Faux Pas

Iguassu is the weirdest place ever. We hopped on the bus to our hostel and gazed out the window for 40 minutes at the sights and scenery which was like going back in time to an era I can't even put my finger on. Shop names are painted on the front and everything seemed a bit deserted - all very, very strange. I think it's only tourists enter this town as it seems like the most depressing place to live. Rather eerie.

After managing to suss out which stop to get off and having walked around looking like proper lost tourists (a regular look we adopt) we saw the front of our hostel which didn't dissapoint! We were expecting shipping containers and shipping containers we got. The hostel is called Tetris and on the front door it said 'to enter: press start and begin' which was pretty cool. Inside was amazing, it was really modern and even had a swimming pool built with a shipping container in the outside area. We were handed a free Caiprihana voucher which was just the ticket, popped our bikinis on and spent the afternoon lapping up the mid afternoon sun. Tetris played some awesome music, so we were in our absolute element after a long days travelling.

We spoke to a few people around the pool who had signed up to the Argentina Iguassu tour the following day so decided to do the same. They pick you up from the hostel, drive you there and take you around the best views of the falls so it was a no brainer.

We headed to bed which was easier said than done. The rooms were so small and apparently shipping containers have zero ventilation, so I thought we might die of heat. Sarah, who always gets cold, was overheating at the serious rate so decided to soak her towel and use it as a duvet. Innovative problem solver that one. I woke up the next morning to her with an actual cover on as she somehow got cold in the middle of the night... Crazy bitch.

We got up and ready to attack the free breakfast with force and all piled into our ride. Our tour guide took our passports and we were off to the Argentine border to quickly cross and go jump in waterfalls for the day. However, the systems were down at the border and our tour guide got us in trouble as she didn't have the right paperwork for the van (you had ONE job Vivienne) so we had to sit in no mans land for an hour whilst a new, certified van swooped us up and took us on our way.

Eventually we made it and started on our 10k trail around the park. There were signs everywhere warning us of coaties (which look like cute fluffy animals but can actually rip your face off), jaguars (good) and snakes. Reallllly feeling safe. We were also shown spiders along the way which really made me jump for joy, I tell you now.

I got over the fact that I could be killed by a wild animal at any minute when I first set my eyes on the falls. Truly stunning. We came on a day with exceptional weather and where the spray of the falls was in the air, there were countless rainbows around. Full rainbows, mini rainbows, double rainbows... All the rainbows you can imagine. It looked beautiful and as we got further into the day, Vivienne took us to more mind blowing spots with even better views.

I didn't think I would ever be that impressed by a waterfall, but it's sheer size was overwhelming and it went on for as far as the eye can see.

We stopped off for five minutes in the courtyard where there was a lady completely surrounded by coaties. She seemed completely unphased and carried on eating her sandwich with no care what so ever. She literally had about 12 on her and suddenly one lept at her face, causing them all to freak out and start fighting with each other. Me and one of the guys, Phil, were terribly freaked out and pretty much handed over our belongings to these vicious animals and ran for the hills. Terrifying.

After that horrific escapade, Vivienne said that the coaties hang around until about 5pm when the tourists start to leave and then go and hide because that's when the jaguars come out and see them as food. I'm not being funny, but surely jaguars could wake up early and eat us? I wasn't taking the risk and headed for the water. They can't swim I'm sure. Definitely can actually but I had no choice.

Our final stop of the day was called 'the devils throat' which was a 15 minute trek over the river to the ultimate view spot of the falls. You could see right over the edge and it looked over a solid, super fast flowing wall of water for what seemed like miles and miles. You couldn't see the bottom of the waterfall because the power of the water was causing such a splash, the mist and spray was being thrown right up to the top. It was beautiful and didn't look at all real. Really, really stunning.

After soaking up the views and taking a few minutes to talk about how awesome it was, we hopped on an open sided train back to our van. On the train we drove through a few clouds of what looked like leaves all around us, but as we got closer and right into it; it turned out to be hundreds of butterflies in one massive group swarming around the place in a colourful haze. Beautiful.

We ended the day at our hostel bar, with achy feet and a camera full of beautiful pictures. Chatting to two brilliant guys from Birmingham, we saw off a few Caiprihana's and laughed until the Brazilian heat turned to evening chill. What a stunning day all round.