Iguazu Falls

Wow wow wow and a million more wows after that! I honestly don’t know where to begin---I probably had one of the best weekends of my life...

We boarded the bus and prepped ourselves for our 19 hour bus ride to Puerto Iguazu. For starters, the seats were incredible; it made the ride feel like 5 hours (yeah, I totally exaggerated but that’s how amazing the seats were). They were legit first class airplane seats---the trip was so enjoyable because if we weren’t watching the most cliché U.S. movies on the bus we were definitely sleeping. We woke up in the morning to overcast skies and sharp rains, but we eventually arrived in Puerto Iguazu around 8:30 AM. Puerto Iguazu is a really small town with only 3 bars and a few restaurants, so we bussed straight to our hostel. We stayed at Hostel Inn, which Lonely Planet refers to this specific hostel as CHS (cool hostel syndrome). I must say it was a pretty great hostel---beautiful pool, free internet, a bar, a place to buy food, ping-pong and pool tables, and free breakfast. Yep, I was definitely feeling the CHS this past weekend.

Iguazu Falls is shared by Brazil and Argentina…Argentina occupies 2/3 of the Falls and Brazil owns the remaining 1/3 of it….apparently both sides of the Falls are fantastic but the main difference is: on the Argentinean side you see a lot more falls and you get up close to the falls; and on the Brazilian side you mainly see a panoramic view of the entire falls. I’m not trying to be biased but people say the Argentinean side beats the Brazilian side.

We were planning on going to Brazil on Friday to see the Brazilian side but being a group of Americans and Australians a Visa was required to get into Brazil. We obviously nixed that idea…it was so annoying because most travel books and numerous people told us Brazil isn’t strict on visas if you’re only spending one day on the Brazilian side…FALSE! Bottom line compadres---if you’re going to Brazil, get visas! Anyways, we decided to head out to the Argentinean side even though it was pouring and cold…did I mention that no one brought warm clothing because the forecast said it was going to be in the 90s? Who knew the 90s is really the 60s?

We finally arrived at the Falls around 11:30. There are around 247 waterfalls and they’re 80m high…we didn’t know which fall to see first so we randomly picked the Fall with the coolest name: Garganta del Diablo which translates to the Devils Throat---so you can only imagine how impressive it was. We walked around ¾ of a mile along the Iguazu River and finally arrived at the Devils Throat. Seeing the reaction of everyone’s faces when we saw the Devils Throat was incredible. Literally, everyone’s jaws sank to the floor…Niagra Falls looks like a bath tub compared to Iguazu Falls---there's no comparison. I remember seeing a heavy-set Argentine 55 year-old woman shrieking at the top of her lungs and started spreading her arms out as if she was about to fly. She came up to me and said in Spanish, “This is unbelievable. This is insane. I can’t believe I’m here.” And then she started crying---That’s inspiration. Now you know what I mean when I say what a motivating place Iguazu Falls is.

Later we went on a boat ride into some of the waterfalls---ca-razy!!! It was so cool because we literally got up and close to the Falls. If I wasn’t drenched by the rain at this point, by the time I stepped off the boat I was definitely saturated in water---I should’ve brought shampoo to wash my hair, that’s how wet I was. The sounds that were coming out of my sneakers were noises I never knew existed. Since we toured most of the other falls that day, we decided to head back to the hostel.

Saturday was still overcast, so Shoni and I chilled in the hostel while everyone else went to the park where the Falls are. Usually the park closes everyday at 6pm, but once a month when there is a full Moon you can go on a special walking tour of the park and see the waterfalls. (It’s a pretty pricey way of seeing the Falls but it was so worth it. I can’t describe to you the experience I had Saturday night). Walking along the Iguazu River towards the Devils Throat in the pitch dark was one of the freakiest but coolest moments of my life. The Falls are in the middle of no where and so the only light out there was the moon. After this experience, I realized how I’ve always taken for granted the intensity of the moon---seeing the brightness of the moon shining down on the falls really emphasized the power the moon has. It was amazing because even in the pitch dark, we were able to see the waterfalls perfectly. After the moon tour, we went back to the hostel and called it a night.

We had an early start Sunday morning and bussed out to the Falls. Thank god it was sunny out because the excessive amounts of clouds and rain were really annoying. On the Iguazu Park map we noticed a small hiking trail called Macuco Trail…you hike through the “jungle” for an hour and then it takes you to a place overlooking a beautiful view and right below you lies a waterfall where you can go swimming. We walked down a plethora of stairs to get to the waterfall…ahhhhh I remember thinking I was so excited for what was about to come! We swam in the stream and climbed on huge rocks to get behind the waterfall. It was a great feeling being able to sit beneath the waterfall and getting splashed by the fresh, crisp water. I think at this point, I can say that every time I’ve had fun in Bs. As. is when I get drenched in water!

The Macuco Trail was so cool…I genuinely felt I was in the jungle…we saw the most exotic butterflies, polyploidy (for those outside apartment 9A and didn’t take Dr. Babich’s class---its means huge) size ants, coatis, monkeys, toucans, snakes, lizards, iguanas, and the strangest looking kinds of trees….who needs to go to the Amazon when you get all this plus a waterfall to swim in? We hiked back and headed out to the other falls to see them for one last time.

We only had time to see the Upper and Lower decks of the waterfalls…OMG…seeing the waterfalls in the pouring rain on Friday was a magnificent view; seeing them Saturday night in the pitch dark with only the Moon shining down on them was also outstanding; but seeing the waterfalls in the sun with a perfect blue sky was just breath-taking. There were rainbows after rainbows. And not the type of rainbows you see after a storm that goes away after a few minutes, but the rainbows I saw were literally chanting ROY-G-BIV in a hyper momentum. The brightness and clarity of the rainbows on top of the waterfalls, to me, showed the beauty of nature. It’s mind blowing to think how something as perfect as Iguazu Falls was ever created? It’s literally the most serene, perfect piece of nature I’ve ever been introduced to…my experience in Iguazu was unreal.

I feel so fortunate being able to travel and live in Argentina right now, but I feel even luckier to have been given the opportunity to visit Iguazu Falls. When people come to Argentina, they rarely make it to the Falls…My experience was topped off with a cherry because the people who I went with were phenomenal. All eight of us are positive people who enjoy traveling and integrating in new cultures. I’ve never laughed so hard…there were so many situations that it was literally painful to laugh because someone was always doing something funny. The trip was perfect and the people who I went with made the trip amazing.

I also feel so fortunate because I was able to see the Falls under every type of weather scenario possible…rain, overcast, clouds, night time, sunny…everything! I can now say I’ve seen Iguazu Falls under every type of weather except for snow…but that’s pretty impossible because it’s in the jungle…

I hope all of you guys make it to Argentina and especially to Iguazu Falls because it will definitely change you and your way of thinking.