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Day of Travel disaters - Arriving in Puerto Iguazu
Today we were on the move again and off to Iguazu which roughly translates into "Big Water" to see you guessed it, the Waterfalls. Because we had an early flight we thought the easist method of getting to the airport would be a taxi, or so we thought....
The taxi arrived at at the allocated time and we arrived at the airport 1 hour before our flight, perfect. What we forgot to do was check the ticket to see which airport we were flying from and were told as we were checking in that we needed to be at the other side of town at the international airport - doh!!! A 110km per hour Taxi journey later and we were in the correct airport, 20mins before takeoff and too late for the flight.
Luckily for us there was a second flight 30mins later that Aerolinas kindly let us get on for free. We arrived in Iguazu airport on time looking forward to the next part of our journey travel problems over with. That is until we got into the wrong taxi to the hostel from the one that was supposed to be meeting us causing all sorts of confusion and mayhem. Anyway we had arrived and booked into our compact hostel with His and Hers matching bunk beds!!
The Iguazu falls are over 200 large falls on the border between Brazil and Argentina, the biggest being the aptly named Devils throat. From the Brazilian side you can see the whole range of Falls and from the Argentinian you get to get up close and personal with the Falls.
We had decided that since it was only lunch time we still had plenty of time to cross the border into Brazil and see the Waterfalls from that point of veiw before doing the longer Agentinian trails the next day. Map in hand off we went to catch one of three buses in a variety of currencies. After an interesting conversation with the border control (who would have thought Portugese for getting your passport stamped is walky, walky, stampy, stampy with matching hand gestures) we got to the right bus stop via an expedition to the craziest duty free in the world* and onto the right bus to the National park Visitors centre. It costs 30 pesos for entrance to the park but boy was it worth it.
Wow is all i can say about the waterfalls!!! its is one of the most amazing, awe inspiring things i have ever seen and you get a brilliant view of the vastness of it all from the very cleverly positioned viewing platforms at intervals around the park. The photos dont do it justice. It was worth all the hassle after all. We stayed till the park pretty much shut and started on our bus journey home.
Now after all the "fun" we had had during the day it seemed unlikley that our buses home would be "fun" free and so it proved. The first bus picked us up and dropped us off on time - hurrah. The second bus however decided for reasons not known, not to bother showing up and left us along with another couple standing on a busy road staring hopefully into the distance. 1.5 hours later and the every 30 minute bus had still refused to show. Seeing now as the sun had set and it was starting to get cold it seemed that we ought to get a taxi. So we did to the bus station and home via a tasty pizza for tea.
All in all it had been a very long and tiring day but very much worth it to see the Waterfall in all its glory. Cannot wait for tommorow and the Argy side.
*forgot to mention that we tried getting on the bus, after searching for about 30mins. didnt have the right change and had to hike to find the duty free to get change to catch on the bus we had just missed in the first pace. To be told that we had to get off and wipe our feet on a bit of carpet before entering Brazil. still not really sure why!! but hey when in Rome....
Mike
previous travel blog entry
Irisiam says:
Hi There I am going to Iguazu in February and have already worked out the two airport scenario. What I would like to know is: Im flying to the Argentiniean side, staying one night at The Sheraton and then going to Brazilian side to fly out from that airport(I hope) so is the one overnight stay enought to see both sides? I arrive early at The Argentinean side and fly out late the following day to Rio. Thanks.