At 9:30 am we left the hotel in a little mini bus for our day trip to the Argentinian side of the Iguazu Falls. From the hotel there was a small group of 4 (Matt from Britain and Josh and his friend from Holland), but on our way we picked up 8 more people from Belgium, Spain and England .... quite international .... Crossing the border to Argentina was really easy. Since we only "visited" for the day we did not have to get our passports stamped. Nobody had to even leave the bus. Our driver simply took the passports to an office. Not sure how they matched the passports to the people ... it seemed just a formality, filling out a transit form. Our first stop was the site where the 3 countries Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil meet at the Iguazu river. Well, it could have been at the Mosel, Rhine or Danube .... except the temperature of 32 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) that we already reached this early in the morning. We only stopped for about 10 minutes to take pictures and then we were off again.
After another 30 to 45 minutes we reached the visitor center of the Argentinian National Park, paid our entrance fee (A$ 30) and started walking towards this "roaring noise" in the distance. We had been told by several people that there would not be a lot of water, but we soon had to realize that this was an understatement. The entire park is line with elevated walkways and on these we passed many totally dry river beds. The first couple of smaller falls were either dried out completely or down to a small trickle of water. It was still quite an amazing sight, don't get me wrong, but we kept thinking how impressive and spectacular it must look like with more water.
By mid day we slowly reached the waterfall called "Salto San Martin" - very nice. We climbed all the way down to the river,some took a boat to get closer to the falls and I took a boat over to the island "San Martin" to get a closer look. It was spectacular. After a quick lunch we took the train towards "Garganta del Diablo", the "Devil's Throat". The walkway leads about 2 miles through the "staging area", were usually the water is plentiful and about 2 m deep. The roar of the waterfall became louder and louder and finally we saw a first glimpse of the falls. We rushed to get closer and enjoy this amazing view. Water or o water ... it was spectacular.The water reaches the fall which is circular and then gushes down I would guess at least 20 m. I just could not get enough of this sight. We hiked back to the train station, took the train back and then still had to hike another 2 miles to reach the park exist and our bus. At around 7:00 pm we finally reached the hotel, exhausted and thirsty .... We met at the pool to swim and drink a couple of beers before we headed to an Argentinian restaurant around the corner for dinner.
After another 30 to 45 minutes we reached the visitor center of the Argentinian National Park, paid our entrance fee (A$ 30) and started walking towards this "roaring noise" in the distance. We had been told by several people that there would not be a lot of water, but we soon had to realize that this was an understatement. The entire park is line with elevated walkways and on these we passed many totally dry river beds. The first couple of smaller falls were either dried out completely or down to a small trickle of water. It was still quite an amazing sight, don't get me wrong, but we kept thinking how impressive and spectacular it must look like with more water.
By mid day we slowly reached the waterfall called "Salto San Martin" - very nice. We climbed all the way down to the river,some took a boat to get closer to the falls and I took a boat over to the island "San Martin" to get a closer look. It was spectacular. After a quick lunch we took the train towards "Garganta del Diablo", the "Devil's Throat". The walkway leads about 2 miles through the "staging area", were usually the water is plentiful and about 2 m deep. The roar of the waterfall became louder and louder and finally we saw a first glimpse of the falls. We rushed to get closer and enjoy this amazing view. Water or o water ... it was spectacular.The water reaches the fall which is circular and then gushes down I would guess at least 20 m. I just could not get enough of this sight. We hiked back to the train station, took the train back and then still had to hike another 2 miles to reach the park exist and our bus. At around 7:00 pm we finally reached the hotel, exhausted and thirsty .... We met at the pool to swim and drink a couple of beers before we headed to an Argentinian restaurant around the corner for dinner.
The "Salto San Martin" (St. Martin's Falls)
The "Garganta del Diablo" (The "Devil's Throat")
A different view of the "Salto San Martin".
The "Garganta del Diablo" from the the Argentinian side.
Me and the falls in the background.
The "Devil's Throat" with a rainbow created by the mist.
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