WorldTravelReynolds

It’s time to explore the “Paris of South America”! We won’t see much of this beautiful city but we are extremely excited to visit Iguazú Falls. I will provided a little history on Buenos Aires for those interested, thanks to Laurie for prewriting it!

Buenos Aires, meaning “good air”, was named after the fair winds that blew in off the ocean. I found it interesting that Magellan made a quick stop here on his trip to navigate around the world. He tried to find a connection between the Atlantic and Pacific by going up the Rio de la Plata but quickly realized that wouldn’t work. We’ll be heading through the strait he did find soon enough.

Buenos Aires was actually founded twice, first in 1536 but it was soon destroyed by the native Querandi peoples following a nasty battle between themselves and the Spaniards. In 1580 a second settlement was started but it took a while for it to grow. The colonists were under the rule of the Viceroyalty of Peru which meant that all trade had to go overland from Argentina to Lima, Peru then on to Spain, then reverse to get anything back. Once the powers in Peru started neglecting Buenos Aires the locals set up their own contraband trade with Brazil and the Caribbean and the settlement began to thrive, it also nurtured the settlers independent spirit.

By the time Napoleon put his brother on the throne of Spain in 1810 the citizens had had enough of colonial rule and in May of that year began their war for independence, achieving their goal in 1813 with the help of national hero José de San Martin. The wealthiest years for the city and nation were at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries when Parisians were heard to say they wished they were “rich as an Argentine”.

Now, on to Iguazu Falls, the largest waterfall system in the world at 2700 m (2.7 km or 1.7 mi) in length.

We started our day by flying from Buenos Aires Argentina to Puerto Iguazu Argentina and drove through customs to reach Brazil. Brazil and Argentina dont really get along so we had to take a bus from the airport to the border, got off the bus and had our passports stamped before crossing over to Brazil where we boarded a Brazilian bus to drive to the falls. When we arrived at Foz do Iguacu we had to take three different types of off road vehicles and an incline type rail car to make it to the lower part of the Brazilian falls. Here we get the ride of our life! The boats held about 20 people each. What an exhilarating experience! I felt like I couldn’t breathe with all the water dumping on me but the rainbow I saw when coming up for air was absolutely beautiful. I’ll always remember Gods promise with the rainbow but I’m sure he was shaking his head wondering what I was thinking in taking this ride! It is so hard to describe the joy of seeing this beautiful creation and the pictures just don’t do it justice. We had a speedboat with two – 200 HP engines that were crazy fast and the boat captain sure knew what he was doing! I took my good camera and covered it in plastic. Still didn’t keep it from getting wet. With gallons of water being dumped I don’t know how anything stayed dry. After a couple of days, my camera did dry out and is working again. I didn’t get but a couple of photos before putting it away during the ride. I had no plans of taking photos under the falls. Lesson learned. Cameras and waterfalls don’t mix!

After our ride, we took the return trip back up to the top of the mountain through the three different types of vehicles and then back on land we started our walk through the Iguazu falls forest to see the rest of the falls.

275 individual falls are found on the Iguazú River which forms the boundary between Brazil and Argentina. We are currently on the Brazil side. The name itself comes from a Guarni Indian word that means “great water”.

80% of the falls are on the Argentina side while most of the river itself is in Brazil. Devils Throat (Garganta del Diablo) is the largest of the falls, a thundering mass of water that powers over the cliff. Rainfall here is highest between December and February so that’s when the falls are most powerful, yay for us, it’s also the hottest time to visit so I guess we can’t have it all. It turned out to be 98 degrees F on this day!

We got a twofer here because not only is Iguazu National Park in Argentina a UNESCO World Heritage Site but Iguaçu National Park in Brazil has the same designation. Where else in the world are we going to find that?

As we walked the 3+ miles through this massive forest, the beauty of the forest and the waterfalls was beyond belief. And this is only the Brazil side!

Since we were there later in the day due to our flight over being delayed, the sun was very bright so these iPhone photos aren’t the best and it was hard to see at times but the sun setting on the horizon of the falls was beyond comprehension. I needed someone to pinch me at this point. I can’t believe Chuck and I are living our best lives right now. Truly amazing.

Buenos Aires is famous for the tango dance which originated here in the mid 1800s. It was recommended over and over that if you’re visiting here you need to go to a tango show. Stories vary on exactly how the dance was born but it was considered somewhat offensive by the city’s citizens overall until the early 20th century when the Argentinian high society embraced it. It is now a UNESCO-designated Intangible Cultural Heritage, who even knew there was such a thing!

On to the Tango show and dinner. We are still soaking wet even though we had a raincoat and quick dry pants on. But we didn’t care. It was a great day! We enjoyed the tango show and dinner, which was different but when you’re so tired and so hungry, anything tastes good.

We made it to our hotel by 11:30 pm. Laid our heads down after a shower and preparation for the next day by 12:30 pm. I’m sure it didn’t take more than a few minutes to fall asleep. We set the alarm for 4:00 am so we could make the sunrise on the Argentina side of the falls.

Wake up with us tomorrow and we’ll continue on to day 2!

May God bless you always! We cannot believe he has blessed us this much.

Chuck & Lea Ann