I awoke early the next morning knowing I was leaving the Brazilian side of Foz do Iguazu. I gathered my things (including my laundry Justin had so kindly picked up for me) and headed down to the lobby.
Iguazu Falls has a Brazilian and an Argentine side. We saw the Brazilian side the first day we arrived in Foz do Iguazu. Today, we were going to see the Argentine side. We had to get up early because we had to get our bags, drive them to the bus stop, leave them in lockers, then get back into the van and drive back to the Iguazu National Park. It is obviously the other side of the falls, but it is also the bigger side of the falls. We were also going to take "the boatride" that takes you right up under the falls. They give you a life vest and "dry bag" when you board the boat. You put your belongings you don't want to get soaking wet into the dry bag including your clothes, shoes, etc. They let you take photographs initially until you get closer to the falls then they tell you to put it all away. I had my Dicapac so I could take video of the falls. It's amazing how beautiful and powerful the falls are. We had so much fun. You get soaking wet even being 100 feet away and the closer you get, the wetter you get. By the time they take you right under the falls, you really can't see much. Thankfully, Barbara told us to put on our sunglasses or we wouldn't have been able to see a thing. The sunglasses at least blocked the spray from getting into our eyes.
The boatride takes about 15 minutes total so after, we ate lunch at the park buffet. It was delicious! All kinds of meats and salads, huge dessert station, it was great. The best part… it was $15 USD. While we were eating, it started to rain. Now, I've seen rain, even heavy tropical rain, but nothing like this. Literally a sheet of water came down for 30 minutes. So much that it turned the little lawn we crossed to get to the buffet into a lake. It was insane. But it was also still warm outside. Once the rain stopped, we took the little train and walked the 1km to the top of the waterfall. It's called the Devil's Throat because it's where all of the water from the top of the river pours down. It had also started to rain again (the one day I didn't bring my damn parka too) so I got pretty wet walking to the top, but holy crap, once we got there, it was a sight to see. BILLIONS of gallons of water a second flowing over this thing. It's one of the most spectacular things I've ever seen. We were getting dumped on and I just stood there and admired the sound and beauty of it. Once it really started to pour, we walked back to the train and headed out of the park to get back to the bus stop, get our bags and get back onto another bus for a 13 hour ride to Salto, Uruguay and the famous thermal baths.
Just when I don't think things can get better on this trip, something new blows me away.
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