Day 7 - North to the staggering majestic Iguazu Falls on the Argentinean Side!
 
The tourist guy was right, up early we stood on the side of the highway whilst 6 buses almost empty going to Iguazu totally ignored us! Finally one stopped, a lovely packed double decker with no seats and everyone crammed in, for me it was going to be a long 4 hours ......He did give us alcoholic chocolate liqueur on route though, can you see National Express doing that?!!
 
The vegetation heading north was now getting a lot greener, more tropical and the landscape reminded me of how we thought Brazil would be, very lush! The roads away from the highways were basically mud and the villages varied between having a western feel to poorer areas within the forest landscape. After many many stops we finally got to Iguazu to the roaring heat! Finding a bed proved hard as everywhere was just too expensive for us as money is now seriously lacking, but finally we found the most rustic of hostels called Bamboo hostel, the place was held together by anything and everything and the electrics were crazy to say the least but it was very clean and the family were lovely so not a bad place to stay at all. The town itself, despite being a touristy place to go was actually very chilled (I think most of the tourists are hidden away in all the large hotels!) and small so after finding somewhere cheap to eat and chatting to a lovely American couple, Tony and Anna (where the Anna was on crutches and still managing to travel!), we met in the hostel, we crashed to bed and slept well ready for the falls the next day!
 
All in all the falls were just AMAZING and didn't disappoint at all! We caught another crammed local bus to the park, then got on the free train that takes you through the park to the many board walks that you can do in the park . We decided to go to the most famous first, the 'Devils Throat' and wow it was just incredible! This is the part where all the water comes into one place and the sheer volume of water, the sound and the spray was magnificent! Plus we got COMPLETELY soaked it was so much fun! We ended up staying getting wet for ages, taking it all in; to be so up close to the falls was just amazing, another true highlight of our world trip for sure!
 
The butterflies that landed on you as you walked also were just beautiful, bright blues, purples, black with red and yellow spots, at one point I had two on me as they seemed to be fascinated with my bag and it was amazing to see their long green tongues come out eating whatever it was they had found on my bag.... I hate to think after the amount of countries it has been too! We also sat next to a very inquisitive bird whilst we dried off and had fun also watching the huge fishes in the lake and seeing the many snake signs!
 
After 4 yellow butterflies flew next to us for the entire 20 minute train journey, we then walked the lower boardwalk for 2 hours to get a full up close view of the falls . Its hard to find so many words to describe what we saw, km upon km off falls, raging water, gorges, rainbows, rivers, it was just out of this world and at every angle as we walked it just got better..... hence the millions of photos! We also got to get up close to them again too so yet another soaking, we then walked along the upper board walk to get a good view looking down on the falls. Again just incredible and the most beautiful rainbows were right in front of us, it was beautiful. Joined too by the many Geckos walking along the boardwalk and the Coaties also made it a real jungle experience and a MUST on anyone's holiday list! Its hard to say if they are better than Victoria Falls in Africa, I would say that as we saw them in the season with a lot of water whilst when in Africa it was dry season, that these were slightly more majestic but then Africa was staggering to so both were equally amazing!
 
Then another cramped local bus back which I only just survived on, we then bumped into an American friend we had hiked in Ushuaia with, such a small world!! After a beer or two we parted company and went back to get ready for our FINAL destination and country tomorrow, BRAZIL!!