Iguazu Falls

On Saturday, after a day of rest and recuperation on Friday, I got the bus to the falls. Just before leaving the hostel I discovered I had just over 100 Reais that I had forgotten about - my plan was to spend them if possible.

Soon after I had passed through the gate, I organised an hour long tour through the forest followed by a boat ride. Guess how much it cost? Yup, that's right, 100 Reais! Yay, most of the Brazilian money gone. The very nice chap who booked me on the tour also showed me where I would be able to walk beforehand, as I had about an hour.

I headed for the upper walkway and on arriving there realised that I hadn't recharged my camera battery after The Sambadrome - eejit! I'm normally fairly good on that front, but I guess moving around a lot and being sick made me more forgetful than usual. I decided to pretend that I had a film rather than digital camera, so I would only have limited shots and each one had to count! (This is what I used to do when I was a relatively poor photography student - get as many shots as possible out of one film!).

My first glimpse of the falls completely took my breath away. I would like to write something poetic about it, but that would take a little more time and would probably seem too contrived. They are stunning, beautiful and powerful. The roar from them is also incredible. I made my way aorund the upper walkway with plenty of time to spare to get to my tour.

The jungle part of the tour seemed fairly normal and didn't really hold any surprises. However it was pretty and often in the shade which was very welcome as it was the hottest day yet! The boat ride was great fun - one part was for taking photos and the other part was actually getting up close and personal to a couple of the waterfalls. I got absolutely drenched (as did everyone else in the boat). It was hilarious, I couldn't see because the force of the water was so strong. Luckily a couple of girlies that I'd met the day before had warned me about the drenching so I wore a bikini and had a change of top!

I then walked some more and treated myself to some chips - I say treated, but in fact they were pretty much the cheapest item on the menu! I also bought a kodak 'chuck away' camera. Camera battery had died and I really wanted to get photos of the 'Devil's Throat'.

After lunch I got the train ride to the Devil's Throat. I was feeling quite drained and the one kilometre walk in immense heat didn't really help much. Yet, when I arrived, I was revitalized. I thought I'd already seen some amazing waterfalls, but The Devil's Throat is the most powerful I've ever seen. There were rainbows in the mist, a mist that was sometimes so great you couldn't see the falls as they churned and dove into the depths. The spray was refreshing and welcomed. I quickly used the 27 shots on the kodak camera - now I just have to hope that there are some decent pics on the film. 

After lingering by the falls for a while, I caught the train back to near the park entrance and headed back to the hostel. Exhausted and happy!