So, north of Buenos Aires, where Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil meet (yearly for a friendly basketball tourney. Ok, I wish.) there lies (lays?) the magical town of Iguazu. There should be an accent over the first "u" here, but if you're reading this, you've accepted my laziness. I guess the full name is Puerto Iguazu. I don't know and I don't care. The important part is: Iguazu. I guess the other important thing is it is home to some of the most spectacular waterfalls, if not the most spectacular waterfalls, in the world. I say waterfalls (plural) because there's plenty of them and all of them are breathtaking. Keep reading for more on my journey, thoughts, and peep my Facebook for 3 albums worth of photos. Beware: there are a few pictures of my ugly mug. You've been warned.
Iguazu: The Journey
So, before arriving in Buenos Aires, I'd never heard of Iguazu, which is...embarrassing. Several people were like "You've never heard of Iguazu?" My responses ranged from "I'm an ignorant American, what do you expect?" to "Shut your mouth." to "No hablo español bien." Which are all pretty much the same thing. So, if you've never heard of Iguazu Falls, now you have. You also no longer have an excuse not to go. Money's tight? Sell that shiny new DVD player you just bought. Mortgage your cat. I don't care, JUST GET THERE. I spoke with people about it in my respective hostels about and I heard it takes about a 20-21 bus ride to get there. Or like maybe 3 hours by plane. So I'm like "Well, poop, now I gotta do this." More on this later, but the point of this trip is not to travel extensively. But some things are too good to pass up.
So I form a plan: leave on Monday, arrive on Tuesday, stay two days, leave on Thursday, return to BA on Friday. At least I save on a couple of nights of paying for a hostel, right? I buy my tickets and figure out how the bus station works. Love learning new stuff! I knew where it as because, well, I'd run past it a few times. Nah, it really was cool to take an overnight bus in Argentina, just to have done it. Confidence builder. More on that for another blog post.
So I got there Tuesday, talked to a tourism guy at the bus station (cleverly and conveniently placed, Argentina, well done) and figured out about getting to the Argentine park and crossing over to the Brazilian side. Oh, I didn't mention that. It's a big national park, well, I guess international, shared by Brazil and Argentina. It's not really that important to know that fact. The guy tells me it takes about a day to see the Argentine side and half a day for the Brazilian side. So I figure, given the amount of time I have, I'll see half the Argentine side Tuesday, then the Brazilian side in the morning on Wednesday, and the rest of the Argentine side Wednesday afternoon.*
Quick side note/interjection CUZ IT'S MY BLOG AND I DO WHAT I WANT! (I run with 12 gangs!): the cost to enter park: $170 pesos. When you leave, if you talk to the ticket guys, they'll scan it and you can re-enter, provided you have your original ticket and your passport, for a 2nd consecutive day, for half-price. But only for the 2nd day and only if it's consecutive. CONSECUTIVE, people. Your ticket won't work on the Brazilian side, though. Duh. Only an idiot would think it might. ... *crickets*...Oh, and the stupid, stinking bus out there costs I think $70 pesos for a round trip. So I totally mcgoatally paid for that 2 days in a row. From what I can tell, it's a normal city bus (colectivo) so I probably could have just gotten on at a normal stop and paid $3 pesos. WHATEVER, LANA.
So, Tuesday, I go to the Argentine side. I think I got in at like 1:50 PM maybe (??). After dropping my stuff off at the hostel and taking the bus 20 km out to the park, I've effectively got maybe 2.5-3 hours to check it out until it closes at 6, but I need to be back at the entrance at 5:30 just in case so I don't miss the last bus back into town. In my mind, the Argentine side has 3 spots, besides the gift shop (yes, it's touristy there, but you get the great benefit of seeing amazing waterfalls. Get over it...he said to himself.): The Throat Of The Devil (La Garganta Del Diablo), The "Upper" Circuit, and The "Lower" Circuit. The Throat Of The Devil takes you to overlook the biggest, most prominent, and first (as in, it's the first waterfall/beginning of the river and there are more falls furher down the river and on the sides of the river off of cliffs) falls from the side, the upper circuit takes you near the top, and the lower circuit much lower when you can get much closer to the falls and get showered by them.**
I decide Tuesday to just do The Throat Of The Devil. You take a train to it, which has 3 stops: the entrance to the park, a middle stop where you get off to hit the upper and lower circuits, and then The Throat Of The Devil. The recommendation is to walk to the 2nd stop and board there rather than wait at the first stop which is filled with people. Warning: the 2nd stop is also filled with people. Such lies in this place.
So I walked to the 2nd stop, boarded the train, got to the stop, and walked out to The Throat Of The Devil . UnFUCKINGreal. Incredible. Absolutely incredible. Probably definitely the coolest thing I've ever see. And if you stand in one spot you can get misted on. Really neat. Check Facebook for an album titled*** for photos.
So then I trained it back to the front, bussed it back, and went to sleep. I guess now is a good time to explain how the Brazil side works. I booked it with the tourism guy at the bus station. A guy in a car (a "driver") collects you (another side note: that's why in-town buses are called colectivos*, because they collect people) at 7:30-8:00 in the morning (hence why I didn't party the night before, 7:30 AM is effing early...oh, and there's not much fiesta in Iguazu that I could find, not that I looked that hard, EFF OFF), collects other people at their respective hostels, takes you through Argentine then Brazilian customs, drops you at the park, picks you up some odd hours later, and do the first part of the trip in reverse (I don't feel like retyping all of that. You get the idea, I'm sure.) Costs $100 pesos a person. Oh, random side note...on the Brazilian side, the driver just took our passports, when in, and got them stamped. Like, do they even care at all who enters their country? Anybody could have been in our car. Like, ANYBODY. They didn't match our faces to our passports or anything. Dudes are just sitting back, sipping their lattés. You rock, Brazil. Argentina, well you were not so lax. More on that in a second.
So (side note: Brennan, find a new way to stop paragraphs other than with the word "so"), we get to the park, which, we got there early so we had to wait 'til like maybe 9 AM to enter. They took credit card, so that was good. And I was wearing my sweet Brazil Pumas. OH AND DID I MENTION I WAS IN BRAZIL? Life goal: achieved. So the park was great and the waterfalls were breathtaking, per the ush. The best part is at the end of the they've built this platform you can walk out on, like, over the water. See that other album on Facebook for pics.*** It's awesome.
So the driver returned me to the Argentine side. Argentine immigration were dicks to me about not having my paper showing I'd paid the reciprocity fee. I didn't think about keeping it on me. But apparently I should. It's not like I didn't have a stamp in there FROM TODAY showing I'd JUST LEFT ARGENTINA. Seriously, just, whatever Argentina. I won't cry for you, thank you very much.
Also, another random side note: I crossed over with these 3 people. They decided to just stay in Brazil. Neat.
So I got back, bussed (is it one S or two here?) to the Argentine side and saw the upper and lower circuit. The lower circuit was fabbysauce because you can stand really close to a waterfall and get showered. See the Facebook album*** for pics.
Anyways, it was fantastic.
Iguazu: The Journey There and Back: A Bus Tale. See also: Fiefel Goes West
This part coming soon. I'm tired and want to take a break. This post is long enough as it is.
*So, while I would definitely give myself 2 days to do the whole thing properly, like the guide said, a day for the Argentine side and at least a half a day for Brazil, it's not necessary. You can do the whole deal in a day if you're a young, in shape, fast-paced person, you know, like me. And there aren't loads of tourists in the way. It was definitely touristy when I went but it was early in tourist season so I'm sure I was lucky. Moral of the story: give yourself ample time, i.e., 2 days.
**Which rocked.
***Brennan, remember to go back and put the name of Facebook album title for people to see. Maybe even a link, you cheap bastard.
Updated (2013-10-19)
Ok, since this post looks to be the longest of my blog so far, I am going to split this into two posts, so look for part 2: The Fellowship Of The Ring.
Iguazu: The Journey
So, before arriving in Buenos Aires, I'd never heard of Iguazu, which is...embarrassing. Several people were like "You've never heard of Iguazu?" My responses ranged from "I'm an ignorant American, what do you expect?" to "Shut your mouth." to "No hablo español bien." Which are all pretty much the same thing. So, if you've never heard of Iguazu Falls, now you have. You also no longer have an excuse not to go. Money's tight? Sell that shiny new DVD player you just bought. Mortgage your cat. I don't care, JUST GET THERE. I spoke with people about it in my respective hostels about and I heard it takes about a 20-21 bus ride to get there. Or like maybe 3 hours by plane. So I'm like "Well, poop, now I gotta do this." More on this later, but the point of this trip is not to travel extensively. But some things are too good to pass up.
So I form a plan: leave on Monday, arrive on Tuesday, stay two days, leave on Thursday, return to BA on Friday. At least I save on a couple of nights of paying for a hostel, right? I buy my tickets and figure out how the bus station works. Love learning new stuff! I knew where it as because, well, I'd run past it a few times. Nah, it really was cool to take an overnight bus in Argentina, just to have done it. Confidence builder. More on that for another blog post.
So I got there Tuesday, talked to a tourism guy at the bus station (cleverly and conveniently placed, Argentina, well done) and figured out about getting to the Argentine park and crossing over to the Brazilian side. Oh, I didn't mention that. It's a big national park, well, I guess international, shared by Brazil and Argentina. It's not really that important to know that fact. The guy tells me it takes about a day to see the Argentine side and half a day for the Brazilian side. So I figure, given the amount of time I have, I'll see half the Argentine side Tuesday, then the Brazilian side in the morning on Wednesday, and the rest of the Argentine side Wednesday afternoon.*
Quick side note/interjection CUZ IT'S MY BLOG AND I DO WHAT I WANT! (I run with 12 gangs!): the cost to enter park: $170 pesos. When you leave, if you talk to the ticket guys, they'll scan it and you can re-enter, provided you have your original ticket and your passport, for a 2nd consecutive day, for half-price. But only for the 2nd day and only if it's consecutive. CONSECUTIVE, people. Your ticket won't work on the Brazilian side, though. Duh. Only an idiot would think it might. ... *crickets*...Oh, and the stupid, stinking bus out there costs I think $70 pesos for a round trip. So I totally mcgoatally paid for that 2 days in a row. From what I can tell, it's a normal city bus (colectivo) so I probably could have just gotten on at a normal stop and paid $3 pesos. WHATEVER, LANA.
So, Tuesday, I go to the Argentine side. I think I got in at like 1:50 PM maybe (??). After dropping my stuff off at the hostel and taking the bus 20 km out to the park, I've effectively got maybe 2.5-3 hours to check it out until it closes at 6, but I need to be back at the entrance at 5:30 just in case so I don't miss the last bus back into town. In my mind, the Argentine side has 3 spots, besides the gift shop (yes, it's touristy there, but you get the great benefit of seeing amazing waterfalls. Get over it...he said to himself.): The Throat Of The Devil (La Garganta Del Diablo), The "Upper" Circuit, and The "Lower" Circuit. The Throat Of The Devil takes you to overlook the biggest, most prominent, and first (as in, it's the first waterfall/beginning of the river and there are more falls furher down the river and on the sides of the river off of cliffs) falls from the side, the upper circuit takes you near the top, and the lower circuit much lower when you can get much closer to the falls and get showered by them.**
I decide Tuesday to just do The Throat Of The Devil. You take a train to it, which has 3 stops: the entrance to the park, a middle stop where you get off to hit the upper and lower circuits, and then The Throat Of The Devil. The recommendation is to walk to the 2nd stop and board there rather than wait at the first stop which is filled with people. Warning: the 2nd stop is also filled with people. Such lies in this place.
So I walked to the 2nd stop, boarded the train, got to the stop, and walked out to The Throat Of The Devil . UnFUCKINGreal. Incredible. Absolutely incredible. Probably definitely the coolest thing I've ever see. And if you stand in one spot you can get misted on. Really neat. Check Facebook for an album titled*** for photos.
So then I trained it back to the front, bussed it back, and went to sleep. I guess now is a good time to explain how the Brazil side works. I booked it with the tourism guy at the bus station. A guy in a car (a "driver") collects you (another side note: that's why in-town buses are called colectivos*, because they collect people) at 7:30-8:00 in the morning (hence why I didn't party the night before, 7:30 AM is effing early...oh, and there's not much fiesta in Iguazu that I could find, not that I looked that hard, EFF OFF), collects other people at their respective hostels, takes you through Argentine then Brazilian customs, drops you at the park, picks you up some odd hours later, and do the first part of the trip in reverse (I don't feel like retyping all of that. You get the idea, I'm sure.) Costs $100 pesos a person. Oh, random side note...on the Brazilian side, the driver just took our passports, when in, and got them stamped. Like, do they even care at all who enters their country? Anybody could have been in our car. Like, ANYBODY. They didn't match our faces to our passports or anything. Dudes are just sitting back, sipping their lattés. You rock, Brazil. Argentina, well you were not so lax. More on that in a second.
So (side note: Brennan, find a new way to stop paragraphs other than with the word "so"), we get to the park, which, we got there early so we had to wait 'til like maybe 9 AM to enter. They took credit card, so that was good. And I was wearing my sweet Brazil Pumas. OH AND DID I MENTION I WAS IN BRAZIL? Life goal: achieved. So the park was great and the waterfalls were breathtaking, per the ush. The best part is at the end of the they've built this platform you can walk out on, like, over the water. See that other album on Facebook for pics.*** It's awesome.
So the driver returned me to the Argentine side. Argentine immigration were dicks to me about not having my paper showing I'd paid the reciprocity fee. I didn't think about keeping it on me. But apparently I should. It's not like I didn't have a stamp in there FROM TODAY showing I'd JUST LEFT ARGENTINA. Seriously, just, whatever Argentina. I won't cry for you, thank you very much.
Also, another random side note: I crossed over with these 3 people. They decided to just stay in Brazil. Neat.
So I got back, bussed (is it one S or two here?) to the Argentine side and saw the upper and lower circuit. The lower circuit was fabbysauce because you can stand really close to a waterfall and get showered. See the Facebook album*** for pics.
Anyways, it was fantastic.
Iguazu: The Journey There and Back: A Bus Tale. See also: Fiefel Goes West
This part coming soon. I'm tired and want to take a break. This post is long enough as it is.
*So, while I would definitely give myself 2 days to do the whole thing properly, like the guide said, a day for the Argentine side and at least a half a day for Brazil, it's not necessary. You can do the whole deal in a day if you're a young, in shape, fast-paced person, you know, like me. And there aren't loads of tourists in the way. It was definitely touristy when I went but it was early in tourist season so I'm sure I was lucky. Moral of the story: give yourself ample time, i.e., 2 days.
**Which rocked.
***Brennan, remember to go back and put the name of Facebook album title for people to see. Maybe even a link, you cheap bastard.
Updated (2013-10-19)
Ok, since this post looks to be the longest of my blog so far, I am going to split this into two posts, so look for part 2: The Fellowship Of The Ring.
No comments:
Post a Comment