Iguazu

I got to the Brazilian side of the Iguazu Falls, known as Foz de Iguacu, around 1:30am, and got a cab to my hotel. Vila Canoas was amazing value for money; at USD 25 per night, I got a big double bed, a huge bathroom, a nice breakfast. I was really pleased with my find, until I tried to get some sleep. As soon as I killed the lights, I started feeling itchy, first on my legs, then arms, torso... Bugs! I hate few things more than biting bugs, but especially at 3am when I have less than 6 hours until the alarm goes off, they drive me nuts. Bleary-eyed, I got dressed and wondered downstairs to complain to the hotel receptionist. I asked if I could get another, bug-free room, but he insisted they're mosquitoes and would be as likely to be found in any room. So, not much I can do here, just spray on loads of insect repellant and hope it'll work. I got back to sleep at maybe 4:30am (the bites I had already gotten were quite itchy...) and was not happy to wake up 5 hours later.


Demonstrating my love for mosquitoes...


However, after this little mishap, the day turned out great. I took a tour of the Itaipu Dam, a hydroelectric powerplant jointly built, owned and operated by Brazil and Paraguay, that provides 90% of Paraguay's electricity needs (and around 20% of Brazil's). The dam is huge, at around 1km in length and a 170m difference in water level across the dam. We were shown around both the outside and inside, including one of the generator rotors (there are 20 generators in total). Pretty impressive piece of engineering, although there are also some drawbacks - building the dam destroyed a huge set of waterfalls, and eroded a bunch of forest, displacing the species that inhabited it. As a side effect of visiting the dam, I also got to set foot in Paraguay, which would otherwise not have made my itinerary. One more box to tick :-)

After the dam, I headed to the national park containing the falls. I started off in the Parque des Aves, a park dedicated to birds. Inside, I met a bunch of exotic flyers, including paraqueets, eagles, vultures, hummingbirds (a.k.a. colibris), toucans, and a huge Australian monstrosity that looked a bit like an emu but is apparently capable of killing human beings with its clawed feet. Strange how all the deadliest species always come from Australia... The highly sociable toucans were definitely my favorite - in addition to their weird, oversized beaks, they really loved posing for the camera, turning their heads and hopping toward me for some nice close-up photos. The hummingbirds were the hardest ones to photograph, being tiny and FAST. I got maybe 3 good photos after snapping some 40.

After a couple of hours at the bird park, I entered the falls area, and the hype was definitely well deserved. The Iguazu Falls are truly impressive, pushing through more water than Niagara and Victoria combined. They are also loud, and there's enough splash that getting close to the falls means you get soaked. Luckily I brought both a waterproof shell jacket and a waterproof camera. The Brazilian side of the falls was already good, but the Argentinian side I visited the following day was just amazing. Argentina owns a bigger chunk of the falls, and consequently the hikes along the footpaths in the Argentinian park gets you much closer to the falls. The photos can't do justice to this wonder of nature, but let's just say this easily makes it to my top 3 natural areas (the other two being the Grand Canyon and Yosemite), and is a serios contender for number 1.



As an added bonus, I met some cute animals on the Argentinian side. My hostel had unusual guests: 6 black puppies (I think they were Lab Retrievers) sleeping next to the reception area. In the park itself, I came across some furry raccoon-lookalike creatures with long tails. They seemed pretty fearless, crossing the paths in front of huge groups of tourists.

After a full day at the Argentinian side of the falls, I caught a flight to Buenos Aires, and crashed at my most luxurious accommodation on the trip so far. A proper 3-star hotel, I got a room at the Concorde at an unusually low rate due to an admin error. They had entered their rates into Opodo incorrectly, meaning I got a reservation at 6 dollars a night! A bit after making the reservation, someone at the hotel contacted me, begging me to cancel the reservation as the price was an error. I wanted to be reasonable, so agreed to pay UsD 40 (normally their best Internet rate is USD 66, which Opodo was supposed to show). So I got a nice, big hotel room for pretty much what a private room in a Buenos Aires hostel would have cost. A proper, long warm shower followed by a full night's sleep in a comfy double bed never felt this good!

Unfortunately I didn't have time to do anything in Buenos Aires this time, as this was literally just a layover between flights. First thing in the morning (after a nice hotel breakfast buffet, of course) I jumped on a plane to Ecuador via Chile. The plane offered some gorgeous views of the snow-capped Andes mountain range, otherwise the flight went quickly as I worked through my photos from the last few days. One overpriced lunch in Santiago later I'm ready to continue to Quito, the last leg of my trip in South America.