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| January 26, 2003 We're starting off our journey with a quick visit to Iguazu Falls, Argentina. First off, there are two views as we visit the world, so we are doing "He Tales, She Tales". We tried writing together, but we end up finishing each other’s sentences and changing each other's words too much, so you'll see them both together from here out. We left the country last week, and we are now on to part two of our honeymoon, which we are calling “Around The World and Back Again”. We are coming to you live from Iguazu Falls, in the Tri-Border region between Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina. We came to the falls to scare the wits out of my mother, who has read a few too many reports on Al Queda (some of which are true) operating in this very small little hideout in the middle of South America. Seriously, however, we came for the falls, which are the largest in the world. Our first look at the falls came at the upper end of the river, where you walk out over a kilometer long steel footbridge to reach the precipice of El Gargantua de Diablo. The name is fitting, as this massive section could easily swallow Niagara Falls and a few city blocks while it’s at it. After staring into the Devil's Gorge for a while, we took the park train back to the lower river, where the "superior circuit" footpath led us to an overlook that simply takes your breath away. Imagine a large bowl, surrounded by waterfalls cascading into a muddy basin. Now make the bowl bigger. Now make it bigger again. If your bowl is the Size of the Rose Bowl, you can now imagine the lower falls. Now imagine a hot tropical jungle extending to the horizon, where a rising plume of mist belches from the forest canopy. Out there in the mist is Diablo. Stretched between the two basins, a river snakes lazily through the jungle. On the Argentinean side, waterfalls cascade down much of the length of the river, creating a perpetual tsunami. Across the river, the rich green jungle of Brazil rises on its banks, thriving on the perpetual mist. Between these two countries lies the Iguazu Inferior (lower river), where an extreme adventure awaits those with a need to get wet in this tropical heat - the speed boats! For mere pesos, you too can dunk under the falls as your driver does donuts in the mist. It's quite a blast - literally. As you approach the falls, the water bites at you fiercely, making it difficult to look up to the rim and stare at your tormentor. After getting every ounce of fabric on your body drenched, you speed downriver through the rapids until you end up in the middle of the jungle, where a truck is waiting to carry you back through to civilization. The truck looks like a prop from Indiana Jones, oversized and open in the back, and as you climb through muddy ruts in the jungle, friendly guides point out spiders hanging directly overhead and talk about the 50 kinds of snake native to the area. As you can see, we're safely out of the jungle for today. Tomorrow After breakfast at our hotel in Argentina, we're planning to cross over to the Brazilian side and see the view from there. Oh, how I love this place! Having fun in scary places. Topher |
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