The Incredible Iguazú Falls

The Iguazú Falls - maybe one of the most famous sights in South America, and something we'd certainly heard of before we got to this continent! We'd both been looking forward to seeing this amazing set of waterfalls for the whole trip so far. Although we've had to skip most of Brazil in order to see everything else we want to see before June (we'll be returning one day!), Rio and Iguazú were the two places we really wanted to get to this time.

The Iguazú Falls from the Argentine side

The Iguazú Falls are on the Iguazú river, located right on the border between Brazil and Argentina. They are shared between the two countries - both sides have their own Iguazú National Park, and both of these are UNESCO World Heritage sites! The falls are not just one waterfall, but a huge set of 275 drops in total, ranging from 60 - 82m in height and extending for 2.7 km along the river. Two thirds of the falls are in Argentine territory, and the Argentine park is a lot bigger, but there are absolutely spectacular views from both sides. Eleanor Roosevelt is said to have remarked, on her first sight of the falls, 'Poor Niagara', and you can see why.

Panorama from the Brazilian side

When looking at places to stay near Iguazú, we remembered a recommendation we'd had a while ago. The English couple we did our crazy long Machu Picchu trek with, Ivonne and Robin, had mentioned a hotel that was located actually within the Brazilian national park itself, within 2 minutes walk from the falls and even with views of them from some of the rooms. We'd had this in the back of our mind for some time and couldn't resist looking into it. Even when we found it was way, way above our budget, we couldn't quite make ourselves relinquish our dream of staying there, and thus it was that we booked without doubt our biggest accommodation splurge of the trip so far - 3 nights in the 5 star Belmond Hotel Das Cataratas!

Champagne breakfast in front of our hotel

The hotel was amazing. We enjoyed all of its perks - the gym (after which we couldn't walk for days, haha), the beautiful pool, the bar (best pisco sour since Peru), the breakfast time champagne ... and even the room service (ironically because this was the cheapest way to eat - the two onsite restaurants were both quite unaffordable!). But without doubt the biggest perk of all was the proximity to the falls, and the exclusive access in the mornings and evenings when the park was closed to the public. We often had the falls completely to ourselves. We got our first view of the falls the evening we arrived, around sunset. The viewpoint was literally just opposite the hotel, and there were only a few other people around. WOW! I can't even attempt to describe the beauty of this moment - the photos will have to do the talking for me.

Our first view of the falls, from the viewpoint in front of our hotel

The next morning, we got up early and went to see the falls before the park opened to the public. While the day before we'd only seen the view from the first viewpoint, today we followed the path down towards Devil's Throat, the most famous waterfall. In a short 15 minute walk, we were greeted with one spectacular vista after another. It just got better and better! We hadn't really appreciated the sheer size and number of the waterfalls from the hotel viewpoint, and now could see them stretching much further than we'd realised. It was just avalanches of water in all directions. Unbelievable. Near the end of the path, there was a metal walkway out into the river around the top of some of the falls, from where we could look down and see the water suddenly just disappear over the edge of a cliff. We got totally soaked from all the mist! At the very end of the path, we arrived at a stunning view of the Devil's Throat, the biggest waterfall of them all. I could have stood there all day, watching the tons of water come hurtling down and hearing the incredible thundering noise. Again, WOW.

The misty walkway near the Devil's Throat

After three nights, we reluctantly left our nice hotel. We weren't done with the falls yet though and were headed next over the border to Argentina, to see them from the other side. En route, we visited Brazil's Parque das Aves (Bird Park), which is right next to the national park entrance. We'd read mixed reviews of this but loved it and were very glad we went! They have a huge collection of birds, mostly from the Amazon region. Yes, they were in captivity, but most had been rescued from much worse situations, and the enclosures seemed large and not too crowded. We saw so many weird and wonderful birds that we'd never have got to see otherwise. Among my favourites were the three or four different species of toucan, the harpy eagles, and the gigantic walk-in enclosure with eight different types of macaw flying / perching everywhere!

Green-billed toucan in Parque das Aves

We'd been quite looking forward to returning to Argentina. It's a country we feel we know fairly well by now, after spending quite a lot of time here previously. But unfortunately, on our first evening in the country, we had a bad experience that somewhat tarred our formerly positive feeling about returning. As we were walking back to our hostel after dinner, we passed a house with a dog behind a closed gate. It came running, barking, and threw itself at the gate. A lot of dogs here behave like this, so we were unperturbed, until another dog appeared from nowhere, ran at us and bit me on the leg! This dog turned out to belong to the same house, but had been left loose in the street.

Scarlet macaws, with one blue-and-yellow one, in the Parque das Aves

The bite wasn't too bad; it swelled up a bit and looked like a red weal but didn't properly break the skin (now, several days later, it is just a very impressive bruise). However, worse than the bite itself was the attitude of the owner. She would not admit the dog was dangerous, would not agree that it shouldn't be left to roam freely on the street, would not even apologise until the neighbours too, who had seen the whole thing and whose Spanish was obviously a lot better than ours, got involved. What a rude, unpleasant person! The neighbours did not seem to like her either - when she'd gone, they apologised on her behalf even though it was in no way their fault, and told us the same dog had bitten someone before. Fortunately most Argentinians we've met have been super friendly and nice; the opposite of this woman. It was a horrible thing to happen on our first day back in Argentina though.

View of the San Martín waterfall, on the Argentine side of the falls

This incident meant we changed our plans a little and stayed an extra night in Puerto Iguazú so I could get the bite checked by a doctor (various doctor friends at home had advised this just in case of any risk of rabies). It was very easy, and not too expensive, to see a doctor at the private clinic, and she reassured us the bite should be fine, and that rabies is controlled in Argentina. Rather than going to the national park after this, we decided it was too late and instead went to visit an animal rescue sanctuary nearby. All the animals here were from the jungle regions of Argentina and had been rescued from appalling conditions, often being kept as pets in tiny cages. So it was sad seeing some of the birds missing eyes or legs, or unable to fly, but also positive that they are now being looked after well.

Part of the Itaipú Dam in Brazil

On our second day in Argentina, we actually crossed back over the border to Brazil so that we could visit the Itaipu Dam there. The dam is on the river that divides Brazil and Paraguay, and is huge - 7km long and around 200m high. It was built as a joint venture between the two countries, and the hydroelectric power it produces supplies both Brazil and Paraguay with a significant proportion of their electricity. In fact, Brazil is so much bigger than Paraguay that it pays the latter around a million dollars a day to use more of the dam's turbines. So Brazil takes 90% of the power produced, and Paraguay 10%. Despite this, in 2013, the dam supplied 75% of Paraguay's electricity, and 17% of Brazil's. It was cool to see the dam, though I think we got more from reading about if afterwards than from the very touristy open top bus tour we did.

In front of the Devil's Throat, Argentine side

Finally, on our third day in Argentina, we made it to the Argentine side of the falls. We were glad we'd saved this till last, as it was even better than the Brazilian side! The national park is a lot bigger, and we spent the whole day there walking along several different trails. On this side, we could get a lot closer to most of the waterfalls, and see them both from above and below. As it was a sunny day, there were rainbows everywhere! We also got the best panoramic view yet, with the falls continuing as far as we could see. Argentina also seemed to win on the butterfly front. There'd been a few on the Brazilian side, but here was another level! We had to walk through literally clouds of them. It was impossible to escape; they were EVERYWHERE. All shapes, sizes and colours and all, it seemed, constantly wanting to land on human beings! This was a massive challenge for me but my desire to see the falls overcame my fear (mostly); I did spend a lot of time swearing, running through the biggest clouds and flapping my hat / bag at them though!

One of several big clumps of butterflies.These would fly up into the air all around us when we passed!

The highlight of the Argentine side was another view of the Devil's Throat. This time, we got much closer to it, and could hear its roar from several hundred metres away, increasing as we approached. Quite a large proportion of the total volume of water in the falls is funneled down this one narrow chasm, and the sheer force of it is astounding. I can't describe just how exhilarating it was to stand there, getting completely drenched, and marvelling at this gigantic torrent of water throwing itself down right next to us. No other waterfall I've ever seen comes anywhere near the magnificence of this spectacle! Once again, we felt utterly awed by the power of nature.

Panorama of the Devil's Throat and surrounding waterfalls, Argentine side

We've now (unwillingly) left the Iguazú area, and will spend a bit more time in Argentina before we move on to Paraguay. The take home message from this post though is - go to the Iguazú Falls! If it's not on your bucket list, it should be.

Collapsing Glaciers and Frozen Lakes

We arrived in El Calafate, ready to meet up with Jo's dad and sister after their long flight from the UK. We'd picked this area for their holiday as there's plenty to do in a small-ish area, and I'd missed a lot of the hikes with my bad leg when we were here before.

El Chaltén

After they'd arrived, we set off the next day to El Chaltén - Argentina's 'capital of trekking'. Jo had done two of the major walks here before - to the Torre and FitzRoy mountains - but they were new to the rest of us. Both are full-day walks to glacier-fed lakes at the base of amazing granite spires. Unfortunately, the Torre mountain was covered in cloud when we arrived, but we were treated to wonderfully shaped icebergs in the lake.

Finally made it to Laguna Torre!

FitzRoy was more spectacular - not only was the sky clear, but its lake was frozen and covered in snow. After reaching the lake, we continued a bit further around and nothing could have prepared us for the sight of a second lake, lower than the first, that had recently thawed leaving a mosaic of ice on top of the perfect blue water. From the viewpoint you could see the thawed lake alongside the frozen, snowy lake both crowned by the FitzRoy peak. It was spectacular.

Mosaic-ice lake on the left and snowy lake on the right

A third trek, called Loma del Pliegue Tumbado, was different to the others in that the peak at the end wasn't so notable and didn't have a lake at the bottom. It did afford a view across the whole mountain range, though, and we finally got a clear view of the Torre mountain alongside FitzRoy. We didn't make it quite to the end of the trail as the steep climb at the end was completely covered in snow and seemed a bit too treacherous.

The Franklins and the FitzRoy range at the end of the Loma del Pliegue Tombado hike

After exhausting the trekking possibilities in El Chaltén, we returned to El Calafate. This is close to the Perito Moreno glacier that we had visited before. We couldn't wait to return and show it off to Jo's relatives. It didn't let us down - it had grown since we had last visited and now crossed to the shore with the viewpoint, cutting the lake in two. We had much better weather this time, so we could stay out on the walkways admiring the sheer size of the wall of ice. We were once again lucky enough to see huge, 60m high, columns of ice breaking off the glacier and smashing into the lake below.

Watching for more ice to fall

Jo's family has now departed to return home, and we are preparing to end our own Patagonian holiday by flying back to Lima, Perú. We'll spend a couple of nights there, recovering from an overnight flight, before heading north towards Máncora and then Ecuador.

54°S

When we spoke last, we were in Ushuaia, a claimant to the southernmost city in the world. Since then we've been in the actual southernmost town, Puerto Williams. We took a small zodiac boat across the choppy Beagle Channel - the last of the season - before a truck for the 54 km along the only road to the only town on Isla Navarino.

The brave crew for the boat to Isla Navarino

We spent our time hanging out with the other two tourists in town. Handily, one was a physiotherapist and subjected me to an intense massage to sort my leg out. It seems to have worked - we managed to do a couple of excellent hikes on the island.

Puerto Williams and the Beagle Channel

The Bronces Waterfall

The first was to the Bronces waterfall, and the other to the peak behind Puerto Williams, Cerro Bandera (Flag Hill). They both gave a real sense of how isolated this place is - from the complete lack of other people to the number of birds that came really close to us. Cerro Bandera provided fantastic views of lonely Puerto Williams and the Beagle Channel beyond. We could also see the famed peaks of the Dientes de Navarino, if only from a distance. Of the few people that come here, a small number brave the 4-5 day trekking circuit in complete wilderness around these mountains. We decided to give it a miss this time!

Los Dientes de Navarino

After three days at the real 'end of the world', we caught the weekly ferry back to Punta Arenas. The 30-hour journey started more-or-less on time, until 10 minutes in it returned to port to pick up a lorry that had missed it. Strangely, one of the other lorries that had initially departed with us drove back into town and didn't return. The voyage was bumpy in places, but at other times we managed to see dolphins and seals against a glacier-carved backdrop.

The ferry back to Punta Arenas

We're now back in Punta Arenas where we're pondering our next move. It can only really be somewhere further north!

Into Chile

We arrived by bus in Puerto Natales on April 1st. This was our first international bus journey, crossing from Argentina into Chile. Border crossings are always interesting, and this one took quite some time. Getting out of Argentina was easy enough, but at Chilean immigration we all had to get out of the bus and retrieve our big bags (sacks in our case) from the back so that it could go through the X ray scanner. Although there were two desks for checking passports, only one was designated to each direction. So, while one had a queue of a busload of people, the other watched MTV.

A dry-ish moment in Puerto Natales

We spent a couple of days in Puerto Natales, mainly sheltering inside from the freezing winds and snowstorms. But our main reason for coming was to attend one of the daily talks at Erratic Rock hostel, all about Torres del Paine national park and the famous W trek. This was extremely informative (highly recommended if you visit this part of the world) and useful in helping us plan our future itinerary. The local beer on tap was a bonus! We now think we may end up having to come back to this trek at the start of next season, when the weather is better, more places to stay are open and Kev's leg has recovered.

The Strait of Magellan at Punta Arenas

Not letting the cold deter us, we pushed on further south to Punta Arenas, arguably the southernmost city in the world. The other main claimant is Ushuaia, which is further south but smaller. We're pleasantly surprised by how nice this city is - lots of grand buildings and history relating to various early Antarctic expeditions. Plus the weather has been good - we're not missing the horizontal freezing rain we'd heard about. We've also purchased some crutches so that Kev can walk around without using his bad leg. This combination of weather and crutches has allowed us to go for walks along the seafront, with lovely views over the Strait of Magellan to Tierra del Fuego. There are also burnt out piers filled with cormorants and gulls. Most things are closed over Easter, but we plan to make use of the duty free shopping area to replace some of our petrol damaged gear.

Imperial cormorants and dolphin gulls

Glacier Perito Moreno and a Change in Plan

When Jo last posted, we were monitoring the state of my leg to see if it would hold up for future treks. I rested it for a few days, before testing it out on a short walk near El Chaltén. It was fine for the first part, which provided marvellous views over the town with the two peaks of Cerro Torre and Cerro Fitzroy behind it. I was glad to have finally managed a walk that let me see them. On the way back, however, my leg gave up and it was a very painful walk home.

Successfully made it to the viewpoint looking over El Chaltén

Our original plan had been to go to El Calafate next to trek on the Perito Moreno glacier before heading further south to do the famous 5-day W-trek around Torres del Paine national park. These plans would have to be shelved for now. We decided, instead, to carry on with that route but only with brief stops to break up the journey south to Tierra del Fuego. Hopefully I'll be able to rest my leg on the way before coming back to the treks we've been looking forward to.

The Perito Moreno glacier

In El Calafate, although we knew we couldn't do our ice trek we decided to visit the Perito Moreno glacier anyway It was a trip well worth doing. There is a series of walkways opposite the glacier, which flows into two lakes divided by a narrow channel. They give spectacular views of the huge wall of ice, up to 60m high, as large sections sporadically tumble and crash into the water below. It's one of the most awe-inspiring natural sights I've seen. It's easy to spend hours there, even in the cold and rain, listening to loud cracks and scanning the blue-coloured ice waiting for the next chunk to fall.

Not trekking on the glacier

From El Calafate, we've now arrived in Puerto Natales, having crossed our first land border of the trip into Chile. This is the base for the W-trek, but we are just here for some information about it for now, before heading further south to Punta Arenas.

The glacier in all of its glory

Trekking (or not) in El Chalten

El Chaltén is known as the capital of trekking in Argentina and rightfully so. There are snow capped mountains in all directions, crowned by imposing Mount Fitzroy, the namesake of the range. The northern section of Parque Nacional Los Glaciares is within a stone's throw and there are several first class day hikes starting right in El Chaltén itself. Unfortunately though, Kev has injured his leg and has had to rest it most days. X-rays and advice from various people suggest that he's damaged the lining of his shin bone - it will heal but only with a lot of rest and NO long walks! So Kev's been relaxing at the hostel most days, keeping an eye on our petrol scented washing.

At the Chorillo Salta waterfall

On our second day here, we both did a short walk to the waterfall Chorillo Salto. The majority was next to the glacier fed river, which is fast flowing and a gorgeous grey-blue colour. When we arrived at the 20m falls there were a lot of other people there taking photos, but once we walked downstream for five minutes it was lovely and quiet, with a magnificent view in the late afternoon light down the valley across to the mountains.

Looking down the valley from the waterfall

The two most popular hikes here both go to lakes, crossing through spectacular scenery with trees in beautiful autumnal colours and views of the surrounding mountains. We met some great people in our hostel and they were kind enough to let me join them.

The first trek was mainly on the flat, proceeding past fields of silver birch trees and finally arriving at Laguna Torre, with lovely views of the peak Cerro Torre behind. The lake was a greyish colour rather than blue and extremely cold; there were icebergs floating in it! It was still enough to reflect three spire-like peaks behind, which we were lucky to see as they are often covered in cloud. A glacier flows into the lake and we sat listening to it making ominous creaking noises while eating lunch.

Cerro Torre overlooking its lake

The second trek, to Laguna de los Tres, was even better - one of the best day hikes I've done. The views ahead to Mount Fitzroy were breathtaking all the way, and got better and better as we went along. We crossed several crystal clear streams and rivers, most with signs saying you could drink from them. The walk is 11km one way, but the final 1km took us an hour as it was so steep. Towards the top, Fitzroy had disappeared behind the hill we were climbing, but as we arrived at the end of the trail it suddenly reappeared, looking even more stunning behind the dazzlingly turquoise Laguna de los Tres. After a lunch break and some scrambling we found a different and possibly even better view. We were the only people there, which made it all the more special.

At the start of the trek to Cerro Fitzroy

Today Kev braved a trip out and we took a minibus to Lago del Desierto, about 40km along a veeery bumpy gravel road. We then went for an hour' long boat trip on the lake, surrounded by thickly forested slopes. Although the weather was cold and rainy to start with, it cleared up and the gaps in the clouds revealed the slopes were capped with several glaciers. We could clearly see where they came down the mountain and turned into waterfalls flowing into the lake. Pretty cool!

Made it to the lake at Cerro Fitzroy!

While here we've also spent a lot of time trying to sort out the petrol disaster described in our previous post. On the plus side, three laundry visits, a lot of airing and some soaking in buckets of vinegar (I got odd looks in the supermarket!) have improved most of our clothes. On the down side, we're not sure that our rucksacks will be salvageable. We asked one laundry if they'd soak them overnight, which they had done once already, and got a very curt reply along the lines of 'you made my laundry smell for three days, go away!' It looks like we're going to have to buy new ones...

Drowning sorrows with new friends in the cervecería

El Chaltén is a good place to drown our sorrows though: it is the first place we've found that has its own microbrewery, or Cerveceria. It only has two beer options but we've still had a couple of good nights there and at the Vineria wine bar. We're here for another day and then heading to nearby El Calafate for more glacier action.