mercury rising
our journey from uruguay to the brazilian border in the far north of argentina was an odd one, involving a border crossing no longer served by buses, a very strange transfer from a uruguayan cabbie to an argentinian counterpart and an unplanned, though pleasant, one night sojourn in the unpronounceable little riverside town of gualeguaychu. although we had a surprisingly enjoyable day splashing around the, albeit grimy, thermal baths and befriending a six year old argentininan child whose stuttering command of a few words of english nonetheless put my quack attempts at spanish to shame we were primed for what was to come as we got onto our overnight bus on friday night. the 19 hour journey was, after all, not merely to take us up to yet another border crossing, but moreover to deliver us at the doorstep of the gargantuan iguazu falls, perched imposingly on the border of brazil, argentina and paraguay.stepping off the bus on saturday morning it was as if into a completely different world; we remain accustomed to the concept that a bus journey will never be significant enough to deliver markedly different terrain in the way that air travel can, despite having dozed through enough 24 hour plus journeys to suggest otherwise. the change from the slightly weak sunshine when we got onto this particular bus to the balmy tropical humidity bearing down on the suddenly red clau surroudings when we disembarked, however, was particularly disorientating. after two months travelling around what has, on many occasions, seemed to be a spectacularly distant suburb of europe we were suddenly in the tropics. the shorts, the sandals, it all came out to herald the heat in which we had stumbled off the bus and straight into.
sunshine was not, however, the reason we had come here, and it was with some excitement that we headed off to the falls on sunday morning. as we entered the park and hurried towards the catwalks tastefully set up to approach and view the falls a not so distant rumbling became more and more audible. as we rounded the corner we caught our first glimpse of a stupendous panorama, a long line of waterfalls stretching into the distance, venomously flinging water down into the river below, the water vapour rising from time to time to block out the casual iridiscence of the rainbows accompanying every vista. the sound, the sight, even the touch of the water as it sprayed over the passageways; i could even taste it. this truly was a full on assault on the senses, a physical battery which reached new heights when we took a short speedboat ride up to the falls themselves, jolting extraordinarily close to the impact point of tumbling water on water and paying the price for breathtaking views almost directly under massive falls with a drenching of biblical proportions.
iguazu was genuinely amazing, one of the most spectacular things i have ever seen anywhere on my travels. we returned for another glimpse today and a trek through the jungle to a secluded mini waterfall and accompanying pool: pretty enough, but it was the majesty, the sheer volume of the main falls which are the real attraction and which pounded in our heads as we left the park.
off to brazil tomorrow to look again at the falls but from the brazilian side. it was blisteringly hot today; who knows, maybe even the beaters will get an airing soon...
posted by bicrom @ 11:51 pm
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