Date of Entry: 23rd-25th December 2015
Date of Writing: January 4th 2016 Hostel Salta Por Siempre, Salta Argentina
(Thanks To Danica, Nathalie, and Google Images for the photos in this post)
For me Christmas started on the 23rd in Foz de Iguacu Brazil with Danica, Nathalie, Sabine, a Swedish girl named Rebecca, a kiwi, and the chilled out staff of Salta Por Siempre. I was originally scheduled to head to the Argentinean side of the falls where my bank card has arrived but decide to stick around and spend a little more time with these awesome people, though the 23rd the day is just spent relaxing in town, enjoying the small pool at Iguassu Guesthouse, Danica and I playing a rather intense imaginary game with the young son of one of the staff and ruining Nathalie’s tranquil reading by the pool with our splashing and screaming as he shoots us over and over again with his imaginary guns, all the while seeming utterly impervious to our bullets.
He gets some stickers from me later in the day because I’m weird like that and travel with stickers and bouncy balls. At any rate Nathalie, Danica and I eventually head to the supermarket looking to buy anything and everything we might need for a barbecue. Struggling with what cut of meat to get since Brazil seems to stock everything and anything you can imagine in the meat department. Luckily a friendly Brazilian man who’s married to a Canadian offers his assistance, telling the butcher in portuguese what were looking for and asking for enough meat for 5 people. We’re thinking maybe 3 kg max, but the butcher bags up 3.5 kilos of premium steak, to pair with our sausages, pasta salad, veggies, and all the other fixings. Still the steak looks so good I don’t even mind.
The heat outside is oppressive and we make it back to the hostel needing to recuperate and relax from the 10 minute walk before Danica and I get to preparing the grill, trying to get the charcoal going. It’s not easy, but with some help from the staff we get the barbecue burning and start tossing met on the grill, some marinated some not. When you look at this picture keep in mind that was less than half the steak.
It takes a while but by about 830 we’re all sitting down together around quite a delicious spread, Danica and I relieved to find the meat is properly cooked and very delicious.
Though it’s early it’s a great christmas celebration with some awesome people, which is one of the best parts of travelling. The people you meet are interesting, intrepid young people from all over the world, and I can’t imagine ever getting sick of it.
At any rate we talk the night away and also manage to arrange a private transfer roundtrip to the Argentinean side of the falls for 50 reals each, barely more than all the buses would cost and so much easier. The driver comes to pick us up at 10 am Brazilian time and after a quick stop for me at Brazilian immigration we reach the falls all together, me eager to show these awesome people one of my favourite places in the world. Sadly waking up I discover my nikon P610 is well and truly dead, odd since it’s been working the past two weeks since getting wet, but now chooses to die, with a persistent lens error, as such, all of these pictures come from Danica and Nathalie.
I store my big bag in the lockers found in the shop outside the ticket offices, paying 50 pesos (5 CAD) for the privilege, on my way back I’ll be heading to the Argentinean side, foolishly leaving these awesome people behind.
We head into the park quickly, me stopping on the way through at the tourist shops and being lucky enough to secure one of the last available spots on the full moon walk on the 25th and I can’t imagine a better way to spend christmas, except maybe back in Brazil with the people who walk along the green trail and hurry along the lower trail for their first glimpse of Iguazu Falls from the Argentinean side.
We wander past some of the smaller falls and out to the palm fringed viewpoint before getting to the closed section of the trail and looping back to the restaurant where we take the exit path to get to the awesome viewpoint buried in the consistent mists of the falls fully appreciating all the lower trail has to offer.
The lower trail finished and all of us soaking wet from the intermittent torrents of rain as much as the waterfalls we head up and embark on the upper trail which offers more varied and impressive views, the water level lower than I’ve ever seen it even changes many of the viewpoints for me, boulders previously buried suddenly visible.
We also get some people to snap a few photos of us all together to remember the occasion, as the water rages down, the rain temporarily stopped.
We complete the upper trail how it is designed wandering back through the path upstream from the falls but we can’t find any turtles which I’ve seen several times before, either way from there we head to the devil’s throat for the finale of our day, a worthy highlight for any day this place.
We head out the boardwalk quickly and this time at least I have no camera to protect and can focus more on enjoying my friends enjoyment of this place, and of course losing myself in the massive and undeniable crashing water all around us. I may have only been gone from here about a week, but it feels good to be back.
From there we head back to the park entrance where some of us enjoy alfajores (A traditional south american sweet famous in Argentina and Chile, made of two cookies and a bunch of dulce de leche en between, often coated in chocolate. They’re delicious and hard to resist but I manage it.
We eventually head out of the park to revalidate our tickets and meet our driver, me sad to be leaving these amazing people. It’s the thing about travel, so many wonderful hello’s but all too many quick goodbye’s, and it’s something I never really get used to. But today at least the excitement is not done, as once I’ve collected my big bag from the locker and climbed into the car pulling away from the park I see twin flashes of bright beaks in the air above, flying and landing in a tree along with 4 other toucans, making for six in total. Our driver stops and now I find myself really wishing I had my camera as here zoom makes all the difference, still the others manage to capture a few photos.
Our driver is shouting in Portuguese at another driver and suddenly he starts to pull away doing up all the windows, he’s just been told that not two minutes ago a little way up the road, his friend and their tourists saw what he calls a tiger but later clarifies as a mountain lion or puma stalking along the side of the road. A silent tension takes the car as we motor ahead our eyes searching for any sign but sadly this christmas miracle is not to be and the drive back to Puerto Iguazu passes uneventfully until a sad goodbye outside Hostel Park Iguazu.
They drive off heading back to Brazil and I wander into the hostel a little sad, but glad to have passed a great 3 days with these people and celebrated an early christmas morning, and whenever I get sad I just start thinking about tomorrow and what the full moon walk might hold.
Christmas morning I wake up early against my own will, though for me 5:30 am on christmas morning isn’t bad, I’m like a small child after all. I head to the falls early and spend an incredible day there, entirely without any camera device, which is a fun experience and well worthwhile doing if you have the time While the lens never blocks me from enjoying the moment, it certainly changes it a bit and it was nice to spend an entire day in this heavenly place with no need to capture any images, even If I do feel like I’m betraying the blog. But you guys are already sick of Iguazu I’m sure, and soon enough you’ll get more new entries.
Either way I head back to town around 4 and spend a few hours relaxing at the hostel and skyping with my lovely family, and a dear friend, before heading back to the park on the specially arranged night buses which run only during the full moon. I have my go pro but i’m skeptical it will capture anything and sadly I’m right, none of the pictures come out, but really that’s not what’s important and the experience is ridiculous. Plus I can always do what I’ve done for this entry, a few google image searches.
I get to the park and head into the main shopping area near the entrance where everyone has gathered to register. Since I’m on the third walk I have some serious waiting to do. There’s an optional dinner buffet but I’ve chosen not to participate. The moon walk is costly enough and Im dieting. The walk itself costs 500 ARS (55 CAD) and the buffet would add 200 ARS to the total.
The full moon walk is simple enough you register in the line and get your actual ticket for either the 1st, 2nd or 3rd departure which run at 8:30, 9:15 and 10:00. If you can reserve ahead of time through this website by calling the number provided and get on the first tour, not only will the moon be lower in the sky, but you will also have the chance to loop back and join the second group, and then the third group, only leaving the park at the end of the night.
Once your group is called your divided briefly into two groups for explanations in either Spanish or english then invited to board a train running all the way from the main station to the devil’s throat. My advice, sit in the first car (meaning the back one). Once you get to the devil’s throat station you’re supposed to wait for a guide to leave the way, but I didn’t instead booking it out onto the walkway and speed walking along just hoping I don’t get in trouble for it, but the guides are chill and those I pass from the second group don’t say a word. I end up asking one of my guides later if you could be on the first tour, pretend to leave, join the 2nd tour and repeat the process for the third, and he says it would absolutely not be difficult to do and there would be no serious consequences.
My ignoring the rules and hurrying out proves to be well worth it, I beat the others to the platform by about 10 minutes and am left entirely alone there for that time, revelling in the incredible beauty that I wish I could have captured. The falls are ghostly spectres to the eyes but this only enhances the terrific rush of the falling water and makes this place truly astounding. The moon lights up the sky in an eery glow, a strange mix of tranquility, and raw energy. It’s so beautiful that I barely even care when bit by but other people start to arrive.
The sprays aren’t weakened by the darkness though and soon I’m utterly drenched by the falls, losing myself in the incredible madness of this place. As i turn temporarily away from the falls I catch sight of something I never expected to see, it’s only a fleeting glimpse but it is most definitely a moon bow (a rainbow made form the light of the moon) The colours are more muted but the arc in the dark sky is unspeakably entrancing, though it fades quickly. Any doubts I had are removed though when a few minutes later I see it again.
The place at night is entirely different than anything I’ve ever seen, and certainly a different feeling than you get during the day. It is most definitely worth the price if you can be there, and I hope to come back in march or April with a camera to better document, though the freedom from the lens allowed me a unique and maybe deeper appreciation of the roughly half hour I spent out there under the moonlight.
Eventually we are told we have to head back by the staff and i spend the walk back chatting with two British girls, and one of our guides picking up a few more tricks of the park which I may try out when I’m back in the spring (Argentinean fall). We climb on the train, walk back to the entrance and wait about 20 minutes for the last bus back. 2013 I spent Christmas in Agra India at the Taj Mahal, 2014 I spent Christmas in Otavalo Ecuador with my brother and Clara on a day full of waterfalls and Mexican food, and 2015 was maybe my favourite christmas abroad yet, an amazing three day period spent with awesome people at one of my absolute favourite places in this wide world of ours; Iguazu Falls!
