After a month in Uruguay, it was high time for us to go back to Argentina and see the north and specificly speaking it's stunning nature wonders.
Almost 3 km wide, 150-300 waterfalls depending on the time of the year, the border between Brazil and Argentina- Iguazu Falls. According to Guarani (indigenous people of the area) it has a romantic origin. Legend says that a deity wanted to marry a beautiful woman named Naipí. Unfortunately she was already in love and engaged with a human with whom she decided to run away in a canoe. When the deity found out he sliced the river in madness creating the waterfalls and turned the girl into a rock and the boy into a palm tree. He wanted them to see each other but never touch. Sometimes they still manage to show their love with a rainbow which starts on the rock on the Argentinian side and ends on a palm tree in the Brazilian.
Anyway...
Both sides are parts of National Parks and on both sides there are small cities from which it is relatively easy to get to the waterfalls (Foz do Iguacu and Puerto Iguazu). Both of the towns are really ugly and there is nothing special about them so we stayed on the Brazilian side to relieve our wallets and to eat pure chocolate which we longed for so much in Argentina:) First we visited the Brazilian side of the Park as it offers the panoramic view of the falls. It was nice but not quite that impressive. It just didn't seem huge as we expected them. That's the problem with tourism these days, you actually see impressive pictures of the places that you're about to visit and you built up expectations and they are usually too high (as many of the pictures are as realistic as those from Hollywood stars). Anyway we were determined to see the Argentinian side of the falls. It started way better as the park over there is way bigger and has quite some walking routes to enjoy, one of which leads to the only island in between the waterfalls (Isla de San Martín) which is available for visiting and it offers nice views and a free shower:) afterwards we took a train to get to the epicentrum - Devil's Throat. We didn't know what to expect as walking around a kilometer on a bridge over the Parana river we saw only birds, trees and a rather calm scenery. We couldn't be more wrong. Almost reaching the end we already heard what sounded like hectoliters of water pouring down. And there it was- a hole in the river bed, quite literally. Undisturbed calm life of the river broken by the most impressive of all the views- allmighty water in motion. And like in the whole Park, rainbows and colourful butterflies completed this spectacle of nature. We definitely didn't regret going to the Argentinian part at all. It had everything, panoramic views, walking routes and practically an inside view of it all.
