So it’s been a little while. Last we posted we’d finished going through Uruguay and were on our way to Puerto Iguazu and their world famous waterfalls. First we had to get there. We arrived in the small town of Parana at around five in the morning and were still a good ways off from our final destination. After a quick scoping of the situation we found we could take a bus to Iguazu around six o’clock…over twelve hours later in the afternoon. Instead we hopped on a bus to a smaller town. This place was way off the tourist radar and was very quiet. We spent a little bit of time wandering around after several ladies helped us decide that the best way to go from here would be to Corrientes. So we had lunch and played cards for a while and got back on the bus. We arrived later that night in Corrientes and stayed just long enough to have dinner and get on ANOTHER bus that would arrive in Puerto Iguazu the next morning. And so it was.
We finally arrived into this very beautiful lush green town and set off to find a hostel. Unlike our usual method of wandering around aimlessly until we find something this time we already had one in mind. We’d heard about this place in Buenos Aires and just had to try it out. This hostel was outside of town a couple kilometers and a taxi drove us there. And we were impressed. This place was the Ritz Carlton of hostels. It had a huge pool, deck chairs, restaurant, bar, laundry service, TV, tourist office, pool and ping pong tables, internet, and even massages you could pay for. We needed no convincing. So we settled in for the day and just enjoyed relaxing, swimming in the pool, and watching The Exorcism of Emily Rose. We would later come to feel that although this hostel looked nice, it definitely had it’s drawbacks. For one thing this place was always swarming with people and could be a bit noisy. That and while the place had a huge staff, the majority of them were inattentive and unhelpful. In fact there was only one really helpful guy there who managed to save us from being charged for a bag of laundry we didn’t do, not to mention being charged a fifty peso deposit just because we might accidentily lose a stupid piece of paper they gave to us.
Anyways the next day we went to the falls. Our first stop was part of an organized tour that started with a jeep trip down a jungle pathway learning about various plants and animals in the area. It was nice (and a little boring) and then we came to a speed boat that took us up the river to where the main falls were. We got some good pictures and the were promptly drenched as the boat went directly underneath some of the falls three seperate times. It was fun, although we later decided it wasn’t quite worth the 90 peso price tag.
Having little time left we made our way to what was supposed to be the best view in the park. We hopped a little train and walked down a series of catwalks that were entirely ove water for half a kilometer at least and finally ended up at Garganua del Diablo or Devil’s Throat. And I must say that hereafter I am completely ruined on waterfalls. No series of falls on earth can compare to this. With up to 275 individual cascades falling up to 70 meters this place just defies all imagination. The water is so calm on the river until the second it goes over in a mad torrent and the sound is incredible. We stayed there watching for a while and taking a zillion pictures, wanting to remember this forever. We then reluctantly made our way back to the hostel where we ended up hanging out with some new friends from Boston, Georgia and Kate, and their guy friend from Australia, Lindon. They told us about this cool hidden place at the falls that they were going back to the next day and invited us along. So the next day we went.
This place was supposedly closed off from the public, and we slipped by a Do not pass sign to get there. And once we were there it was like a whole new world. On this little island that cuts the series of falls in half was a large secluded pool with numerous high falls roaring down. We swam and ate lunch and took lots of pictures and once again reluctantly left to go back to the hostel. We hung out for a bit more and left the next day.
We boarded a bus going to San Ignacio Mini, home of some famous Jesuit mission ruins. We arrived fairly late in the afternoon but tried to see the ruins anyway. The woman at the ticket booth recommended we come back the next day as it would be dark soon. We agreed to do that and walked around town for a bit. It became clear that this place was obviously much more poor than some other towns we’d been to recently. People asked for money fairly regularly. Then we came upon the this small little boy who wanted our attention. It took us a minute to figure out that he wanted bread, of which we had none. We sat down and Jordan tried talking to this very shy kid while I sat back and listened. We were able to figure out that he was seven years old and his name was Leon. He had a mom but no father and wanted us to get bread for him. Finally we walked to the nearest grocery store as he followed tentatively behind at a good distance. We got him some bread and decided to get him a pack of cookies too, only to turn around and find he’d followed us into the store. We asked him what kind was his favorite and he picked out a pack of coconut flavored cookies. He was then promplty told to get out by the manager who didn’t want him stealing or begging from her customers. We paid for the items and gave them to him. He said thank you very quietly and then made his way off. We spent the rest of the day eating dinner and hanging out. Today we intend to go see the ruins and head to Posadas in the afternoon, where we will decide if we want to visit Paraguay or not. Peace to all.
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