The Iguazu Falls (Argentinian side)

The first stop on our expected nearly 4-month long - and therefore longest - trip of our sabbatical year are the Iguazu Falls in South America, located at the tri-border area of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay.

With 80kg instead of the 46kg we are entitled to, we started off, we had already bought an additional piece of luggage in foresight, but we still have to pay for another one at the airport...

The flights went smoothly, except for the occasional language problem, even the immigration process during our layover in Brazil somehow worked (similar to America, you have to pick up your luggage, go through customs, and then drop it off again). We fly to the airport on the Brazilian side of the falls, but stay in a hotel on the Argentinian side. Thanks to the organization through a travel agency, everything goes smoothly: We are met by a tour guide and driver with a car (fortunately a minibus, where else to put all of our stuff...), who takes care of the border crossing for us. On the Brazilian side, we have to get out of the car and smile, on the Argentinian side we can stay in the car, but we don't get a stamp either. Then we were dropped off at the hotel, the tour guide said goodbye until the next day and we had time to look around. Unfortunately, we found out pretty quickly that some of the paths for sightseeing were blocked by the recent floods (October/November), so only the circular path above the falls and two-thirds of the 'lower circular path' (in two dead-end sections) are accessible. This means we miss out on most of the truly spectacular viewpoints that allow you to get quite close to the falls, it is particularly sad to miss out on the view of the Devil's Throat :-(.

We flew overnight and arrived at the hotel around 11:00 a.m. Of course, we immediately set off and completed the upper loop. Then we occupied our hotel room, had lunch late(r), and checked out the lower section of the two dead ends. Actually, we also wanted to walk the second dead end (in our own way, the middle path), but we were no longer allowed to go there, as it was already 4:45 p.m. and the park employees made sure that everyone made it to the exits by 5:30 p.m. and didn't hang around in the furthest corner of the park.

Oh well, we had to resort to the alternative program and go to the pool... The pool bar was also tested and found to be good. Later, we subjected the rooftop bar to a similar test, which it also passed successfully, so the evening program for the following days was already set...

On day 2, after breakfast, we met with our tour guide, who was supposed to guide us through the Argentinian side of the falls. However, since only the same paths mentioned above were accessible to her, we didn't really need the good lady, especially since she wasn't particularly informative either. After just under 3 hours, we completed all the paths, although the 'middle' path was new to us. From here, we had the best views of the falls in our opinion. Then the tour guide said goodbye, we took a short break at the hotel, had lunch, and then walked all three paths again on our own. The evening program had already been foreseeable the day before...

On day 3, we were treated to a boat trip to the falls (without a tour guide) right after breakfast. First, we went through the rainforest in a 4x4 truck (30 seats), then we had to descend a staircase, were equipped with a waterproof bag and a life jacket on the lower section, and loaded onto the boat. With this boat, we went towards the falls through some rapids. Along the way, we saw two capybaras and some herons, but the boat was going too fast to take photos. Eventually, it was announced that everything that is not waterproof should be stowed in the bags, and then we took a shower. The boat went under two of the waterfall arms twice, and nothing stayed dry. Soaking wet, we returned to the starting point the same way. Then we went to the hotel to change our clothes, because especially the wet pants didn't feel so nice... After that, we had lunch and then went on another hike, in other words, we walked all the paths again. The evening program took place again on this evening - traditions should be upheld...

In addition to the - impressive - waterfalls, we also saw some animals. First of all, there are an abundance of butterflies in many shapes and colors, unfortunately they are rarely photogenic - they simply don't sit still. Then we saw some 'Black-and-white Tegu' - a relatively large species of lizard. There were a few caimans, capybaras, coatis, monkeys, vultures, an owl, and a few toucans - let's see what the Brazilian side has to offer tomorrow.