The Other Side of the Falls

And now, back to the falls!  Another early morning.  This time, picked up by a bus and taken to another bus.  In the second bus was an actual English-speaking guide.  And this English-speaking guide singled me out as the only non-Spanish speaker in the tour.  Just wanted to point that out.  Sebastian had an umbrella with "Sol Iguazu" on it, which was supposed to help us be able to locate him at any time.  It would have worked wonderfully if he had kept it open.  He did well early on.  Soon after we entered the park, he let us know that, though part of the lower circuit was closed, the boat to the falls was back on!  This was awesome and awful news! I hadn't planned on being able to do this, so all my underwater gear was left at the hostel.  The underwater camera.  The SCUBA suit for my mirrorless camera.  The action camera with its waterproof housing.  All. At. The. Hostel.  Fortunately, I keep that little waterproof necklace thing that you can put your phone in with me when traveling.  Just in case I need an extra pocket.  So, it was going to have to do.  He warns there are lots of stairs up and down.  I decide I'll just have to make several stops on the way back up.

We start on the green trail, which doesn't really have much other than some palm trees.  Pretty, but nothing outside of what I've seen before.  He keeps us in a group, describing different vegetation, but walking at a pretty good clip.  When we get to the upper circuit, he sends us in and disappears.  We get to the first stop and look around, and he's nowhere to be seen.  Another guide with Sol Iguazu tells one of my group members that he had to take someone to first aid and will be back, so we should just finish the circuit and meet where we entered.  So, I go at my own pace.  It is absolutely amazing!

Just as good as the Brazil side, only this time, the falls are underneath and beside me!

See the dusky swallow?  They nest behind the falls!

If you look closely, you can see the railings torn off on the island where there used to be a walkway.

And I don't understand how this tree remained standing!

It was amazing standing over such powerful water!

On the way back to the meeting point, there was even a tucan in a tree!

Several of them had been flying by, but they were too fast for me to get a decent picture. I guess I need to work on that whole capturing birds thing!

The lower circuit is probably a good time when it's completely open.  But, everything going out to view the Devil's Throat was closed, as the walkways had been destroyed.  It was a bust.  There were basically two waterfalls to see and the entry and exit was STEEP.  It was so steep, I had to stop a few times to be able to breathe.  By the time I  got to the top, Sebastian had reappeared, and he was trying to talk me out of doing the boat ride because of the steps.  I told him I would have plenty of time to recover and would be wet and cooled off by the time I needed to walk up those steps, and he was not going to stop me from taking that boat ride!  So, he got me my ticket and put me on the jungle buggy to the boat dock.  When we got there and I got off the buggy, guess who was in the line, soaking wet, waiting to get on the jungle buggy to go back to the entry point!  Tina and her brother and sister!  They assured me it was an amazing ride!

So, down the stairs I went.  It was mostly a gentle slope with steps cut into the hill.  About 3/4 of the way down, after picking up my waterproof bag, it turned into a regular stairwell.  As I got closer to the boat dock, there were life jackets on the handrail.  As I walked past a guy, he put the life jacket over my head and helped me get my arms through it.  When I got on the boat dock, just before getting on the boat, another guy fastened all the buckles on my life jacket, and then another guy tightened all straps and checked that it was on right.  At that point, I boarded the boat, dropped my waterproof bag that I carry with me (with my camera and stuff) in the waterproof bag they gave me, turned the top over a couple of times, and bucked it closed.  My phone was already in its waterproof lanyard, and my glasses were well attached to my head.  I was ready to go.  Before taking off, they moved some people around to balance the boat and put me on the other side.  They made some people take off their glasses, and nobody was able to wear a hat.  The guy who moved me was right, it was the better side of the boat!  I don't know how many of you have actually tried to use your phones in those waterproof lanyards, especially in full sun and with water splashing around, but I couldn't see what I was doing.  I just put my finger where I thought it should go and hoped I was recording something!  I did, somehow, manage to get a couple of good clips.  After the second pass through the waterfall, though, I somehow managed to flip the camera, and all of the other clips were of me, chewing my tongue while trying to work the camera or screaming and spitting out falls water, laughing, and just having a wonderful time!  They are not a pretty sight!  Here is the best one.  It's the first one and shows the falls that we went past before getting to the ones we went into.  It's not the closest we got, but it gives a good idea of what we had.  That water was ICE COLD, let me tell you.  But that ice cold water was sooooo refreshing after how hot the day had been!

We made multiple passes into both of those wide waterfall sections! Mind blown! Absolutely one of the high points of my life! If you ever go to Iguazu Falls, you HAVE to do the boat ride! This one was called La Gran Aventura and is on the Argentina side. I didn't ride the boat on the Brazil side, but I think they did the same things from what I could see.

When we got back to the docks, we got off the boat, and someone was there to unbuckle our life jackets.  On the stairs, the guy who put the life jacket on us, also took it off.   About halfway up the staircase part of the steps, there was a group of guys selling videos of our boat.  They wanted around 3000 pesos for it, so based on my blue dollar exchange, around $11.  I had no clue if I ever even turned my video on, so I stopped by there, filled out the form, caught my breath, and bought a copy.  It's nice.  If anybody wants to see it, I'm happy to show it.  It's much longer and shows everybody on the boat and all the scenery through most if not all of the passes through the falls.  I like mine better, though.  Maybe because it's mine, and I can still feel the water splashing me in the face and drenching my entire body!  Anyway, I headed on up the steps to the place where I gave back the waterproof bag.  The lady that was taking them pulled her stool out and instructed me to sit.  I told her I had to get back.  She told me I could either sit on her stool or sit "there" and pointed to the first aid tent.  I sat on her stool.  She reminded me to take deep breaths, in through the nose and out through the mouth, raising my arms above my head with inspiration, and eventually, my breathing was back to normal.  A couple more small rest stops on the way to the top, and I was back on the jungle buggy on my way back to the meeting point.  I was the last of our group to return.  Sebastian was nowhere to be seen.  He had apparently left earlier and left those of us who went on the boat with his buddy from Sol Iguazu.  This guy was irritated that I took so long to get back because many of the people on his bus were going back to Brazil, and he had to wait to let my group off at a bus on the way.  Oh well.  Life's rough and then you have to wait for the straggler.  I wouldn't change a thing, given all the circumstances.  If I had it to do over without the need for a guide but all other limitations, I would do the boat first and may or may not bother with the lower circuit and its steep climb.  If the full lower circuit was opened, it probably would have been worth that climb, but with only the opened parts, it was not.  The upper circuit was amazing, but the partial lower circuit was underimpressive after seeing the Brazil side and the upper circuit.

If you have the opportunity to go to Iguazu Falls and you start asking which side to see (like many people are doing on a couple of my Facebook groups), slap yourself and see both!  They are very different and both are amazing!

I picked up a choripan, fries, a salad, and soda from the gift shop before leaving the park because I was just too exhausted to worry about getting dinner.  Thankfully, I had booked the hostel for the full next day, so I didn't need to worry about check-out time, and my bus to Buenos Aires wasn't until afternoon.  So, I slept in, leisurely packed my clothes, and ordered a taxi to take me to Tourismo Dick and then Pizza Color (almost right next to the bus terminal) so I could get pizza before catching my bus to Buenos Aires.  I ate half of it for lunch and had the other half for dinner on the bus.  I'm glad Ricardo (from Tetris Hostel in Foz do Iguacu) warned me that I needed to get all the food and drinks I wanted for the bus ride because there wouldn't be an opportunity during the trip!