before this trip, i had really high hopes for iguazu — so high, that i was expecting to be disappointed (yes, i understand the inconsistency in the sentence). the falls, however, were absolutely amazing. the place is hot, humid, touristy and crowded…but when you stare at the water, you forget about all that. for the last week it has been raining…resulting in two things: 1) more water (good); and 2) the devil’s throat path has been closed because of the higher water levels (bad). even without the extra vista, the park was very beautiful. you walk down jungle paths with birds, butterflies and coati (one tried to steal our cheese). as you approach the water, a quiet roar appears in the background, and then the falls open up in an incredible vista surrounded by lush greenery. standing in one area near the base of the falls, you are drenched in less than a second…without even realizing it, since it’s just a fine mist.

later in the afternoon, the devil’s throat reopened…and, the sensation from up there is practically indescribable. the path is a narrow steel bridge that crosses the top of the river — which is very wide, so you walk for several hundred meters over smooth, quiet water. then, the bridge abruptly ends directly over the edge of the falls. it’s incredible to see the silky water turn into a raging torment of white and brown as it falls into what seems like an endless abyss. the falls seem to be crumbling down before your eyes…but, miraculously, the water just keeps coming.

i can think of few things that elicit such a unique and powerful mix of emotions as iguazu does.

in other news, we just got an email from a hostel we slept at in cordoba (hostel art). the place is pretty cool, and the staff are incredibly friendly (we were offered free dinner and listened to an awesome guitar jam session on their rooftop). moreover, the owner just sent us an email asking how the car is doing,

well, we finally made it to iguazu! at 9pm, we arrived at puerto iguazu on the argentinian side of the falls. tomorrow, we’ll get to see what all the fuss is about.

note: gps location may be slightly off.

we decided to take the ‘complicated’ road north of colonia pellegrini — it was shorter and was going north (rather than south). i didn’t really know what complicated meant, but after being on the road for 30 minutes, i learned. the road is mostly sand, meaning that sometimes you have to simply plow through pits, hoping that the inertia of the car is enough to get you back on semi-solid ground. miraculously, we made it without any issues! further north, we stopped by yaguaroundi (a natural reserve recommended by some germans i met in santiago). it was nice (and free), but maybe not worth the minor detour we took.

the drive up from mercedes to colonia pellegrini (parque esteros del ibera) was a rough dirt road. i’ve driven on much worse, but that was when ushi was in better shape. about half way through we got a flat tire…and because i caught it a bit late, the tire is now irreparable (it was in pretty bad shape to begin with). afterwards, we decided to travel at a more moderate speed of 20-30mph, and it worked out fine.

the park is a bit underwhelming. it’s quite large, but you can only visit a very small portion of it. there are 2 trails (the longer one is 1.5km roundtrip), horseback/bike riding (through the little town) and boat tours. after sprinting through the mosquito infested trails, we caught a boat tour around the park. it was actually pretty cool, and since we started later in the day, we were out there during sunset, when all of the birds started flying out to the islands. at times, the birds filled the sky like bats coming out of caves (or, perhaps more fitting, like mosquitos on one of the trails). the major animals around here are capibaras, caimans, deer and birds (storks, parrots, etc.). we also got to walk around a bit on one the islands — it was pretty solid, but kinda like walking on a trampoline. the guide at one point jumped up and down on the ground, and the earth moved several inches. i tried it as well….but, after jumping pretty high (and landing pretty hard), left a 6in dent in the ground (…almost falling through).

back on land, we camped at another mosquito laden site near the water. the sky is so clear and the stars so bright.

capibaras crossing the road

because of all of the police checkpoints, we didn’t get to mercedes until night. seems like a nice enough city….although nothing spectacular. one nice thing about the city is that their tourist office is just off of the exit from the highway…meaning you don’t have to drive around the city without a map (unfortunately, it was closed when we arrived). another nice thing is that many streets will have mirrors on the corners so you can see if their is traffic coming from the side street. this is very helpful, because in argentina, most of the streets don’t have stop or yield signs….meaning foreigners (locals too?) are kind of at a loss as to who has the right of way. supposedly it’s the vehicle coming from the right, but it also depends on which is the bigger road, the bigger car, etc. pretty confusing.

the hostel we’re staying at is in an old building, which feels a bit like a ranch house (although it’s in the city). the beds are wooden, chairs are leather and floorboards are falling apart. the women working here kind of remind me of the women from the movie ‘witches’ — they’re nice, although they smoke up a storm and it seems like there’s something looming underneath their apparent kindness. tomorrow, we’ll hopefully drive over to another national park…..close by, but a gravel road.

another 50 miles later, we were stopped at yet another police checkpoint. they asked the routine questions (fire extinguisher, spare tire, triangle, etc.)…and then told me that i needed two triangles! so, i was escorted to the higher up. with my spanglish, i tried to tell him that i had a flare in the car. i didn’t make an effort to translate ‘flare’ into spanish, since i wasn’t 100% sure that i had it. we stood there for a few minutes while he waited for his higher up. somehow, while talking to each other, the chief got the impression that something was wrong with my brakes. i didn’t really understand what he was talking about, so i kept saying ‘que?’…in the end my stupidity worked out and he let us go.

this was very reminiscent of that 100km stretch in honduras where they asked for triangles, extinguishers, etc. or maybe the other stretch in nicaragua where patrik and i did eventually pay some money (he had to catch an airplane, so we were a bit rushed). apparently the embassy trick works, though…so it’s good to know.

it’s also interesting how these corrupt checkpoints congregate. are those regions poorer and once a month try to raise some funds? do the different checkpoints compete with each other? is it just the certain regions are more corrupt than others?

well, about 10 miles later, we were stopped again at a police checkpoint. this time because i had forgotten to turn my headlights back on after filling up with gas. they made me pull over and a couple minutes later their chief strolled on over. a big guy (not fat, but tall and solid looking) dressed in all blue, with a gun by his side, sunglasses covering half of his face and a small digital camera in his hand. after talking for a minute, he invited me into his office where he told me that i had two options: 1) he could give me a ticket for about 900 pesos ($250), which i’d have to pay before i left argentina; or 2) i could pay him 300 pesos now. i can probably guess another two things: 1) the fine is not actually 900 pesos for forgetting to turn your headlights on (especially in the daytime); and 2) the 300 pesos is a bribe, since the government probably does not allow cops to accept cash, and would certainly not offer a discount.

from some other travelers (the same german couple who had warned me about insurance), i had heard that threatening to call the embassy was often good enough….so i told the officer this, and asked if i could use his phone. naturally, he said no, so i said i would call from my cell phone. back in the car, adrian and i spoke for a few minutes and decided to make the call. just as i was about to, i was called back into the office. with a phone and lonely planet in hand, the officer asked me what my decision was. i told him that i was going to call the embassy and see. he said that he was going to write up the 900p ticket and that if we changed our mind, we could adjust that later.

so, i returned to the car and made the call. while listening to the pre-recorded message about the embassy being closed, the lower-ranked officer hurried to us with my license and told me that i could go. ushi 1, argentina 0. (thanks to adrian, though…since i was getting ready to pay some money).

interesting day today. we were stopped here at a checkpoint where they were hunting for a bribe. they first asked for the vehicle papers, including the insurance (which was the first time i’d been asked for it on the whole trip…luckily a german couple in santiago had warned me about the insurance and argentinian police….so i had picked some up for argentina). next, they inquired about the fire extinguisher. we removed it from the hidden panel and they checked to make sure it was fully charged. then, they asked for the triangle. i showed them the reflecting mechanism and had to assemble it. at the same time they also saw the spare tire, so we skipped that step, and they instead asked for a first aid kit. i showed them the kit. finally, they gave up and let us go.

the annoying thing is that they try to make friendly small talk while also trying to screw you over. it’s like they want to be friends and take money from you at the same time.