Last full day at Iguassu
Well, today was another fun, relaxing day with different experiences again. We slept 30 mins longer and washed our clothes, hang them to dry on our little balcony (so convenient) and then had our great buffet breakfast overlooking the falls to set us off. After that, we went straight to the Devils Throat, where the highest and biggest of the waterfalls converge to make one impressive jump. In turns of volume of water, this is the jackpot ! Totally awe-inspiring. And the water volume was so high that you just couldn´t see the river bed at the bottom as the spray and mist were too dense. In some ways, it is almost better when it´s not SO full on... but what an experience !!!! Nathalie absolutely loved it. I think her jaw dropped open on a few occasions.
You have to catch a little train to get there and then walk 1,110m on some iron bridges that take you across the river (very shallow river in most parts, making it even more mind boggling as to how the waterfalls can be SO impressive -- where on earth does ALL this water come from!? the Andes and rainfalls I guess) and this alone was hugely relaxing. We even spotted our first (of four) wild tucan and other pretty birds and there were butterflies just everywhere... some would follow, stay on your back or camera lens for ages. It was just packed with wildlife and we SO enjoyed this too. The journey was almost as beautiful as the destination in that sense.
After that, we decided to enjoy a boat ride back and climbed on a big canoe with 5 other people and just glided down the river, peacefully... spotting a few aligators basking in the sun on the way. It was just totally serene and we really enjoyed this too.
When we got back to the train station we decided it was time to walk the LowerTtrail and enjoy different perspectives again. I had a lovely spot in mind for me to scatter my friend´s ashes (my main mission for this trip) and I took them to a spot with a huge waterfall that had a rainbow right at the bottom of it -- as if I had my friend´s seal of approval. I got my sister to do a quick rehearsal on the video and just as she started filming we got a spray of mist coming from nowhere over us. It was quite sweet.
I had to take a few photos and do a quick video for legal reasons (as she had left some money in her will for me to do this part of the trip) and her various friends had set up a blog to put photos and videos of the 6 international places where she wanted us to take her ashes. So, it was great for me to have Nathalie with me to help me with this part of the project. I took a few pinches of ashes and we did some photos and then threw the rest to the wind and filmed the ashes fly above the falls into the rainbow. It was just picture perfect and I know that my friend would have really appreciated the serenity and majesty of this particular spot. I could not have chosen a more beautiful spot in Argentina I think. Nothing else matches the power of Iguassu on the whole planet anyway !
It was 3pm by then and we were just starting to feel hungry. It had been SO hot all day (another totally glorious day without a cloud in the sky) that we simply did not feel hungry any earlier. The restaurant ground was full of coatis and it was just so sweet to see so many of them roaming free. I did lots of fun videos of them looking into Nathalie,s bag. Once she even tried to lift her bag off the ground quickly but one of them managed to hang onto it regardless. It was so funny. I think I will put the video on my Facebook for all to see !
We then decided to enjoy the beautiful pool of our hotel and just relax a little bit. The water seemed icy cold at first but I soon got used to it. It was perfect to cool down our over heated body and we then just stayed by the pool an hour before deciding to head for the Upper Trail again as it was so gorgeous on our first day. Unfortunately, by the time we got back to our room, changed quickly and headed down again, it was 5.40pm when we got to the Upper Trail start and the path was closed already.
Never mind, our back up plan was to rush up to the terrace of our hotel on the 4th floor and enjoy a magnificent sunset (we had noticed last night that they are absolutely superb at 6.15pm).
Nice buffet at the hotel tonight... and another perfect day has ended. We really could not have had a nicer 3 days here and I would recommend no fewer than 3 days at Iguassu Falls. Every day we have had has been uniquely wonderful and we would not have missed them for the world.
We feel SO totally blessed and utterly privileged to be here. We truly truly do not take ONE minute for granted and will be able to put together a really neat photo album to inspire you guys to do the same trip one day -- we hope. We really do !!! It is sooo memorable. It makes us miss all our friends and family even more not to be able to share this with them all TOO.
Off to Buenos Aires tomorrow, I think it will be a shock to the system to re-adjust to civilisation !
Well, today was another fun, relaxing day with different experiences again. We slept 30 mins longer and washed our clothes, hang them to dry on our little balcony (so convenient) and then had our great buffet breakfast overlooking the falls to set us off. After that, we went straight to the Devils Throat, where the highest and biggest of the waterfalls converge to make one impressive jump. In turns of volume of water, this is the jackpot ! Totally awe-inspiring. And the water volume was so high that you just couldn´t see the river bed at the bottom as the spray and mist were too dense. In some ways, it is almost better when it´s not SO full on... but what an experience !!!! Nathalie absolutely loved it. I think her jaw dropped open on a few occasions.
You have to catch a little train to get there and then walk 1,110m on some iron bridges that take you across the river (very shallow river in most parts, making it even more mind boggling as to how the waterfalls can be SO impressive -- where on earth does ALL this water come from!? the Andes and rainfalls I guess) and this alone was hugely relaxing. We even spotted our first (of four) wild tucan and other pretty birds and there were butterflies just everywhere... some would follow, stay on your back or camera lens for ages. It was just packed with wildlife and we SO enjoyed this too. The journey was almost as beautiful as the destination in that sense.
After that, we decided to enjoy a boat ride back and climbed on a big canoe with 5 other people and just glided down the river, peacefully... spotting a few aligators basking in the sun on the way. It was just totally serene and we really enjoyed this too.
When we got back to the train station we decided it was time to walk the LowerTtrail and enjoy different perspectives again. I had a lovely spot in mind for me to scatter my friend´s ashes (my main mission for this trip) and I took them to a spot with a huge waterfall that had a rainbow right at the bottom of it -- as if I had my friend´s seal of approval. I got my sister to do a quick rehearsal on the video and just as she started filming we got a spray of mist coming from nowhere over us. It was quite sweet.
I had to take a few photos and do a quick video for legal reasons (as she had left some money in her will for me to do this part of the trip) and her various friends had set up a blog to put photos and videos of the 6 international places where she wanted us to take her ashes. So, it was great for me to have Nathalie with me to help me with this part of the project. I took a few pinches of ashes and we did some photos and then threw the rest to the wind and filmed the ashes fly above the falls into the rainbow. It was just picture perfect and I know that my friend would have really appreciated the serenity and majesty of this particular spot. I could not have chosen a more beautiful spot in Argentina I think. Nothing else matches the power of Iguassu on the whole planet anyway !
It was 3pm by then and we were just starting to feel hungry. It had been SO hot all day (another totally glorious day without a cloud in the sky) that we simply did not feel hungry any earlier. The restaurant ground was full of coatis and it was just so sweet to see so many of them roaming free. I did lots of fun videos of them looking into Nathalie,s bag. Once she even tried to lift her bag off the ground quickly but one of them managed to hang onto it regardless. It was so funny. I think I will put the video on my Facebook for all to see !
We then decided to enjoy the beautiful pool of our hotel and just relax a little bit. The water seemed icy cold at first but I soon got used to it. It was perfect to cool down our over heated body and we then just stayed by the pool an hour before deciding to head for the Upper Trail again as it was so gorgeous on our first day. Unfortunately, by the time we got back to our room, changed quickly and headed down again, it was 5.40pm when we got to the Upper Trail start and the path was closed already.
Never mind, our back up plan was to rush up to the terrace of our hotel on the 4th floor and enjoy a magnificent sunset (we had noticed last night that they are absolutely superb at 6.15pm).
Nice buffet at the hotel tonight... and another perfect day has ended. We really could not have had a nicer 3 days here and I would recommend no fewer than 3 days at Iguassu Falls. Every day we have had has been uniquely wonderful and we would not have missed them for the world.
We feel SO totally blessed and utterly privileged to be here. We truly truly do not take ONE minute for granted and will be able to put together a really neat photo album to inspire you guys to do the same trip one day -- we hope. We really do !!! It is sooo memorable. It makes us miss all our friends and family even more not to be able to share this with them all TOO.
Off to Buenos Aires tomorrow, I think it will be a shock to the system to re-adjust to civilisation !
posted by Sylvie at 12:15 AM
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