Iguazu Falls: a groggy start

This morning I woke up at 8am, in order to make my 9am tour to the Argentinean side of Iguazu Falls, one of the biggest waterfalls in the world. After last night's adventure, however, this early start was not very fun. I really should have gone to bed early last night — it was so stupid of me to have gone out pubbing all night! Anyway, I somehow managed to drag myself out of bed, to check out of the Hostel Inn (since I'm going to Brazil tonight), and to wolf down some breakfast, before falling into my seat on the bus. And it was lucky that I did manage all that: because I definitely wouldn't have wanted to miss the breathtaking sights that I saw today. Iguazu Falls are bloody amazing.

The bus trip down to the falls was only about 20 minutes, but I slept the whole way. When we arrived there, I was extremely fortunate to find myself talking to and joining a group of five other backpackers, who didn't seem to mind my being utterly wasted (barely conscious, truth be told), and who welcomed me to tag along with them for the day. This was a very lucky ocurrence: not only because it's always good to have a group of friends when you're sightseeing; but also because I wasn't really capable of doing much by myself today. If I'd ended up wandering round alone, I don't know what would have happened — my guess is that I would have fallen off the edge of a waterfall. And somehow, I doubt that Superman would have come to save me.

My five amigos for today: Danish guy, Irish couple, English guy, and Norweigian girl (left to right).

Turned out that the "tour" for today wasn't really a tour at all. They just dropped us off at the entrance to the park, gave us our entrance tickets and our boat ride tickets, and said "see yous at five". Not that you really need to be guided around the park — it's fairly obvious where to go and what to see — but still, they could have been a bit more clear about what was included.

So we went in at the front entrance, and we jumped on the little bus to take us down to the river, where we were to start a very cool boat ride. On the way down, you can really appreciate what a lush rainforest environment they have around here: it's not just a national park for the waterfalls; they also have some stunning plant, animal and bird life. For example, we saw several Toucans flying above us, as well as a few other birds, and some lizards and other small animals.

Toucan in the trees: the coolest bird I’ve ever seen.

Once we got to the river, it was time for the real adventure of the day to begin.