For Militia
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Got up Saturday 7th June at 07:20am. Off back into Argentina today to see the Iguazu Waterfalls.

For those not in the know these are the 2nd biggest in the world behind Victoria in Africa. The world renowned Niagara don’t hold a candle to these.

Anyway the first thing I noticed when I looked out the window was that I could already see waterfalls as it was pissing down. As I prepared my gear I was able hear thunder and lightning. Here we ****ing go I thought.

Anyway into the café for buffet breakfast. Plate of eggs some spicy sausage some interesting bred rolls that were infused with cheese and consistent like marshmallows inside and hard on the outside like baked bread. Couple of glasses of OJ and headed upstairs to grab my bag.
Head out the front door at 08:40 to wait for my main Mario.

It’s flogging down at a level that would be more than acceptable to call off an NBN game. There are a pile of buses and taxis and its chaos as this is the time of day the various tourist groups do the hotel pickups.

Through the rain comes Mario and leads me to his chariot and we are off. On the way can see the town has copped a pummelling from the rain. Did see one football field covered in 6 inches of water. Obviously they are in desperate need of some FR’s ditch digging drainage skills

Anyway stop at the Brazil border crossing. About to jump out and Mario says stay here. Grabs my passport runs in and is back out within the minute with a stamp on. The Argentine border is a piece of piss. Show the passport they stick it in there machine and stamp away all without you leaving the car.

Anyway make it to the Argentine National Park. Mario takes me up to the gate helps me buy entry and then leaves me in the capable hands of someone at the Info Desk who speaks great Ingles to answer my questions.

Sussed out the park had basically 3must do things. Upper Trails Lower Trails and Devils Throat the big thing in the joint

Decided to take the upper trails first. Had about a 1km hike there before they started. Done the circuit with it flogging down and I am soaked. Good news is the paths through the jungle had been paved so you were only stepping in puddles and not mud. Good news was the mozzies were afraid of the Aeroguard I had in the bag and were anonymous

Decided to wear the canvas shoes today as knowing they were gonna get wet dirty decided I would trash the $6 Kmart specials and not the dearer ones.

After doing the upper trails where you get views of smaller falls up close and distant views from a height of the bigger ones decided to head around to the lower trails 30mins wasted as I took wrong tracks. They were not sign posted.

Basically ended back up where I started after 1km walking. Only problem was it was all ****ing uphill

Finally found them and had a running battle with my camera most of the way around. Kept going off in functions and wasn’t responding how it should have been. Wasn’t stopping me taking pictures just going into timer mode or losing the LCD screen so you had to take it old school point guess and fire etc

On the Lower Falls they let you get up close and personal with platforms built out where some of these things fall. We are talking 5-10m away.
Must have been a **** of a construction job to do. Constantly wet shit terrain and it ain’t like you can turn the water off either upstream. Add in the danger aspect where you would most likely die if you ended up in the water and going over the falls.

Done the bulk of the lower and decided to go on the boat ride. Wanted to take the 1.5hour one but being it weren’t on for a while took the 15min one instead. They strap you into a life jacket and give you a bag to put your personal things in. Then you jump in the speed boat. They take you out and hook the speed up and throw the boat about on the choppy water at the bottom of the falls.

Then they take you to the smaller waterfalls and get you up close and personal. Not directly under it but close enough you’re getting soaked. As they done this the first thing I noticed was how mucking cold the water was. It was that cold my dick was heading in tortoise style

Second thing I noticed was as the water got inside my clothes and soaked the shit out of them and me was the realisation that some dumb count had his passport in the money belt strapped to my neck.

Had totally forgot it was there. Had visions of it being a wet pulp and the dramas that would entail for me not to mention I needed it to get reunited with some warm clothes

So here I am worried about my passport freezing my nuts off and strapped into this boat flogging it about the place and am unable to do anything bar hang on and hope for the best.

You can imagine my disgust when the boat captain revved the crowd up and they revved him up to dunk us all some more. So we all got drenched some more.

Finally got off and water is in every orifice. Reached in and grabbed the pouch my passport was in and noticed it was soaked. My heart sank.

Being that I was still dripping water I prayed to Griff and waited until I dried enough to do no more damage. Thank you Graff

The protective cover your passport comes in held up. My passport was in mint condition. Couldn’t say the same for the money I had in there which was soaked.
The money here is basically paper and not the plastic stuff we have so I pulled it out gently put it in a plastic bag and shoved it back in hoping my body heat would dry it.

Worse part about it was it was the money I had to pay Mario so needed it dry as I didn’t have enough pesos in the wallet to cover it.

Ended up going and doing the last leg the trip to Devils Throat. Take a train ride about 10km before getting out and walking a platform for about 1km. The walk gives you a perspective on the magnitude of how much water there is supplying the falls.

Then at the end the platform leaves you right at the edge 20yards away from the point the biggest falls are. Words cannot describe the sight. Amazing does not do it justice.

How they built the platform there?? ****ed if I know but hats off for that.

Spent a good 30mins there taking it in.

Got the train back and went to the toilet. Whilst there I pulled the money out and wrapped it in paper towel and delicately tried to dry it by pressing on it to remove moisture. Ended unsticking it in the jacket and walking back to the park entrance. Stopped at the toilets again for some more paper towel and repeated.

Made it back by 4pm after 6.5hours of exploration. Mario was waiting and we hit the road. Through Argentina border and when we got to Brazil border I had to go in and complete paperwork to get exit card for flight out after WC.

On to hotel and I spent the entire trip drying the money on the back seat.
Anyway by the time it arrived to cough up the $600pesos $60AUD to Mario it was good to go. Slipped him another $100peso tip and we said our goodbyes.

Went in and laid out all my gear to dry. As it was night time now so not much natural drying cranked up the heater to sauna like and turned the room into a furnace.

Headed next door to the Churrasco for dinner. Went in and asked for the menu. Bloke gave me a wine list. I looked at him in a confused manner he went and got an Ingles speaking staff. Turns out he was right to hand me the wine list as the joint was an all you can eat buffet.

Must be one of the few ****s in the Wold has asked for a menu in one of them. Well for BR$29 about $18Aud you got about 100dishes in the Baize Marie.

The cook is flat out BBQ meat and the waiters come out to you and cut the thing off a massive skewer and put as much on the plate as you like.
Lamb Beef Chicken Pork all done in different flavours. Even something else that may have been dog rat or cat. No good though.

Washed it down with some Cerveja (BEER) brand Brahma. This shit was worse than Bluetounge. FMD
Finished it off with some dessert ice cream.

Headed back to the hotel trashed after a huge day

Absolutely amazing these waterfalls. Shame they don’t get the recognition that deserve internationally because they de