RTW: Exchange in Chile

Iguazu falls and Paraguay

The next stop, Iguazu falls in Northeastern Argentina, was starting to look a bit gloomy like the last days of Buenos Aires thanks to the relentless stomach flu. However, upon arrival in the warmth of Iguazu, we were feeling better. The only problem was that I as the tour operator had counted one day too few before Johanna's departure to Finland so we needed to tighten the oh so loose schedule a bit.

Arriving, we headed straight to the falls from the airport to make use of the afternoon. And, regarless of warnings, we went on the infamous rip-off Gran Aventura that took us on a truck ride towards a boat trip that eventually got us all wet under the falls. Good thing we knew to change clothes before at the very least.. Here's the one that wetted us and some shots on the boat:







The falls were breathtaking, as you can see from the pics. They are right at the Brazilian frontier and the biggest fall of them all, Garganta del Diablo, describingly Devil's Throat (fourth pic below), is actually right at the border. They might not be as high as some others, but man they are huge! After seeing all that water move and especially being thrown around and showered by it you can really start to appreciate the powers of nature.











Here's a national park inhabitant that had some plans for me:



To make up time we were trying to move ahead on the same day (what happened to the illness?), but after considering the choices we stayed until next evening to get Paraguayan stamps and go check out the falls on the Brazilian side as well as we did not have time to go through every piece of it the first day. This all was, of course, nicely thought but it seems that anywhere in Latin America all timetables are shaky theories at the very best. First we slept late as we were surprisingly still feeling sick (now WHY on earth was that?), then arriving everywhere seemed to take forever by public transport (good thing we rich European punks can always take the taxi that for us costs peanuts) and finally Paraguay wouldn't give stamps for one-day trippers (once asked, the dude stamped a complimentary stamp on our amendments -pages in the passports, the second page, WTF). With some adjustments and a little bit of hurrying, we managed to pull it off nicely with a lunch in Paraguay and a relaxed tour of the Iguazu falls from the Brazilian side (above) and make it with a couple of spare minutes to our 22-hour bus ride to Rio.

Paraguay, or better put Ciudad del Este, a small commercial output on the "triple frontier", was chaotic, ugly and there for one purpose only: selling virtually anything to Argentinians and Brazilians flocking there for cheap prices. Sadly, I found out that not far from Ciudad del Este the Paraguayans have built the biggest dam in the world, destroying in the process falls greater than those found on Iguazu. I'm seriously lacking respect for that nation but I won't judge them finally just yet based on a few chapters of Lonely Planet and 2 hours wondering on one remote outpost of the country. Here's proof:



By the way, we shared the bus trip experience with a Finnish girl, Heidi, that we met in Puerto Iguazu (the Argentinian village in the area). She studies in Hanken (across the street of my university in Helsinki) and her big sister was in the student board the same time I was at KY - and she herself knows one of Johanna's Mexican friends from Thailand as well. The world is shrinking as I type.

Argentina:
Best national beer tasted: Quilmes
Best national dish: 500 gram bife de lomo with chimichurri (hot tomato salsa) and french fries -I was in heaven
Best experience/sight: Best experience probably snowboarding in Ushuaia and the best sight the Moreno glacier (winning Iguazu falls by an inch)

Paraguay:
Best (& only) national beer tasted: Pilsen
Best (& only) national dish: everything by the kilo, a buffet of partially unrecognizable Paraguayan food
Best experience/sight: Walking the birdge out of there and crossing river Paraná

posted by Kassu @ 4:07 PM