Una aventura en Iguazu

Waterfalls, butterflies, a road block and the Argentinian army...

We arrived from Buenos Aires to Puerto Iguazu by plane yesterday afternoon and checked into our hostel (where we have a private ensuite double with air conditioning for $22 US a night!). After exploring the town yesterday afternoon (it didn't take long) we were looking forward to a day at Iguazu Falls today. We got up early as we'd been warned about a demonstration that is taking place here which has been partially blocking the main road to the falls and airport. We boarded a bus at the airport and began making our way out of town slowing to a complete stop as we approached the blockade (if my Spanish is correct, the demonstration is about schooling and social welfare etc) where we waited (thankful of the air conditioning on the bus) for about 15 minutes. Eventually our driver got out to investigate further only to return and tell us that if we wanted to continue to the falls we'd have to cross the blockade on foot and try to get transport on the other side.

We are only here for one day so it was now or never for us to see the waterfalls. We've heard so many great things about them that we weren't about to let a little demonstration get in our way! We managed to cross the blockade as there weren't too many protesters and all the passengers crossed at the same time which left them a bit short handed (it didn't go without notice though and we weren't very popular). And...without a clue about how far it was to the entrance of the national park, we began to walk! We were walking with a couple of girls we'd met on the bus and were offered rides by a couple of taxis who were quoting extortionate fares (attempting to capitalise on our predicament I'm sure) we which laughed at and continued walking...and walking, and walking!

Eventually we decided that the park might be further than any of us had previously thought and attempted to flag down any of the few cars that passed. Thinking it a bit of a joke we stuck out our thumbs and waved our arms as an Argentinian Army truck passed us. To our shock and delight, the truck slowed to a stop on the other side of the road and the men dressed in fatigues gestured for us to climb in (no easy feat as the Unimog truck is a long way from the ground!). The very kind military men proceeded to drive us about 10km along the road at which point they had to turn off in another direction - a short but interesting ride nestled amongst the artillery and food supplies stocked in their truck. The road sign at this point suggested that we still had a further 7km to the park entrance and the temperature was rising steadily (to 32 degrees with very high humidity as we're in rain forest territory). We began to walk but were confident from our first hitching experience and decided to try our luck again. Having been passed by several cars (not able to get through the blockade much of the traffic had u-turned) we were beginning to worry about how long it might take us to walk the full 7km when a man pulled over at the side of the road. He offered us a lift (we clearly looked like four hot, tired and very nonthreatening tourists) in his air-conditioned car right to the entrance of the park and wouldn't accept a penny in payment (it's so nice and unusual to have an experience like that - if only there were more people like him in the world).

Feeling pretty proud of ourselves for making it all the way to the falls without paying a penny extra, we said goodbye to our travelling companions and began our visit to the falls. This is one of those occasions when the hype really doesn't spoil the reality - Iguazu Falls is breathtakingly beautiful and jaw droppingly huge! We made our way around the various trails on offer but weren't able to do the boat rides (would you believe, the boat company staff were on strike!) which was a shame as I just wanted to get closer and closer to the water and spray. The park is also famous for a host of wildlife including an enormous variety of butterflies. It's safe to say that I've never seen anything quite like the butterflies here - there are so many...large, tiny, beautifully coloured. They swarm around you in certain areas and land on your hands, bags and even heads!

Knowing that our journey back to town might be an eventful one, we left the park in the early afternoon in search of transport. There were buses leaving the park and going as far as the back end of the traffic jam at the blockade, so we jumped on the first one and made our way there. It was about 1.5 kilometre walk uphill (in the searing mid afternoon heat) from where the bus dropped us to the blockade itself but this time there were many more people and absolutely no way through. Simon tried but was told and shown that there was no way he was going to be allowed to pass! We had to wait until they decided to let pedestrians through (and some had waited for 6 hours on the road). Thankfully our wait was only about 45 minutes at which time they raised the barriers enough to let us through (if we moved fast) to the other side where we found a bus to bring us back to town.

All in all a good (and very eventful) day out. Tomorrow we head across the border to Brazil where we will spend a day and a half exploring the Brazilian side of Iguazu falls and then on to the beach.