La Garganta del Diablo - Iguazú Falls

For those of you who've seen it, you know how amazing this place is...I've been to Niagara falls a few times, and those are amazing, but this place...Wow.

Iguazú Falls, has two viewing points, one in Argentina, and one directly across the river, in Brazil.  We, obviously, went to the Argentinian side, and it was unbelievable.

We jumped on a collectivo from the bus terminal in Puerto Iguazú, which is the town, just about 12km away from the falls.  It's 35 Pesos each way, and you have to pre-buy your return ticket.  Tourists pay 170 Pesos to enter the park, despite me trying to fake my Argentinian accent, they make you show some id...

You can walk to the viewing point, or take the train, which is included in the entrance price.  "La Garganta del Diablo," or "Devil's Throat," is the Argentine viewing point of the falls.  It's literally directly above them, and you peer over the massive amount of water pummeling down.  There's a metal bridge-like walkway that winds over the river and takes you there.

It's really hard to describe the actual feeling of being there and witnessing it all...

The walk back, through the park, was also amazing.  This place is a lot more tropical than we thought...We stopped on a walkway to see a family of Spider Monkeys playing in the trees.

We then walked the "Macuco Trail," which leads to a smaller waterfall and a swimming hole you can cool off at.

We crossed paths with what looked like a pretty poisonous snake...

...and one of these guys...

also these guys, the biggest ants we've ever seen...

Iguazú is an unbelievable place, and we can't recommend it enough.  Now we're trying to figure out the last 6 weeks of the trip, and what to do next...We just passed our 10,000 mile marker, back down the road a little, and have been to 66 cities in 9 different countries...wow, it's really hard to imagine we did all that!

Back in the pueblo, we spent a couple more days, relaxing at the hostel, by the pool.  One evening, we took the local city bus (4 pesos AR)/per person, to "3 Fronteras," a spot on the other side of town, looking over the massive Parana river, with a view of Paraguay just across, and Brazil to the right...We caught the sunset, a gorgeous orange glow over the landscape, just in time before sheer darkness...

Punta del Diablo to Iguazu...

The falls of Iguazu were a mere idea in our heads while we were in Ecuador.  Someone had asked us if we were going there...We didn't think it would be a possibility on this trip.

After a week in Punta del Diablo, we decided, for sure, that we would make it there.  We had to see it.  Now, the problem was, that the easiest way to get there, is by bus, direct, from Buenos Aires.  I hate backtracking, and we did not want to take that hellish boat ride again...

We decided to take a bus back to Montevideo, where the real hub of transportation is, in Uruguay.  It was fairly easy, but took us a while...

Getting from Montevideo to Iguazu (without going to Buenos Aires...)

The bus company "Agencia Central," goes daily to a town called Salto, in the north of Uruguay...You need to get there first.  We took the 12:30 AM bus, that arrived in Salto at 6:30 AM.

In Salto, there are buses that run daily to Concordia, AR (just across the border).  We arrived on a Sunday, the only day there were no buses...We found out there was a collectivo bus that (for free) takes you to the water park, 15k outside of town, and right next to the border with Argentina.  We got dropped off near the waterpark, and walked to the bridge, which is really a hydroelectric dam for Argentina.  There, we hitch-hiked across the dam, and to the border crossing office for both countries.  Stamped out/in Argentina, and the same nice people offered to take us to Concordia.

We pre purchased bus tickets for that night at the Concordia bus terminal, through "Crucero del Norte," which was a really nice, comfortable bus, with a meal included.  Only problem was, we had to wait all day at the bus terminal, in 40 degree heat (104 F).  Horrible day, but we boarded our bus at 9:30 PM, and were off to Puerto Iguazu....