Iguazu Falls, April 2nd to 5th

Puerto Iguazu on the Argentinian side of the falls was the perfect break from the city. It´s a small town about 18kms from the falls, is mostly dirt road, has loads of little bars, parillas and cafes. Despite what was still stunning weather, with it not being peak tourist season, it was very subdued with dogs outnumbering people 2 to 1.

Early on the 3rd we caught the bus to the falls - the result of seven rivers meeting in one point and ending up as two. The argentinian side gives you the chance to get up close to many of the falls, as well as wander along the tops of them. The falls were absolutely magificient - its hard to describe the scale or views they provide. As you walk around the trails every turn seems to bring a bigger and more spectacular waterfall. We took a speedboat trip that starts serenely around one of the bottom rivers before dowsing you in one of the smaller falls and taking you up close enough to get soaked in the spray of one of the largest. After navigating both the bottom and top trails of the falls, a train takes you up to the largest of the falls 'Garganta Del Diablo' - The Devils throat. The largest and most stunning of the falls, this is absolutely huge.

You share the visit with some of the national park's wildlife - Cuotes (a cross between a racoon and a possum) who wander across the paths but apparently only attack when they see or smell food. There's also spiders, lizards, plenty of birds and one lazy croc / alligator??.

At the falls we met Fiona (from the UK) and Carlos (the real life ' gaucho') who we also caught up with for dinner that night. Fiona had decided to leave her UK life behind to join Carlos breaking horses, practicing medicine and cooking in the native Indian way in Mendoza. Carlos offered to cure us of our 'fear' of horses..... mmmm. They are running retreats so if you are interested, let us know and we can forward details!!


The next day the 'small' journey to Porto Do Iguacu on the Brazil side took an age - not helped by our guidebook suggesting bussing into the largely uninspiring town, only to double back most of the way on the bus to the falls. The border is easy to cross (if you are a kiwi or Brit) and you know as soon as you hit brazillian soil as the bridge between changes from the colours of the Argentinian flag to Brazil's.

The Brazil side gives you a stunning panaoramic view of everything we had seen the day before from close up. It only takes a couple of hours to see, but you also get to walk over one of the larger falls and also get a different, but equally impressive, view of 'Garganta Del Diablo'. It also had even more wildlife - with all the beasties a little larger than their slimline cross border counterparts.

For both sides of the falls, April is a great time to visit with not huge numbers of other tourists - unspoilt photos and hardly any tour groups!

Rounding off the whole Iguazu experience with a helicopter trip over the falls was perfect (and defintiely safer than hot air ballooning in Turkey). We will be running slide show evenings on Tuesdays and Thursday's for the first four weeks after we get back.