AND THAT MAKES 12 STAMPS FROM ARGENTINA

WEATHER: HOT HOT HOT

HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Seeing Iguassu Falls from all angles

BUMMER OF THE DAY: HOT HOT HOT

WORD OF THE DAY:  Team Swiss

Well there was no message from Zeme when I woke this morning so this has to be good news right?  Hopefully the letter worked and they can finally process his visa…….

We are off to Argentina again for the last time today to see Igusazu Falls from their side.  So this does mean we get another 2 stamps in our passports from Argentina making it a grand total of 12 stamps from the one country.  I don’t think I have ever had that many stamps from the one country in my passport before.

We left camp at 8.30am for our transfer to take us over the border.  Rosita is off to the mechanics today and we have to cross and enter the Falls with an Argentinian guide anyway, so we left in 2 minivans for the 15 minute drive to the Brazil border control.  We just had to hand our passports to our driver/guide and he ran in and got us processed out of Brazil.  It was the quickest border control we have ever done; he was seriously back in 5 minutes!!!  Brazil didn’t stamp us though, so we have just been processed through the computer.  Next stop was the Argentinian border control and it looked a hell of a lot busier, with tourist busses, cars, trucks and lots of minivans like ours all waiting to be processed.  This took longer and as only Argentina knows how, took 50 minutes to complete.  But once again we just had to wait in the van and our driver did all the waiting in line for us. 

So welcome back to Argentina and to Spanish speaking again, we can say gracias and hola without feeling bad that we are saying it in Spanish instead of Portuguese if only for the day anyway.  The National Park was only a 20 minute drive from the border and after getting our tickets and walked through the gates our driver then left us and was to return at 5.30pm to collect us and take us home again.  There is an hour time difference from Brazil to Argentina, but we have decided to stay on Brazil time to not confuse anything, so let’s see if anyone gets confused during the day and if we all turn up at 5.30pm Brazil time, which is 4.30pm Argentina time…..

Most of the group are doing the boat cruise, which is basically a speed boat that gets you pretty much as close to the falls as you can get on the water.  I did the boat last time I was here, so I decided not to do it again, so as they all made their bookings to get on the boat, Sven, Andreas, Elizabeth, Susanne and Angelica were also not doing the boat, so I we all stuck together for the day and headed straight for the train that was to take us to the Devils Throat.  It is approximately a 30 minute train journey, after changing trains 10 minutes into get us to the end of the line and to the start of the grated boardwalks that will take us to the edge of the falls.  The train was busy, and this was why we were getting it done first thing in the morning, as we assumed that as the day wore on it would only get busier.  We thought the train was busy, well when we arrived at the boardwalk there were masses of people already around.  The boardwalk is 1.5KM long and it is just wide enough for one lane of traffic heading in and one lane of traffic heading out.  The system falls down when one person stops and with the constant flow of traffic coming the other way, it is quite difficult to get around these people and you get held up waiting for them to get going again.  I don’t mind stopping for people’s photos, but when they take so long to take a damn picture this is when I get a little stroppy.  So even though it is 1.5KM long, it still takes a while to get out to the viewing platform due to the stoppages.  Looking at the people that were coming back from the falls, they were looking quite wet, which was fine with me as it was starting to get quite hot as it was coming up to 11am.

Iguazu Falls are arranged in a way that seems a reverse J. The border between Brazil and Argentina runs through the Devil's Throat. On the right bank is the Brazilian territory, which has just over 20% of the jumps of these falls, and the left side jumps are Argentines, which make up almost 80% of the falls.

They are amazing from this side.  You get a true indication on just how powerful they are from this view.  It was a little windy, and this was the reason why people were getting drenched as the falls spray was getting blown onto us all.  It was so difficult to take a picture as the mist kept getting on my camera lens.  Looking back at my photos, I didn’t get too many that didn’t have water spots on them which was a little annoying.  Devils Throat has about half of the river's flow falls into a long and narrow chasm.   The Devil's Throat is U-shaped, 82-meter-high, 150-meter-wide, and 700-meter-long.   About 900 meters of the 2.7-kilometer length does not have water flowing over it. The edge of the basalt cap recedes by 3 mm (0.1 in) per year. The water of the lower Iguazu collects in a canyon that drains in the Paraná River, a short distance downstream from the Itaipu Dam.  Once again there were people pushing and shoving their way for photo opportunities, but the flow of traffic kept moving so it wasn’t too much if an issue to get a vantage point and get some shots, the problem was getting shots without getting spray on your lens.  In Guarani language, the term "Iguazú" means "great waters". It was discovered in 1541 by Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and established in 1984 as Natural World Heritage Site by UNESCO. 

A legend says that a big snake called "Boi" lived in the river. To calm its ferocity, aborigines sacrificed a woman every year as an offering. But once a brave Guarani aborigine kidnapped the woman and saved her from the traditional rite escaping through the river. Boi burst in anger, bent its body and split the river forming the cataracts separating the man and the woman. 

There are 2 ways that you can get back to the middle section of the falls.  You can catch the train that goes back the same way you came or you can pay 50 pesos (10AUD) and you could get a ride down the upper Iguazú River to look for some animals and plants in the delta in a big yellow zodiac that is rowed by a guide of the National Park.  We decided to take the boat option, something different, it was cheap enough and we had time for the 30 minute cruise.  We were given life jackets and boarded the zodiac 15 minutes after paying with 15 other people for the drift.  It was weird when we first set out that we could see the spray of the falls in the distance and knew we weren’t far from the falls edge.  It was a little scary and cool all at the same time.  We dint see any wildlife but at one point trying to navigate into one of the smaller estuaries we got stuck on some rocks and we all had to move to one side of the zodiac as our guide got out of the boat to try and dislodge us.  All it would have taken was for him to fall over, lose the boat we would be floating without our driver and guide towards the falls drop!!  Okay maybe a little dramatic, but it could have happened right? Well it spiced up the ride and was definitely worth the 10 bucks we paid.

Making it back to the center section of the falls where there are eateries and the train station, it is also the start of the upper and lower sections of the walking trails of the falls.  We decided to do the upper section before a late lunch and then do the lower section after lunch.  Walking on the footbridges there are more than 270 falls in an area where cliffs and islets are scattered in a half moon.  From the upper path you have panoramic views from the footbridge in an unforgettable experience and views of the falls.  These paths were also very busy, but the flow seemed to be better than Devils Throat.  The upper section took us 45 minutes to complete the circuit and got us back to the café for lunch at 2.30pm.    The lunch was a simple affair of spinach and cheese quiche and a bottle of coke to get some juice back in the tank to complete the lower section of the falls.  There wasn’t much left in the way of food by the time we got there, but the quiche was quite tasty considering I don’t really like spinach and then we were off again. 

The lower path leads to the base of the falls, where the spray moistens visitors. It is a unique experience, worth daring the adventure. In this circuit you may also take a boat to Isla San Martín, which was closed today due to the level of the water after some recent rains.  Here are a lot of falls to see on the lower section including Salto Floriano, Salto Deodoro, Salto Benjamín Constant, Salto Unión, Salto Escondido, Salto Mitre, Salto Belgrano, Salto Rivadavia, Salto Tres Mosqueteros, Salto Dos Mosqueteros, Salto San Martín, Salto Adán y Eva, Salto Bozzetti, Salto Ramirez, Salto Chico, Salto Dos Hermanos and Salto Alvar Nuñez .  You must think seem one waterfall seen them all.  But each one was unique and different and definitely worth fighting the heat and humidity to complete the 1.5 hour walk of the lower section.  The last waterfall was probably the highlight as the viewing platform at the base if the waterfall was within a few meters and the spray and noise from the waterfall was surreal.  Apart from waterfalls, the jungle a wide variety of animals and plants. Almost 500 species of wild fowl, 80 species of mammals and an immense variety of reptiles, fish, insects and butterflies live in this ecosystem. 

We got back to the meeting point an hour earlier than required, but it was good to be able to have a look at the shops and have a sit down and rest the weary feet that had been on the go since 10am this morning.  Mark found me to let me know there was Wi-Fi at one of the restaurants to see if I had a reply back from Zeme, so we went over found a bench and this is where I found out the news that the Brazil Consulate did not accept the invitation letter that we sent through yesterday and that the signature had to be known by the government and we had DHL it and email it to Ethiopia.  It is difficult to be able to complete the request when we don’t really know what they are asking for.  Today is Thursday, even if we did have the right paper work, to DHL it to them, assuming there is somewhere in Foz that we could do it from, would take at least 2 days, then for them to complete the visa and get it back to us it is here that it finally hit me that Zeme wouldn’t be coming on the trip.  I was devastated.  Completely devastated.  Clutching at straws, I emailed the consulate myself and asked them to clarify exactly what it was they needed, being nice, because if we could get it all done, I could just date change Zeme’s ticket and he comes a week later just missing Carnival.  There was still a slim chance we could make it work.  Deep down I knew it was a done deal, but it got me through not breaking into tears in front of Mark. 

What a mess……………………..

Going back through the border controls again and leaving Argentina for the very last time was quicker than coming in this morning.  We only had to wait 5 minutes at both controls and we were back to camp just after 6pm.  We also stopped to change out left over Argentinian pesos and Paraguayan guaranies into Brazilian rials with this being the 4^th last currency of the trip. 

Back at camp I now had to make some decisions on what I was going to do about the rest of my trip. 

Option 1 – Ask Tucan if they will credit both our tours till next year less fees

Option 2 - Take a break from tour for a month and fly to see Z and then rejoin the group.

Option 3 - Stay on the trip and see Z in May and try and sell Zemes portion of the trip to someone else

Option 1 for me would be preferable.  Firstly I have a round world ticket that brings me back to South America next year and less fees and price fluctuations I would have another holiday already booked and paid for and we would just need to pay for a new ticket for Zeme and start the visa process a lot earlier and do it all together, just 12 months later.   While I was working all this out, Mark has been emailing the office letting them know what is happening and they said they would need to go to London for a decision on the credit notes.  The upside, if there can be one, is that Deb has expressed an interest to purchase Zeme’s portion of the tour.  It’s not a definite, but to let her know how much and she will see if she can date change her tickets and rejig some things, so we may be able to salvage some money of Zeme section of the trip and recoup some lost cash.  In the meantime I have emailed Beth to get her to read the rules and see what could be salvaged from Zeme airline ticket.

I called Z with the last of my credit on my mobile to speak to him.  It was past 2am in Addis but I didn’t care at this point.  He was so upset about the whole situation and I got a good 8 minutes before my credit ran out.  What a mess.  Maybe things won’t look so bad when I wake up in the morning and there will be a reply from Tucan and a reply from the Brazil Embassy.  Yeah right, what are the odds but we can live and sleep in hope.

What a mess.