 6.30am for an early breakfast, so we headed off the airport suitably caffeinated and fed.  It was only a 15min drive and getting through check-in and security was super easy, so it didn’t take long before we were through to the departure lounge, looking at the board to find out which gate our flight would leave from.  Only to find it wasn’t listed.   We figured that the airline wouldn’t have checked our bag and issued us boarding passes for a non-existent flight, so we didn’t freak out – but it was a bit strange that later flights than ours were listed up on the board.  After a while, I found another Aerolinas Argentinas desk with an agent and so asked them – they said that it was too early for it to be listed but that it would probably depart from this very gate, so OK.  No worries.  And that’s what happened.  The flight was listed, announced and opened for boarding in the same sentence, so I guess that airline just has a very relaxed attitude to keeping its customers informed of what’s going on!!  Anyway, no worries – we got on, took our seats and had a fairly uneventful flight (other than some clueless woman knocking over my cup of tea into my lap as she blundered her way to the loo).

We had decided the night before to go straight from the airport to visit the Brazilian side of the falls for our first day.  The hotel had arranged for the driver to take us, so we got both a airport transfer and a tour all-in-one!  It did mean we would only have the afternoon to explore the Brazil side, but apparently everything was pretty close together and easy to see, so we were confident we’d manage to hit the highlights.  It was a 40min drive over to the Brazilian park, then we had to go through out the Argentinian border and cross the Brazilian border – easy peasy, especially with our driver leading the way.  Before long, he had dropped us off at the main visitor center at the entrance to the park, helped us buy our boat tour tickets and gave us our entry tickets.  We’d connected with him on What’s App so all we’d need to do was send him a message when we were ready to be picked up.  The park is well connected with lots of buses that ferry visitors round the different attractions, so it was easy enough to get on the bus.  Figuring out which stop you were at and which one you needed, less so.  Maybe it was the crushing heat and humidity, but it was surprisingly poorly signposted so we got confused on the very first stop!  Fortunately, it was directly outside the Belmond Hotel (which had been another option for where to stay during our IF trip) so we took this to be a sign that we should go have some lunch, stat, cool down and hydrate.

The hotel was nice, but not “ooOOOoo” level nice – and after we’d checked into the Gran Melia hotel in the Argentinian side of the park, we were happy we’d made the right decision.  Lunch was OK but they totally flubbed the service as ManpanionTM’s club sandwich took an age to come out (I know, I know – 1st world problems, amiright?).  Suitably refreshed, we decided our first port of call should be to do the boat ride – that way, assuming we were going to get wet, we’d have maximum time to dry out over the rest of the afternoon.  That turned out to be a VERY good call.  We didn’t just get wet – we got utterly and completely drenched.  Soaked all the way through.  Wring your dress out wet.  It was awesome.  To get to where the boat left, we had to take a little electric “train”, then a smaller Jeep, then a lift down to the river’s edge.  We were fitted with life jackets and again committed to the “wet” boat, rather than the “dry” boat option – no going back now!!   We knew we were in for it when we saw some of our fellow passengers in nothing more than swimwear (we didn’t get that memo!)- fortunately, we’d had the presence of mind to at least leave our shoes behind on dock, so at least our feet would be dry!

The tour started off fairly tame as we powered along the river for a few minutes – so far, so good.  Then the captain did a couple of little swerves and dips – not enough to get you wet, but enough to elicit high pitched squealing from the lady sitting behind me and to signal that things were About To Get Interesting.  For the first bit of the ride, we couldn’t see the falls  (we did spot a very cute looking capybara paddling around the shoreline) but then we rounded a bend in the river – and there they were!  POW!  They were still a fair distance away but even still, from afar, they were breathtaking.  And the low, loud rumble of the water crashing down vibrated through your body.

And then the fun REALLY began.  For the remainder of our ride, our captain decided we needed to get up close and personal with the falls as he then proceeded to drive right up to some of them, such that we got absolutely completely soaking!  I don’t think he backed the boat into the falls themselves, but he didn’t really have to.  About 10ft away from a waterfall that is spewing tons and tons of water right next to you generates quite enough spray to get the job done!  There was lots of shrieking and a fair bit of sweariness, but it was a ton of fun.  After about 15mins or so of this, our captain decided his Work Here Was Done, so we turned round and headed back to dock (but one last swerve/wave TOTALLY soaked me again – thanks, friend!).  Fortunately, ManpanionTM had a change of clothes so disappeared off to the men’s loos to change.  As things had gotten a bit nipply for me, I decided I should probably also change – so bought an Iguazu Falls t-shirt from the strategically placed gift/swimwear/dry layer shop and somehow managed to cobble together a dry outfit, so I could peel off my dress which now weighed 20lbs!

After the boat, we made our way back to the bus and explored the rest of the park and the various viewpoints and boardwalks encircling the Falls.  Up close, the Falls were even more impressive – I took a few photos and views to try and capture it, but it really don’t do it justice.  Its such an incredible sensory experience – not just the sound and the sights, but the feeling of the heavy mist and spray on your skin and the almost electric crackling feeling of the air around you.  Of course, there were also a gazillion people doing exactly the same as us too, so you had to navigate your way through the crowds and be patient to take photos (so much Influencing going on) but despite that, we had a great time.  We opted to take the stairs back from the last view of the Falls, back up to the road, rather than wait for a half hour to jam ourselves in a tiny lift with a bunch of damp strangers.  It didn’t take long and gave us a pleasant respite from the crowds.

By this point, it was about 5pm, so we decided we’d Seen It and that we should make our way to our home for the next 2 night, the Gran Melia hotel.  We What’s App-ed our driver who was there waiting for us at the visitor center, and started the drive back across the Brazil/Argentina border.  Unfortunately, it took almost 2 HOURS to get across and to our hotel!   According to our driver, usually it only takes 5 mins, so we were pretty unlucky to get snarled up for so long.  There wasn’t much to do but just sit in the traffic and slowly inch our way forward (I was deeply pleased I’d had the presence of mind to have a pee before we’d set off) so we didn’t get to the Gran Melia until just after 7pm.  We’d splurged on the Red Level floor which comes with one of those handy VIP type lounges where you can get complimentary drinks and snacks – and a dedicated concierge, who I’d been texting in the car with to give arrival updates and make dinner reservations.  As we checked in, they were at pains to tell us NOT to leave the windows open – or even unlocked – as the resident troop of monkeys who make themselves at home prowling the balconies would have no hesitation in opening the window door, letting themselves in and help themselves to all your snacks and drinks!!   The next evening, we got to witness them first hand – they were scampering all over the place and the people in the room below us had their carton of water stolen off their balcony’s table, right in front of them! (you can see him swipe it in the last couple seconds of one of the video!

The next day, we decided to take it easy and made zero plans to go anywhere or do anything, other than to simply enjoy the fabulous Gran Melia hotel.  As we’d arrived after sunset the night before, we didn’t get to appreciate the view from our hotel’s balcony until the next morning – and wow.  We look directly out, over the hotel grounds and infinity pool, to an incredible view of the Falls in the background.  I took the opportunity of some downtime in our itinerary to catch- up on my blogging, so spent a lovely morning, sitting in the Red Level lounge, sipping coffee and cracking wise.  I could see ManpanionTM down in the pool, gazing out over the water’s edge and towards the Falls – it was a perfect view for contemplative staring.

Lunchtime, we checked out the outdoor restaurant (dinner last night had been outstanding) and ManpanionTM had a pizza while I kept it a bit healthier with a veggie sandwich.  Food was OK but the best bit of our lunchtime experience was the very derpy plush-crested jay who was as fearless as the monkeys and as fixated on trying to steal our food!  It felt like those cat videos you see on YouTube where you take your eyes off them for 1 second, then when you look back, they’ve hopped a couple feet closer!   We waved him off several times, so he was unsuccessful in snagging any of ManpanionTM’s pizza – and eventually he got bored and hopped off, looking for some other less vigilant victims!

After a quick lunch-induced nap, it was time to head to the gym to work off some of the recent excesses – it wasn’t my best ever workout for sure, but it was the only one to ever have had a waterfall view!   After that, we headed up to the rooftop bar to enjoy the sunset over a couple drinks, before making our way back down to the restaurant, and to enjoy the considerable skills of the chap who was working their grill.  I mean, when in Argentina, you gotta enjoy a steak or two, right??

And – all too sudden – it was our last day in Iguazu, so the main objective for the day was to check out the views of the Falls from the Argentinian side.  Our hotel, the Gran Melia, was located in the park (the only one, like the Belmond Hotel on the Brazil side) so we had planned to take full advantage of our proximity to the falls and early access to the park ahead of the great unwashed….sorry, I mean general public…. and get an early tour in, so we could take in the sights without the throngs of people.  Through the concierge, we had booked a tour with a guide (and one other guest) that started at 5.30am, so arsecrack of dawn!  It was our understanding that the guide would take us to places that were not usually accessible and that you needed a special permit for, including Devils Throat, one of the most famous and spectacular parts of the Falls.  So we were pretty excited for this – especially as this was our last day, so we had to make the most of every moment.

Oh dear.  You know, sometimes things just don’t work out the way you think you planned them.  We met with our guide, David, fine at 5.30am in the hotel lobby, as well as the other guest (let’s call her Windy Wendy) and we headed outside to his car.  We’d been told we were going to drive for a little bit – OK fine, the Falls are a couple miles away – but we started getting a sense that something was Not Quite Right when we fully headed out of Iguazu National Park.  Ummm…. are the Falls back that way??  The next sign was when the small talk in the car pretty quickly turned to birds and how much you loved birds.  Windy Wendy (who was on a trip with Wilderness Travel – an outfit I’d heard of and am contemplating going to Pakistan hiking with) enthused that she LOVED birds and asked us the same.  I confessed to having been a bit of a birder when I was young and that we’d seen some great birds during our recent trip to Costa Rica and enjoyed playing with the Merlin app.  ManpanionTM made some non-committal noise “umm…yeah… I guess” and that’s when we realized we might actually have inadvertently been booked into a birdwatching tour.  Well, OK – maybe we’ll look at birds for a bit, then head into the forest on our way to the Falls?  Right??  I mean, the whole reason people come to this part of the world is to look at the fucking spectacular waterfalls, amiright??  RIGHT???

Err…no.  After about a 15min drive OUT of the park, we turned down into a red dirt road, past some road works signs, and drove for another couple of minutes before David parked the car on the side of the road.  OK – maybe we are en route to this top secret location that requires us to stop at this completely boring non-descript roadside for a bit first?  Kinda keep us in suspense for a while first?  Yes??  Nope.  We got out of the car, on this dirt road and then proceeded to stare into trees for a full 45 mins, while our guide tried to spot and describe some bird or another.  It was INTERMINABLE.   He had a professional scope and Windy Wendy had her own binoculars, but neither of us had anything because we thought we were going on fucking hike to the Falls!!!!!  BUT NO!!!  We were in Birdwatching Tour Hell!!!  For the next 2.5 hours, we stopped at various places on this road (including a slightly decrepit bird hide) and stared into the undergrowth, overgrowth, trees and branches trying to see stuff.  And – as you can no doubt imagine – it is one of THE most frustrating types of wildlife spotting tours you can take – because they fucking fly away ALL THE FUCKING TIME!!!  After taking a half hour to spot this bird, David would excitedly tell us – “here it is, its in the scope, it’s an <insert color> <insert body part> bird, have a look” – at which point we’d feign enthusiasm enough to look through the view piece – and, at least half the time, the fucking thing had already flown away by the time you got your turn to look!

To add insult to injury, lets talk about the flies.  Oh, the flies.  THERE WERE SO MANY OF THEM.  At one point, ManpanionTM made a wisecrack about the diversity of flies in Argentina and that 90% of all known fly species were actually here, present, on this road right now.  Seriously, though, as David was looking through the scope, trying to find the whatever-spotted whogivesashit, his back was covered in dozens of flies.  And he didn’t either notice or care.  Windy Wendy also didn’t seem to notice – but she also didn’t seem to notice (or care) when she farted either.  I thought I’d imagined it the first time it happened but as we were making initial get-to-know-you small talk, one just dropped and she didn’t bat an eyelid.  No embarrassed half-cough as if to belatedly cover the noise or slight shift of the eyes to see if anyone noticed.  None of that.  She carried on as if nothing had happened.  And it happened repeatedly!  So maybe she had some type of GI disturbance of the force – but it was somewhat disconcerting.  What with that and stumbling into a full-fledged birding session, I felt as if we were being weirdly gaslighted somehow!  After about an hour of staring at bushes and flapping at flies, we got the courage to ask David “um….does this tour take us anywhere close to the Falls, at all?”  To which he replied (you know what I’m gonna say) “No – we don’t go anywhere near the falls – this is just about birds”.  Fucking great.  It was confirmed.  We were on a birding tour.  Now, I didn’t mind birds too much at the start of this tour – but by the end, I was as Over It as ManpanionTM had been after 10 minutes!!  I know that this type of thing is not his jam AT ALL (which is why I’d done the Costa Rica one by myself) so I would NEVER have booked him into this knowingly.  It wasn’t so much the tour itself (although, why not do it in the forest and include the falls??!!!) but that we were burning the few hours we had left before our departure that afternoon.  He eventually read the room and let us out of the tour early, so we got out around 8.30am (vs the original 9.30am end time) and went to console ourselves with a decent breakfast.  He was apologetic – but it wasn’t his fault.  Clearly, there had been some type of misunderstanding.  Both he and Windy Wendy reassured us that we would still have plenty of time to do the Falls, but it was a bit annoying that we had lost the advantage of staying in the park and being able to access it ahead of its general opening time, but it was what it was at this point.  The good news is that a lot of the falls were within an easy walking distance of the hotel, so it wouldn’t take us that long to start to catch up.

The trails divided into 3 main loops – the Upper Falls, the Lower Falls and Devil’s Throat.  David advised us to do the Lower Falls first (they were also the closest to the hotel) and recommended we do the Devil’s Throat at the end of the day, after the main crowds had died down a bit.  As our pick-up for the airport was at 4pm, unfortunately that wasn’t an option, but as long as we’d have time to do it and then get back in time to pack and check-out, we’d be happy.  Again, pictures and videos and my rambling musings won’t do it justice at all, but they were spectacular – again.  The Lower Falls took us through the forest, along a nice boardwalk – with lots of birds, great views and no flies!  (It’s going to take ManpanionTM a while to process David’s choices at setting a birdwatching tour along a dirt road instead of this lovely, verdant bird-filled forest – but he’ll get over it – eventually).  We also saw monkeys and some very cute looking coatis – but we also saw the signs that had graphic photos of what a coati or monkey bite on the hand looked like, leaving you in no doubt that you should NOT feed the animals.

After the Lower Loop, we decided to bag out of the Upper Loop and instead proceed straight to the Devil’s Throat.  This one took a bit more effort to get to as you had to take a short train ride to get there – we rocked up around 9.45am and went to get our (free) tickets from the little booth.  We were in luck as there were 2 seats available on the next train at 10.10am, so we didn’t have too long to wait.  The platform was very busy and when the train did arrive, we all got completely squashed into bench-style seats that had enough room for 3 people, but were made to seat 4!  It wasn’t the most enjoyable 10 minutes of my life with a sweaty stranger’s knees pressed into mine (ManpanionTM was on the other side of me, fortunately) so it was a relief to get off the train and shuffle with the crowds out of the station.  We also had a timed departure slot for after our visit of 12pm, so we had plenty of time for the 1km walk (again on nicely maintained , if slightly too narrow, boardwalks) to the Falls.

OK – I can understand what all the fuss is about.  These were the creme de la creme of the Falls – the power, the roar, the sheer volume and unrelentingness (is that a word?) of it all, was incredible.  Again, I took some pics and videos for you – and helped Krusty with his latest Insta post – so I hope you can get at least a sense of what it was like.  We got pretty wet (again) due to all the spray and it was fairly easy to navigate our way around the short loop, even with the crowds. We probably only spent about 15mins at the Falls themselves before heading back across the 1km boardwalk (spotting a GIANT catfish in the river below en route) so got back to the train station just before 11am.  There didn’t seem to be any way to change our reserved departure time to an earlier train, so instead we decided to walk back along the train line, rather than stand around and wait in the station for an hour.  There was a sign that said No Pasar across the trail, but we’d seen people walking along it on our train ride in, plus we asked the lady in the concessions store if it was still possible to walk on the trail and she said yes.  OK, then – we figured that probably was just meant to stop cars driving along it, so off we went.  It was an easy enough walk (a bit hot and sweaty) but it took us just shy of 30mins to get back to the starting point.  We walked past a couple of signs that were marked as Turtle Nesting sites and did hear a rustle in the forest along the side of the road, so we stopped to see if it was another coati, but we didn’t see anything, so we carried on walking.  As we approached the gate which marked the end of the trail, a uniformed guide chap asked us with a fairly serious face where we had come from.  We jokingly answered that we’d come from the Devils Throat station – to which he replied that the trail was closed and off-limits due to PUMA sightings!!  Um, what?  Yep, apparently, there have been some pumas spotted there recently, which is why the trail is closed to foot traffic.   I immediately thought back to that rustling sound we’d heard about halfway along – I’m sure it was probably nothing, but….  yikes.  I guess the moral of the story is – don’t rely on the lady selling you an ice lolly in the concessions store to have up to the minute information on whether the trails are closed due to hungry wildlife!!

Anyway, after all that excitement, it was another half hour walk to get back to the hotel, where we then relaxed by the pool for a bit (until it started raining HARD) and then packed up our stuff and checked out.  We had about an hour to hang out in the Red Lounge before our airport transfer (same chap from yesterday) so we had a few more snacks while we waited (make the most of it, right?).  And then, it was time to wave goodbye to the Gran Melia and Igauzu and head to the airport, ready for our flight back to Buenos Aires.  Which is where I am writing from right now.  We were met (again!) by Hector and transferred back to the Fierro Hotel, where we were reunited with our bags (alas, no jacuzzi suite this time – it was already booked) and had time for dinner before heading to bed (spectacular ham tasting, some empanadas and an exceptional Thai chicken curry).  The food really was outstanding.  This morning, I braved a local gym to get a quick workout in (our hotel didn’t have its own) – and discovered that it is actually a lie that Argentinians stay in bed until noon.  They are all in the gym!  It was PACKED!  I seriously thought about turning round and walking back out, but I steeled my resolve and managed to find a couple of square inches to throw some dumbbells about in (I had to be conscious of how I was lifting, so I wouldn’t bash into the guy right next to me – that’s how crowded it was!).  So kudos for me for getting it done (mostly) and trying to offset the excesses of the last few days!  I continued my healthy choices with the quinoa pudding and fresh fruit for breakfast this morning (ManpanionTM had the Irish breakfast) so I’m feeling pretty good right now!   We transferred (by super grumpy Uber driver) to our new hotel, the Alvear Icon and got all checked in by 2pm.  Later tonight, we meet up with the rest of our gang – Lisa, Lee Ann and Cheryl and then the Nat Geo trip starts in earnest with a welcome briefing at 6.30pm.  We leave our luggage out to be collected tonight (got little Nat Geo tags and ribbons on them) and then set off early in the morning tomorrow, ready for our flight down to Ushuaia.  And by bedtime tomorrow, we’ll be on the boat!!!  Hard to believe after 2yrs of waiting and expectation that its almost here!  See you on the boat!!!