End of Argentina - Hey why is everyone else wearing ponchos?

The timeline of this one is a bit weird because Anne Marie and I visited Iguazu before the lads did but at least you are getting two stories for the price of one. Iguazu Falls is at the very North east of Argentina and makes up the border with Brazil. The falls themselves are amazing, 275 individual cascades the highest being 80metres. When the river is high (

and on our visit it definitely was) 100 million litres of water plummets over the edge

per second.

We all stayed in Puerto Iguazu on the Argentina side which is a nice enough place but purely serves as a place to get a late dinner and sleep, everyone spends all day out at the falls. We did the classic trip which is to spend one day at the Argentine side and one day popping across the border to do the Brazil side. There was more Passport trouble for Trick but I reckon you’re bored of hearing about that at this stage.

On the Argentine side we headed for the Parque Nacional Iquazu. This has an upper trail which takes you along metal walkways over the first few waterfalls. You are just three feet away from the edge of the falls so the noise and views are incredible.

The lower trail brings you down into the forest and then you find yourself walking under and sometimes almost into the falls. It is very wet but great fun and the opportunities for cheesy photos are endless.

Anne Marie and I signed up for a 4x4 drive followed by a boat trip around the falls. Avoid the 4x4 trip as it is just a ride on the back of a trailer but the boat trip was brilliant. When we got on it was slightly worrying that everyone else was wearing wet gear or ponchos and we soon found out why. The boat goes right up to and under the torrents of water from the falls and everyone gets soaked, great fun though.

The second day we jumped over the border to Brazil and headed up for their national park. The highlight here was definitely the Devil’s Throat which is a U shaped waterfall and the most impressive of the lot. Once again catwalks take you right to the edge of the waterfall and everybody gets soaked from the spray.

Looking back now at the pictures and videos it seems rather tame, it is really hard to capture how jaw droopingly stunning this place is. It was kind of off our intended route but the diversion was definitely well worth it.

After saying goodbye to Anne Marie in Buenos Aires I got another overnight bus to rendezvous with the lads in Salta. The buses in Argentina are way better than anything I’ve experienced, they have really comfortable seats that recline almost into beds and usually more food than you can handle. They show movies but they are either usually terrible or in Spanish but bringing your own bottle of vino tinto with you makes the whole thing more enjoyable. Although Conor may have a different opinion – on the 23 hour journey from Iguazu to Salta, his seat was double booked so he had to sit up front with the drivers. Not as comfortable unfortunately.

Salta was just meant to be a stopover point before crossing into Bolivia but it turned out to be a really cool city. It revolves around classic Spanish style square filled with restaurants and cafes. It was built by the Spanish as a stop off spot between the cities of Sucre (Bolivia) and Buenos Aires and their influence is quite noticeable. The two noteworthy sights are probably the cable car to the top of Cerro San Bernardo and the Museo de Argueologia de Alta Montana.

The museum holds the mummified remains of child sacrifices that were discovered by a National Geographic sponsored team. Basically, the locals worshiped the mountains (The Andes are the second highest mountain range in the world) so each year they would abandon a local on top of a mountain as a “present” to the gods of the mountain. Obviously the child would starve/freeze to death, but back in the day it was quite an honour to be selected. The temperatures on top of the mountain preserved these bodies perfectly and 500 years later (1999) were discovered and bought down to a museum. A lot of people think it’s wrong to have them in a museum, but there they are. Photos were not allowed but this was the one on view the day we were there – http://lastdaysoftheincas.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/lightning-girl.jpg

They take siestas in Salta really seriously. Everything is shut between 1 and 5 and on Sundays practically nothing is open. Not a place I’d recommend if you want anything rushed.