To summarize my excited mind I have now seen 4 of the great falls of the world: Niagara, Angel Falls(Venezuela), Iguazu(Brazil/Argentina), Victoria Falls(Zimbabwe/Zambia) and 5 of the world's greatest feats of engineering: Gorges Dam/crossing(China, world biggest), Aswan Dam(Egypt), Itaipu(Brazil/Paraguay, world 2nd largest) Hoover Dam & the Panama Canal. The excitement never stops...
Feb 13. So I arrived mid afternoon on a Friday. After the fact I realized that I could have saved myself a considerable chunk of money had I visited the Brazilian side of the falls today(14/2/09) instead of yesterday. It only takes at most 3 hours to see the Brazilian side. You get to see the bottom part of the famous Devil's Throat from the Brazilian side. The Argentine side offers a top view and a christening near the Devil's Throat and St. Martin falls, which I will embark on tomorrow. The girl at the front desk convinced me to take a taxi since it was already mid afternoon. A taxi would take 20 minutes each way (USD35 RT) whereas the bus would take 1.25 hours each way (USD3) depending how long the wait was at the border, whereas the taxi just drove through. It turned out when I found out later when I got back that the taxi was supposed to stop at the Brazilian check point but didn't! So technically I have made 2 illegal border crossings including today into Paraguay to see the Paraguayan side of the Itaipu Dam and to check out South America's primo free zone for shopping, Ciudad del Este. I hired a taxi both days to combat time and lower my risk of exposure to immigration officials to see everything I wanted to see. Both days different drivers and neither spoke any English. Luckily I could communicate in Spanish to tell them where I wanted to go. Both drivers thought I was insane for having to go back to Buenos Aires to fly to Rio. The one who drove me into Paraguay only asked if I needed a visa after we crossed back into Brazil. I suppose I could have been arrested. Anyway one of the drivers only saw for the first time the Itaipu Dam on the Paraguayan side because of me.
Onward to Rio
In retrospect I could have bussed it to Rio from Puerto, would have saved myself a considerable chunk of change. Due to the lack of time and size of South America I chose to fly, given the little time I had here. Yeah 3 months is really not enough, you need more like upwards of 6 months to do a decent trip.
People I Met
I have never met so many Israelis in one place. My hostel was full of them. I had met some in Central America but many more this time. They do a travel stint lasting up to a year following their military service to "return to normal life" as one put it. Both males and females serve in the military and the average age is about 25 upon leaving the military. not everyone knew each other, it just so happened that a whole bunch chose this hostel. As one put it, they were following the "wave" next stop north to Carnival in Rio. In the Argentine side of the falls, I met many Aussie couples traveling for 4 months. I met Americans on the Argentine side of the falls but none on the Brazilian side. The impression I got was not Americans are not well received in both Paraguay and Brazil. But they love Americans in Argentina.
Paraguay: Ciudad del Este
(Photo: "China" a shopping arcade in C. del Este)
Feb 14. At first I had planned to take the bus into Paraguay. This would have been one hell of a long ride crossing 2 borders but do able and take most of the day. Although getting to the Itaipu Dam would have been hard with the already present nerves accompanying me given the fact I could get arrested, have my passport confiscated and heavily fined (I had read this somewhere). This time though unlike the last, I had entered Brazil officially and gotten my passport stamped. At the Paraguayan checkpoint at the end of the Friendship Bridge, vehicles and people bypass it (it is technically ok if you hold a South American passport but everyone else has to pay a visit to the immigration hut, but of course it is stated no where ;) ). If you saw the traffic, you understand why. If you pulled your car off the main road you probably wouldn't be able to get back onto the main road until all the shops closed! The Puente de Amistad (Friendship Bridge) joining Foz de Iguazu and Ciudad del Este is a free zone, in fact, the 3rd largest in the world so immigration is slack. Brazilians and Argentines flock to buy electronics here. Electronics in Argentina is easily twice what it cost in the U.S. So tomorrow I will take the public bus to the Argentine side to see the falls, at least there are no borders to cross. Supposedly you can almost anything under the sun here, including AK47s, I am told, but I didn't see any. I saw lots of Chinese, Koreans, Indians(India) manning stalls. It is just like Kuala Lumpur, really. If you don't buy anything, no worries, the shops will follow you for blocks until you agree to look at something. Look, I say. Then when you say no thank you, the mobile shop (fellow seller) will keep following you or another will take over. OMG. Craziness. This is pick pocket haven so I was extra vigilant in guarding my bag.
The Coati
The furry animal which resembles the raccoon called the coati are found all over the Iguazu falls park. On the Argentine side they are very aggressive and I saw one jump onto a table and grab a fellow’s sandwich. A whole half roll, the bagette type. It was rather large. It was funny when I ran into the fellow at the Duty Free shopping center. On the Brazilian side they aren’t so aggressive as shown in the photo. This one came under my table while I was having my lunch. The coati are also found in Costa Rica. I saw them in July of last year at the Volcan Irazu park.
Note: Devil's Thoat is know as "Garganta del Diablo" in Spanish
and "Garganta de Diabo" in Portuguese. All falls photo show Devil's Throat except the one with me.
Iguazu Falls or "Cataratas del Iguazú" (Argentine side)
(Photo: Me, at St. Martin Falls. Others on Argentine side except 2nd and 7th down)
Feb-15. There were no problems getting to the Argentine falls by bus. There's a local bus company which departs every 30 minutes from the Puerto main bus terminal. I made sure I was staying within walking distance to the terminal, At the falls, foreigners get charged 3x for entry. I started off the day per the advice of some Israelis at the hostel to explore the less visited trails first to take advantage of the sun's position and the hoards of crowds going to see Devil's Throat. It was good advice. The day went well until the boat ride near the falls to get wet. I had on a pair of what was supposed to be waterproof pants and a swimsuit top. You were given a dry bag to put your belongings in from getting wet. Now, I had packed a water tight plastic case especially for my camera but the damn thing was in BA, some good it do me now. Like everyone else I had my camera out snapping away until the last minute before putting it away. But smartie pants here put my camera into my pants pocket, zipped it tight, and grinned at the approaching falls. It was FUN! getting dumped on. When it came time to retrieve the camera I did so. Upon retrieval my face turned to one of annoyance when the camera was wet and wasn't working. I figure I wait half a day to see it dried out and convinced it would be functioning again. For the rest of the day I resorted to my handy cell phone for pics and vids. I found the famous Devil's Throat viewed from the top not as iimpressive as the Brazilian side where you viewed it from the bottom. The one falls which did stick with my mind were the St Martin Falls. To view the falls, you took a boat across to St Martin Island, climbed some stairs then hiked to the viewpoint. When I got back to my hostel 9 hours later the first thing I did was to turn on my camera. To my utmost annoyance (pardon my french :( ) the bloody thing wouldn't turn on. Now I knew electronics were going to be more expensive in Brazil and the ones in Buenos Aires would have the 21% tax tacked on. No tax refund here unless I could find one made in Argentina. Despite the biggest mall 2 blocks of my apt in BA the 21% wasn't too appealing. Too bad events happened in reverse. I was in Ciudad del Este the day before where I could have found killer deals. As things go, nothing happens in sync :( Upon inquiring around I learnt that there was tax free center in the no country zone between Argentina and Brazil. I was told a gazillion times by locals that I should go to Ciudad del Este and I kept replying that I knew. With growing frustration I grabbed the next cab and headed to the duty free center. I paid the cab to wait. It came out to about usd8, not too shabby given that I was about to shell out some usd200 for a new digital camera. I found and bought my replacement within an hour and headed back. Guess where my replacement was made? Malaysia! As I suspected I paid usd50 more than what it would have cost in the US :( but without the tax. I have now technically been to Argentina 5 times with all border crossings, including this shopping trip. My passport is running out of pages! This day turned out to be some day!
Iguazu Falls or "Cataratas do Iguaçu" (Brazil)
(Photo: 2nd one 7th ones down)
The Brazilian side offers a panoramic view of the falls and I found the availability of trails about one third the size of its neighbour. You have to see both sides. One side doesn't fulfill your experience. For those of you requiring a visa into Brazil, you could hire a taxi to drive straight through the border checkpoint into Brazil, just let the taxi know beforehand.
Iguazu Falls Summary
Having seen Victoria and Niagara Falls, the Iguazu by far, as they say, blows your mind. It makes Niagara look like child's play. I will let the pics do justice as I am wordless. I will say it was a moment frozen in time standing in awe at such magnificence and grandeur.
Itaipu Dam
(Photo: Paraguayan side)
(Photo: with white pipes, Bi-national area. Each one of those pipes has a downflow of 3x that of Devil's Throat! )
The Itaipu Dam was completed in the 80’s a joint effort between the Brazilian and Paraguayan government. Today it is the largest electricity producing dam in the world, but second in size to the 3 Gorges in China. Paraguay is running at 50% capacity! (and still produces the most electricity in the world!) consumes 7% of the energy it produces and sells the rest to Brazil and uses the revenue to pay off debt used to build its side of the dam. The area within the dam confined area is classified neither Brazil or Paraguay but an area referred to as the “bi-national” area hence there is an exact 50% representation of employees from each country. The Brazilian side charges BR15 for a guided tour with various options which start to add up as you select more. The Paraguayan side is 12 miles outside Ciudad del Este and offers a free movie and coach tour. Paraguay is a poorer country than Brazil, produces more and sells to Brazil the electricity produced and still offers a free tour! The 7% of the 50% capacity Paraguay uses for its country covers 90% of the country’s consumption. Overall, the Paraguayan side looked more interesting. Hardly any tourist go to the Paraguayan side, most if all go to the Brazilian side. There are better bells and whistles to haul the tourists in. Spanish speaking tourists could go to the Paraguayan side as the tours are conducted in Spanish only. The Brazilian side offers English tours. At first glance, the awe probably does’t beat the Hoover Dam estatically. But when you start looking at the numbers of production, it is most amazing. The dam was built to control the Parana River. The Iguazu River meets the Parana River downstream at the falls and flows out to the Atlantic Ocean, producing the largest delta in the world, the Parana Delta (where sits the town of Tigre which I visited a few weeks back).
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