Niagara What?

Check out the Iguazú album under 'Photos' for more pics

I've never been to Niagara Falls, but from the pictures I've seen of that North American wannabe Iguazú blows away just about anything that includes water moving from up to down. The trip up to Puerto Iguazú was another epic 16 hour ride on one of these Argentine luxury liners, complete with pirated movies, champagne and white bread in as many shapes and forms as you can think of. Life could be worse. We made friends with our bus attendant - we were the only ones that actually seemed to be enjoying themselves. I guess spending 16 hours in a metal box on wheels doesn't excite a lot of people. After our glass of champagne (in special plastic champagne glasses, of course) with the final pirated movie of the night, we called it quits for the evening.

I woke up staring at the seatback in front of me, and dozed off an on as we made various stops at small towns along the way until finally reaching the town of Iguazú. We successfully got on the correct local bus on our first try, and were on our way to the hostel. If we didn't tell our bus driver where we were going, I might still be on that bus. We were dropped off on the side of the highway (bus stop? What bus stop? I think the bus driver picks out certain bushes along the way that he wants to stop at to get a closer look), and made the short walk to our hostel. We passed the swimming pool on the way in, dropped our stuff and headed down the highway to a sort of animal hospital. We were driven through the forest in a tractor-trailer by a guy having way too much fun with his job until we jumped off to see the animals. It was basically a zoo, but still pretty cool nonetheless.

We got up at the crack of dawn the next morning to try and get a full day in at the park. We wandered back over to that bush we were let off at the preceding afternoon, and caught the local bus to the falls. I can't even begin to describe what these waterfalls are like. It's almost one continuous waterfall for a solid 3 kilometers, with La Garganta del Diablo (the second photo from the top) as the centerpiece (Argentina has a thing for using the same names for everything - there's the Garganta del Diablo right outside of Salta. Street names are the same in every city - come on guys, maybe a little creativity?) in the distance. We started our day on the upper circuit, which took us literally to the edge of some of the falls. By itself, any one of these waterfalls would be a superb tourist attraction anywhere in the world. But here seeing one by itself was a bit of a letdown. Line up maybe 50 of these falls together, though, and you've got Iguazú. That's just a lot of water. Following the Upper Circuit we naturally headed to the Lower Circuit, which, as I'm sure you can imagine, took us to the base of several of the falls. It was so loud I could barely hear myself think. Halfway through the lower circuit we took a boat ride that zoomed us into the spray of the falls (there are some photos in the album with the boats in them. These boats are not small - the falls are just huge). Every one of those 12 minutes was worth it. There used to be boat options at the top of the falls, where you could hire a local and he would take you to the edge where you could spit or do whatever and then he would row as hard as he could back against the current and get you back safely. That was until one boat didn't quite make it back. That option is now no longer available, sir. Can I tempt you with the scenic helicopter ride or the Grand Adventure through the forest?

After a lunch battling the coatíes (basically an ant-eater crossed with a raccoon) trying to get at our food, which only ran away after making loud gorilla noises at them, we walked the 2km up to La Garganta. This was probably one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen. It's a giant 'U' shaped waterfall with an obscene amount of water falling making simply what was a deafening roar. I could have spent hours there just mesmerized by the sheer power, scale and beauty of what I was looking at. We could see the mist from a long way off, and even when we were right at the top of La Garganta the mist obscured our view of the bottom like fog hides the Golden Gate. We finished the day by getting back to the hostel and finding some long-chairs, putting our toes in the clay and having an Argentine PBR on the way. Life was good.

Day two found ourselves finding little things to do to fill the time until our various bus departure times, as the main reason for going back to the park (San Martín Island, right in the middle of everything at the falls) was closed due to high river levels. We discovered a house made entirely out of PET bottles, and decided to check it out. The walls, stairs and roof were made of plastic 2-liter bottles (the roof had some help from milk cartons), with the doors constructed from CD cases. It was pretty amazing to see how resourceful these people were - the most impressive gadget (aside from the house itself) was a solar water heater. That could be the future right there, my friends. Our last stop of the day was a spot where we thought we could be in three different countries at once (Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina), but was actually a spot where we could see three different countries at once. And I was ready to one-up 4 Corners.

To cap off the trip I spent the 16 hours going home figuring out the different pitches of engine noises on these long distance buses, as my seat was in the last row right above the engine. I'm now your resident expert. You know where to find me.