Iguazu Falls

Amongst the madness that both BA and Santiago have invoked, the two more rough, and hardcore looking members of the crew took a four day detor to visit one of the most beautiful natural wonders this planet has to offer. Despite plans having been created to orchestrate an almost* entire crew outing to the Iguazu falls, it was left for us to fly the flag over the torents of water that awaited us 20hrs up the road by bus.
*( by almost i mean without Flemuche, who still remains an elusive editor to this fine archive of journalism, if your reading ´get involved´)

We left for the falls on Tuesday evening. As the others had three seats still booked, it left us with five seats for the journey north to Puerto Iguazu. By seats we mean beds as we had decided to pay the extra 2 pounds or so to indulge in the delights of ´Coche Cama´. With the two of us sprawled out across five business class coach seats we soon fell asleep and were abruptly woken the next morning by an Argentine stewardess clothed in only an apron, beholding some croissants and coffee. The 2 pounds extra had proved well spent and two hours later we had reached our destination. We left immediately for the ´Parque National Iguazu´. On arrival we were kindly informed that the park required 8 hours minimum to fully experience its delights, with only 6 hours left we quickly hopped onto the ´high speed´ train set to take us to ´La Garganta del Diablo´( the bigger waterfall). Walking out to the edge, on a platform, looking straight down the Devil´s Throat, we spent a while trying desperately to take in the shear scale of this waterfall. With Laurie trying to return to the train, realizing that we had only seen a quarter of the waterfalls, Teo felt it necessary to stop at all the snake signs with the hope that they had been kind enough to stay close to these signposts.

We then took a walk along the runways and paths that criss-crossed the park down to the waters edge of the river below. Its hard to explain but the Iguazu falls flow all around the park, and it is the width and area they span that really gets you. We then took a gentle boat ride to the central island amongst the falls, able to see all of the cascades around us, and with rainbows all over the place we returned on the last boat back to the ´mainland´. Being the only two people left at the end of the day, we were given our moneys worth on our powerboat ride into the falls that followed. Expecting a light shower, we were not prepared for our enthusiastic Argentine captain who decided to take us fully into the falls as we were pummeled by the warm water. Emerging sodden, he decided to take us in again just to make sure everthing was wet. After 20 minutes or so frollicking amongst the waterfalls we left the river shore to make our final climb to the box seats so to speak. Dodging crazed balls of fur (Coaties) we walked along the upper walkway seeing the Adam and Eve falls, St. Something falls and the Diablo from a distance.

Our trip was almost complete, however we had not seen the elusive Toucan. Slightly upset, we set off to leave the park without seeing the trademark of Iguazu. However, on leaving we suddenly saw a plastic creature mucking about in an overhead tree, realizing that it was infact a Toucan we squealed and ran at the tree to photograph the beautiful bugger. After three shots, it had had enough and flew into the ever reddening sunset.

Now content that we had seen all of the falls we returned to the town of Iguazu and jumped onto a bus to begin our epic 45 hr journey back to Santiago de Chile. Although this time we were stuck in ´cattle class´, we valiantly endured the slow but beautiful journey through rural Argentina. With a whole two days and two nights stuck on a bus we didnt have much choice but to listen to the tales of our constantly changing neighbours. We were more than often reminded that Iguazu to Santiago de Chile was not a frequented route. Each new face brought a new story, and we told ours in return. Poetic licence or not, none of the stories quite matched those told by us. We crossed vast plains, passed through rustic vine yards, rolled past quaint Argentine villages and after finally climbing through the Andes we eventually arrived in the smoggy Chilean capital. After this arduous voyage, we had taken another giant step along the path to being fully ´HARDCORE´!!.

LT