Gra Nomad Wanderings

Friday, February 24, 2006

IGUAZU FALLS - MAGIC

There´s no way I can do justice to this spectacular sight. (Thanks for trying Deb.) We get used to relying on photographs and movie/video footage to tell our stories, and I have not been able (yet) to get a photo posted here except when I have my own computer.
Firstly the falls are HUGE! No, they´re GIGANTIC! There are various parts to the Iguazu Falls. There are three countries that share the falls – Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina. One day we went to the National Park in Argentina and wandered about, seeing aspects of the Falls. They are absolutely awesomein the amount of water going over, the shape of the falls, the extent of the many waterfalls and the spectacular river they drop into. We decided to hang the expense and take our travel agent´s (Kim) advice and have a speedboat ride to the bottom of the falls. It was a real thrill, a heap of fun and the driver took us under the falls, not once but three times. He would ask us (in Spanish) do you want to go again, and we would shout DOOCHA (well something like that)… which meant shower! We were absolutely drenched! Head to toe! Couldn´t have got wetter if we´d fallen overboard which Jeremy threatened to do.
Entry to the park was 30 p each and 45 p each for the speedboat ride. Total about $35 A each. Pretty reasonable.
The next day we took all our luggage, our excess baggage and the five of us headed for Brazil. It sounds simple, but it´s a tricky operation and you can come undone pretty easily. You first get to a checkpoint where you are exiting Arg. So far so good… passports etc. Then another 2 km and you reach the next checkpoint – entry to Brazil. This time take all luggage with you. Off the bus. Next you have to take your passport and other documentation and go and see that bloke in the booth up there. Hey it wasn´t so bad after all…I think we got lucky. Thanks Lord.
When we reached a bus station, we were directed to a small store – a souvenir shop. Here we could stash our 7 pieces of luggage (doesn´t count our day packs/hand luggage) for a small sum of money.
We bussed to the park and went walking. Here you get a really good overall view of the falls and could see where we were the day before and where we went in the speedboat. We went out on walkways perilously close to massive overflows of water which would solve Sydney´s water shortage I´m sure. More photos.
At the end of the day, 4 weary travelers, with their stashed luggage headed on a bus with semi-reclined seats for Curitiba. Just a nine hour trip…. Nothing to write home about. Thank goodness for books, iPods and Sudokus! Thanks for your computer Jovita and Marcello.

2 Comments:

At 10:01 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

We wrote a fairly substantial comment, Gra and Fay, but somehow it has vanished off into cyber space.

 
At 1:40 AM, Blogger Keasty said...

well i got this one guys.... been there done that... bought the T shirt... moved one!!! LOL.
Trust u and Collin all well.

 

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