After a couple of weeks, Graeme returned to Canada and I moved to a smaller apartment in the Centro district of Montevideo. I decided that being that close, I had to see Iguazú Falls in the northernmost point of Argentina. ¨Close¨ is relative--the route I took was 1400 km. and took a little over a day and three buses. A plush-crested jay. |
Concordia, Argentina
While I was sitting outside the bus station in Concordia admiring this statue, I was set upon by an Avon lady. They're hard to discourage when you don't have a common language. As I've said, lack of communication doesn't slow some people down. I finally gave in and bought something (scent, I think) but that didn't stop her. She kept talking for a while, I think about prayer.
Puerto Iguazú
The northernmost part of Argentina is like a finger poking up between Paraguay and Brasil. There are numerous buses from the town of Puerto Iguazú to the national park, the Brasilian side, and Ciudad del Este in Paraguay. I didn´t go to Brasil because Canadians have to buy a visa (the result, I think, of a trade dispute a few years ago), and I didn´t go to Ciudad del Este because it sounded uninteresting.
(Google Earth)
The Devil's Throat, where the Upper Iguazú River goes over the falls and becomes the Lower Iguazú. Even without the falls, the Iguazú National Park would be a great place. There is a little railway that runs up to the top of the park and from there (where there is a Subway) you take a kilometer-long walkway over the water to the falls. I was standing in Argentina, and Brasil is on the other side of the falls. The Devil's Throat dumps into a canyon flanked with narrower waterfalls on the Brasilian and Argentinean side. You can find more and better pictures on line.
There are 275 waterfalls in the park, depending on whether you are there in the wet or dry season, along a stretch of 2.7 km.
The falls at the right are at San Martin Island. I took a boat ride on the lower river. My boat was full of tourists. (The one below was the last trip of the day. )
We were given waterproof bags to store things in, which should have been a clue. Our captain went right under a waterfall--twice. It's the one at the far right in the picture below.
There are 275 waterfalls in the park, depending on whether you are there in the wet or dry season, along a stretch of 2.7 km.
The falls at the right are at San Martin Island. I took a boat ride on the lower river. My boat was full of tourists. (The one below was the last trip of the day. )
We were given waterproof bags to store things in, which should have been a clue. Our captain went right under a waterfall--twice. It's the one at the far right in the picture below.
What the people who sell this tour don't mention is that when you get soaking wet out of the boat you have to climb out of this ravine. It was a long and exhausting climb with many rest stops. The best was when I shared a bench with a man from the Netherlands. He had a lavender business and traveled around the world looking for new hybrids. He had been to Puerto Iguazú several times and thought Argentina was one of the safest places he'd been.