C & C globetrotting around the world…

The journey from Montevideo to Foz Iguazu took forever. We left Montevideo by bus at 1:30pm to Salto, the border town in Uruguay. In Salto there were no buses crossing the border because it was Sunday, so we had to take a taxi for the 40km across the border to Concordia. In Concordia, on the Argentinian side, we had dinner at a pizza place before taking an overnight bus to Posadas. There we changed buses to San Ignacio Mini, a small town further North. We arrived in San Ignacio after 22 hours, 3 buses and 2 taxis.

San Ignacio has well-preserved ruins from a Jesuit mission from the 17^th -18^th century. We had planned on visiting them the following day, but unfortunately it rained, so we left to Puerto Iguazu without having seen them. Instead, we used the time at the nice HI hostel to relax and catch up on the blog.

Puerto Iguazu, the gateway to the famous waterfalls, was only 5 hours away. There, our hostel was really nice and we met 2 British guys with whom we spent a nice evening chatting and laughing. The next day we met up with Karina and Patrick, who came from Brazil to visit the falls and pick us up. Christoph had talked so much about these falls and how they are 10 times more impressive than Niagara Falls, so Cecilia was very excited to finally see them.

The name “Iguazu” comes from the Guarani or Tupi words meaning “water”, and “big”. Legend has it that a god planned to marry a beautiful woman named Naipí, who fled with her mortal lover Tarobá in a canoe. In rage, the god sliced the river, creating the waterfalls and condemning the lovers to an eternal fall. Numerous islands along the 2.7-kilometre-long edge divide the falls into numerous separate waterfalls and cataracts, varying between 60 to 82 metres high. The number of these smaller waterfalls fluctuates from 150 to 300, depending on the water level. About half of the river’s flow falls into a long and narrow chasm called the Devil’s Throat (“Garganta del Diablo”). The Devil’s Throat is U-shaped, 82 meters high, 150 m wide, and 700m long. Names have been given also to many of the smaller falls. About 900 meters of the 2.7-kilometre length does not have water flowing over it. The edge of the basalt cap recedes by 3mm per year.

Niagara Falls has a higher water debit, but Iguazu are indeed very spectacular. The best part is that you walk through the jungle and suddenly arrive near a waterfall. You continue walking in the jungle some more and see another one. There’s also animals and birds around, making for a very cool experience. The Devils’s Throat, which we visited last is the most impressive and reminds of Niagara Falls with its U-shape, but is much higher (82m vs 51m). Iguazu currently has the second-greatest average annual flow of any waterfall in the world, after Niagara. It was amazing to see and we had a wonderful day. To finish the evening and celebrate having met our friends, we went to a Churrasco Rodizio, the typical Brazilian steakhouse (like “Le Milsa” in Montreal, only better) where they come around with all kinds of meat cuts on gigantic skewers. They also had a great buffet with a huge selection of sushi, salads and sweets, so we enjoyed our dinner very much.

What a great day to start the last month of our trip in South America!