Iguazu Falls you are so Beautiful...... but it just wasn't our day together

Our trip to Iguazu falls started with a 20+ hour bus ride from Buenos Aires to the small town of Puerto Iguazu.  The buses in Argentina have been suprisingly quite comfortable so we were not to concerned with our impending journey. We had set it up so that we would ride overnight in order to arrive in Iguazu around 9am the next day, check into our hostel and then book it to the falls themselves as we only had the 1 day to see them.  Unfortunately our bus departing for Iguazu was about 3 hours late getting away from B.A and as we stood on the bus platform hot, confused and asking anyone around for info on the bus (there were not annnocements, no employees giving out info on the bus etc), perhaps Jonny and I should have taken that to be forshadowing that our journey to Iguazu falls was not going to be quite as seemless as the rest of our travels have been so far. 


The ride itself was pretty uneventful and by the time we arrived, got our bags, found the hostel and got checked in it was about 1130am so we were a little behind schedule. We all decided to drop our stuff and do a quick change in order to get to get a bus to the falls by around noon giving us still a good few hours there before the park closed. Somehow in my rush to get ready I ended up almost chocking to death on toothpaste, to which Jonny have to come running down the hall to my rescue. It look me a little while to recover and finally be able to breath again but when I finally did the 4 of us headed to the bus. Jonny had already been feeling under the weather so by the time we got on the bus we were already a bit battered but so excited to see the falls - and trust me they did not disappoint!


After about 25 mins we arrived at Iguazu Falls on the Argentina side and the views were absolutely breathtaking. I don't think that it is even possible for me to describe the mixture of the view of the falls together with the sound of the water crashing down over them. These falls absolutely but Niagara Falls to shame. The falls actually border Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil, each offering different view points of the falls. Unfortunately given travel schedules we were only able to see them from the Argentina side but apparently that is supposed to be where you get the most views. 


Once inside we hopped on the trolley that takes you towards the Devil's throat - the largest part of the falls - after about a 1km walk you reach the spot. Since we knew our time was limited we headed straight to the main event. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. Unfortunately as we were walking towards the Devil's throat we realized that our stupid little point and shoot camera (the only one we have left ever since some soul-less bastard in Mendoza stole our DSLR - still bitter at this person) was on its last bar of battery despite the fact that we had charged it just the day before.  Because of this our photo's from the falls are very limited which was utterly disappointed. But no worries, we captured a few and then we just captured the rest with our eyes. 

Walkway on the way to Devil's Throat 

First view of the Falls at Devils Throat

Another view of the devils throat

After finishing up at the devil's throat we headed back to some of the other trails that take you around other parts of the falls both above and below. There are some amazing spots along these trails and I really wish I could put into words how amazing they are. Ever time you round a corner and catch a glimpse you think it can't get any better and then you go around only to be blown away again. 

View from the lower look out right before the camera died

Cedric enjoying the falls (photo credit Kait Haynes)

Finally around 530 we were headed to our last view point of the falls. A spot that is off to the side of one of the smaller falls but so close to them that you can soaked from the mist that it sends off. I went right up close to the falls to get a cool down from some of the water (it was close to 40 degrees that day) and Jonny and J.J were hanging back a bit admiring the view. Somehow as they were doing this Jonny dropped his oakley sunglasses over the railing down onto the ground below - which was basically about 10ft of heavily forested ledge before the slope drops off. It was about a 6 ft drop off the railing and so Jonny decided that he should jump over the railing to rescue his sunglasses. None of this I was aware of as I was still off getting misted. I turned around and started walking back only to see Jonny dropping back onto the path from the railing and then him and J.J starting to scramble and reach for the bags. As I got closer I realized Jonny had a massive amount of blood rolling down his legs. As we went to go over the railing it caught it on one of the brackets and tore a chunk out of his left about 5inches long. Needless to say they were scrambling to get the first aid kit out of J.J's bag. Upon seeing the blood Kait and I ran back to see what was going on. Luckily standing beside us was a super nice woman, who in the little English that she spoke ask us if we need help and that her husband is a paramedic who was also there. She called her husband over and we quickly jumped in to help. It got it cleaned up and bandaged up and then informed Jonny that he needed to head to the medical building to get 5 stitches. We were pretty deep into the trail at this point so it took us about 20 mins to walk back to the main area where we flagged down someone who worked there and asked where the medical building was. They took us all there in their very mini ambulance where we greeted the doctor...... who spoke not 1 word of English and worked in a medical building that looked like they maybe do stitches once a year. 

Ambulance ride at the Falls (photo credit Kait Haynes)

Given that blood and doctors are not really my thing J.J headed in with Jonny while the doctor stitched him up. Somehow in between their no Spanish and the doctors no English they were able to communicate and figure out that he had given him a prescription for antibiotics and pain killers and that he has to keep the stitches for 10 days. Unfortunately for Jonny we were headed to Carnival in Rio the very next day so he will have this injury all through carnival, our beach time in Rio and our for our entire stay at the luxury Sheraton Rio that has a pool overlooking the ocean. Moral of this story...... bad decisions end in bad consequences lol.  And that was the end of our day at Iguazu falls


We headed back to the hostel a little bruised and battered from the day but still blown away by the sights. If going to Iguzu falls is not our your wishlist of travel spots..... you should add it!! Luckily (well for some of us at least) our hostel had a very large pool where 3 of us spend the rest of the evening lounging before our flight the next day. Up next we are off to Rio for CARNIVAL!!!!!!!

OOO_Talia