After "Gesell" we had one day to gather our strength, then mum, dad, Miro and I were on the road again (well, in the air really), this time to Puerto Iguazu, in Misiones, right at the top of Argentina, on the Brasilian border. The reason people flock to Iguazu? The widest falls in the world. I'd already been last time I was in Argentina ('97), so I would have preferred to go to Cordoba or Mendoza or Bariloche, but Iguazu's not bad for a plan B eh? Dad had never seen the falls despite living in Argentina for about 40 years (weird, huh?).
We stayed in a very nice hotel, which totally made me appreciate travelling with my parents - when I go solo I'm always staying in the cheapest, crappiest places available. We spent our first afternoon lazing both in and by the pool, as we got to Iguazu too late to make it to the falls. Someone, who also happens ot be the writer of the blog you are now wasting time reading (get back to work, Maru!) had the absolutely brilliant idea of ordering caipirinhas to sip poolside at dusk. For those unfamiliar with this delicious beverage (native to Brasil), basically you take some lime, cut it into quarters, and bash it up with a pile of sugar. Stick the sugary lime into a glass with some crushed ice, and pour over a generous quantity (you can interpret "generous" however you please) of Cachaca, a sort of Brasilian version of rum. Stir, and then add more ice. Now enjoy the yumminess! It's sooo refreshing on a hot, tropical day.
Next morning we were falls-bound, and what a delicious surpise awaited me as our tour guide for the day, Adrian, was quite good-looking! What a pity I was wearing my "I'm on holidays with my parents and therefore couldn't care less how I look" clothes.
Pretty much the first thing we saw when we made it to the park was the Garganta del Diablo (Throat of the Devil) which for me has always been the best part of the falls. The sheer amount of water churning its way down into the humungous abyss is impossible to describe. Even pictures don't do it justice - the speed and volume of the water is just too massive. It was ridiculously hot, so we stood by the Garganta for a while enjoying the spray and being generally awestruck.
Next stop, a walk through the National Park (not quite the Amazon jungle, but close), then a boat ride underneath the falls (clearly not the Garganta del Diablo part, you'd be crushed, but another part). We got saturated from head to toe as if we had stood under the shower with our clothes on, which is exactly what we needed at 13:00 on a stinking hot tropical summer's day. Even more enjoyable was the group of rowdy Italians who were on the boat with us, making cool siren noises, screaming and generally getting into the spirit of things, with infectious results.
Lunch followed and then a bit more of the falls (a bit of a letdown after the morning, but any other day of course we would have been amazed) then back to the bus and the hotel, where we bid Adrian a fond farewell and went straight to the pool for some more lazing about and caipirinhas at dusk (when you've found a winning formula, stick with it).
The plan the next day was to visit the Brasilian side of the falls, but when we heard there'd be a two hour wait at the border, we said, "screw that" and looked for stuff to do in Argentina. We found a bird sanctuary (more interesting than it sounds I promise) and another place where they were supposed to tell you about the culture of the Guarani indigenous population but was really a five minute tour ending in the (various) handicraft stores. I have no problem with capitalism, but that's just rude, luring tourists with promises of cultural enlightenment when the only thing they ever intended to enlighten was your wallet.
Three guesses what we did that afternoon...If you guessed "sat by the pool with yet another round of caipirinhas", you'd be correct! That night we got talking to some other tourists, two Kiwis and a Chilean. I had some hopes that the Kiwi guy would turn out to be somewhat interesting, but as it turned out he had as much depth as a toddler's pool. Though I may be being a little harsh - it's difficult to get into a philosophical or political debate in an antiseptic hotel bar with a girl you met five minutes ago. At least he had an interesting job, restoring old and historic buildings.
Another cool but totally unrelated thing about that trip was that I finally (after over a year) managed to finish "Crime and Punishment". I started it ages ago, got halfway, then left the book on a train or something and never bought it again until I was about to leave Australia for Europe. Thanks to my busy and fascinating life (haha) I didn't manage to begin it again until the plane to Baires. Once again I got halfway through before getting swept up in the madness that is my extended family, and I couldn't get five minutes to read until we made it to Iguazu. But finish it I did, and although the ending was weak (I expected better Mr. Dostoevsky) it was a totally fascinating take on the criminal mind and the Russian society of the day. The edition I read (Vintage Classics, 1993, translated and annotated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky) had really interesting and detailed notes too, which always makes life more fun, if more frustrating, flipping backwards and forwards through the book.
Next day we bid farewell to the stinking heat and 95% humidity of Iguazu and returned again to the slightly smelly heat and 90% humidity of Baires.
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