June 5th or: Puerto Iguazú

Since we went to bed at 9, we only got 2 hours of sleep. That was more than sufficient though. Carlos picked us up and took us across the border we had crossed just a couple of hours before, back to Brazil. Today, we wanted to take a look at the brazilian side of the Iguacu Waterfalls. 

What are the Iguacu Waterfalls? 20 large and up to 255 smaller waterfalls, where up to 7000m³ water go down -- every second. Forget everything you have learned about Niagara Falls, this is the real deal. They lie at the border of Argentina and Brazil with one town nearby on each side of the border: Foz do Iguacu in Brazil and Puerto Iguazú in Argentina, where we were accomodated. They are provided with water by the River Iguazú, which is impressively large. 

We entered the park, took a bus to the trail and this is what we saw: 

first view of the falls

I really do not wanna write much about all this, you just have to see for yourself. It is truly amazing, and makes you wonder how nature can create something this phenomenal. The falls are considered one of the new 7 wonders of the world for a reason. The brute force of nature just keeps going, and you know that whenever you come back, the falls will still be there, grinding away rocks and moving insane amounts of water. 

taking a selfie of people taking a selfie (it was a little foggy at times)

finally found the end of the rainbow

We went very close to one of the falls and thoroughly got soaked before going back to dry. Getting dry was quite a challenge, since it was raining and heating doesn't exist here (my shoes are still soaked two days later, can't do nothing about it). We finished the day with great argentinian beef paired with great red wine. Funny thing to note: I was startled when "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" started playing. But then I realized that it's actually winter. That was a weird moment though. 

Even though we were just across the border, you can notice that Puerto Iguazú is in a different country. It is a small town where I feel completely safe. There isn't much to do besides looking at waterfalls, but the food is better (because there are vegetables) and it's easier for us to communicate. Frankly, I understand the south american spanish better than the spanish spanish.