Iguazu Falls, Argentina and Brazil
February 7, 2010
I went across to Brazil the other day, twice, but this time it wasn´t a mistake, like the pre-visits to the airports. The first time I went to see the amazing Iguazu falls. These are the largest falls in the world – 2.7km long and a bloody huge volume of water. 2km of this is on the Argentinian side, but you can see it all better from the Brazilian side. Unfortunately, Jordan wasn´t prepared to pay the Brazilian visa for a 3 hour visit, so I went with my British passport without needing a visa. Ahhhh…..the joys of having dual citizenship. Speaking of which, my little 8 month old niece just recently got her Australian citizenship to go with her American one for being born in the USA.
The second time I went across was a for a shopping errand for Jordan! I found some cute cuddly toys and they were exactly what she wanted as presents for children of friends (and one lucky friend, I believe!). It was an eventful journey with the local bus leaving me stranded at the Brazilian border with me with no idea what to do next! I managed to get 2 more buses to go the short way to the border, and got there after the falls closed but before the shop closed. Phew! I had temporarily forgotten that Brazil is 1 hour ahead of Argentina in the summer time. But all was good.
Care for a bit of water?
So I went to see the panoramic view of the falls. Wow!! There´s a lot of water moving through those falls. I´d love to be able to show you a short video of it, but I´m technically challenged in that area – hopefully my computer-savvy cousin can help in a few days. As you know, pictures can´t do it justice, but I can always try!
Iguazu Falls, Argentina
The next day Jordan and I went together to the Argentinian side. You can get up close and personal on this side – there is a spectacular upper walk, where this was taken from. We also went on a boat trip where they take great delight in ensuring you get as wet as possible! Every view was breathtaking and I wanted to take lots and lots of photos, but I let my eyes do a lot of the looking this time.
Continuous water spray
This shows you the haze of water spray that was ever present at some points of the falls, from the sheer force of the water crashing downwards. Keep an eye on our flickr site – www.flickr.com/travellinganna - for the videos and if you want to see more piccies.
Coati babies
These little bubs are a relative of the racoon – sorry, I forget the name of them in Spanish (like that will help you recognise them!). They were very bold around people because although it was forbidden to feed them, some tourists did, and petted them too (I admit, they are very cute!). But they really are a nuisance particularly around the cafeteria area. Similar rules to not feeding native animals anywhere – it´s possible that they can bite, and they might attack a small child who doesn´t have food when they really want some. Fortunately I didn´t see any instances of this, but I really think we should remember that they are wild animals and treat them as such.
