First Look at Iguazu Falls

What a long bus ride. 15+ hours. It's been a while since I've taken one of these overnighters. I'd forgotten how comfy they can be :) Think I slept thru most of the trip in my fully reclining cama seat.

It was still too early to check in to my hostel when I arrived in Puerto Iguazu. I dropped my bags off to grab lunch at a hearty cafe, and to take a look around town.

Puerto Iguazu is nothing but functional. Its sole purpose, I think, is to cater to those travelers wanting to visit the Iguazu Falls. Yup, that definitely includes me! Everything is conveniently located within a 20 minutes walking distance from the bus terminal. Supermarket, restaurants (not cheap though...I was told to eat at the terminal if I wanted cheap food!), internet cafes (finally managed to back up my photos onto DVD), hotels (mine's right across from the terminal), and the all important Brazilian consulate office. Unfortunately, they only accepted visa applications during the morning, so I actually had to make 2 trips there. Very easy process, no questions asked. I should have a visa to Brazil in 24 hours.

Anyways, having been in metropolitan Buenos Aires for the past week, it felt kind of good to be in such a small, laid-back town.

So today, I spent most of the day at Iguazu Falls. The Argentinean side.

There's a frequent shuttle bus that takes you to the falls entrance from the bus terminal. 10ARP roundtrip.
Entrance fee for the falls is 60ARP. Reasonable, I suppose. But it totally bugs me when admission costs more than a night at the hostel (which is 40 ARP).

Once inside, there are paths that you follow to get around the falls. A highly organized system.
The scenery completely mesmerized me!!! Beautiful streams of water falling through lush greenery. I wasn't expecting this at all!

The last major falls I went to was Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. Owing to the high water levels, I couldn't see all that clearly. But, the overall impression I got was just a gigantic waterfall with lots of BANG! Similar to Niagara Falls maybe.

But Iguazu… so so so so so so so so beautiful!!! The tropical-ness made it all the better. Here's my favorite shot:You can see that the falls is made up of many many smaller falls, not a wide expanse of gushing water:

Like Niagara, there's a boat that takes you to the base of the falls for a thrilling, wet ride. I passed - didn't feel like forking over the money or getting wet. Looked fun though.

After walking along all the open trails, I took the park train (free) to another section of the falls. From there, a path took me to an observation deck atop the edge of the falls called the Garganta del Diablo.Very wet and loud once there. Yet eerily quiet on the way.
They must've spent a ton of money on building this path as it's mostly above water and runs close to 1km!

I didn't see much eye-catching aquatic life in the calm waters before the falls. Except for this one, since it reminded me of a pet fish we used to have at home. Funny face, big lips, sticks onto the glass…I'm sure none of you have a clue as to what I'm talking about. And probably can't make out the fish in the photo. Sorry.

Since we're on the subject of animals, here are some of the more unique (at least to me) residents in the park.
Unidentified bird. I know. Freaky. But the fluffy head is sort of pretty, no???Coati. Cute. I think it's related to the raccoon. Wants food from people.
I've only seen half of the falls today (I'll be headed to the Brazilian side tomorrow if I get the visa), but I think I can confidently say that Iguazu Falls is awesome.
If you can see only one waterfall in the world, I'd say pick this one!!!