My First Jungle Experience

I had a fantastic day seeing the Iguazu Falls, my German friend made it even better.  But the day didn't end there; there is just one more little story to tell, silly as it is it was quite a big deal at the time.

After seeing all the falls we decided that there was one more waterfall that was off the normal track that we wanted to go to.  We headed off into the very basin of the jungle at Iguazu (jungle to me but really probably just a forest to them) around 4pm ready to see this spectacular waterfall.  The sign at the entrance said that the distance to the fall was 3km, so we estimated that we would still have time to make it there and back before it got dark and before the park closed. 

my jokes on us being mauled by the Jaguar at this point didn’t seem even remotely amusing

At the beginning of the trek we were all over the place stopping every five minutes taking pictures of giant ants, of us in action shots, climbing the trees it was all fun and games. Little did we know that soon our nerves would get the better of us. 

We felt like we had been walking for 2 hrs and we started to realise that we hadn't seen anyone for a long while.  Maybe a little concerned at that point but more with the fact that time was getting on, and because we spent the past three quarters of an hour snappy happy.  We finally came across a couple of Dutch women who were returning to park, they were very informative even if it wasn't something that we wanted to hear.  They notified us that it was in fact a 7km walk to the fall and then 7km back and they hadn't even made it to the waterfall because time was getting on.  They also happened to mention that there were some pretty scary sounds coming from the jungle but that was only the monkeys. 

Determined as we were for having come so far, Miss UK and Miss Deutschland decided to carry on but just at a faster paste.  The fact that the girls had mentioned that there was strange noises made us a little more aware of them, but it was only monkeys.  However, i must admit on seeing the signs at the entrance reminding tourists not to feed the animals as they may get a little aggressive brought visions of being attacked by a gang of monkeys, something like guerrillas in the mist.  Despite my thoughts of being mauled my monkeys we made it to the hidden waterfall.   It was beautiful i must admit with a fantastic view overlooking the forest where the border is shared with Paraguay, but i must admit that it wasn’t worth the panic feeling that me and my fellow European felt on the way back to the park.

We had about and hr to get back so that we were in time for our bus back to the hostel.  It wasn’t getting that dark but when we were in the mist of the forest where the trees met over the track it seemed darker than it was.  It was at this moment that fear started to set in.  This being my first experience of ‘the forest’ and without a guide to tell us what the unusual sounds were and where they were coming from caused our imaginations to run away with us.  We were already running out of time and the deep growling sound coming from our right didn’t help our nerves.  On first hearing the sound we stopped in our tracks looked at one another knowing that we were both thinking let’s get out of here.  But my jokes on us being mauled by the Jaguar at this point didn’t seem even remotely amusing, but i remember reading that if you did come across the big cat then you should not run, remain still, speak clearly and calmly (yeah alright) and make yourself seem larger than you are (yes at 5.3”)  So we just decided to walk quickly, more like a light jog, okay, leaping every step.  We hadn’t seen anyone for a while and the sounds of deep rumbling were still frequent and were now joined with all other manner of sounds.  The thought of being attacked by monkeys now didn’t seem such a bad option to the noises out there. 

With sweat dripping down our faces out of heart stopping fear and running at what seemed like eternity we finally saw two unknowing tourists entering the sight which made us feel just a little bit better.  But it wasn’t until we at the entrance did we feel the relief of just having survived our first ‘jungle’ experience. 

We made our way back and had a good drink to calm our nerves that evening, and talked about our mad experience.  I now know that from being in the real jungle that it was only thunder that we heard, but who knows what was lurking amongst them trees.  Seems so stupid now but at the time, well just shows you what sort of imagination we all have, a J.K. Rowling.