First of all, you seem to be in the middle of the South American continent with nothing much around except jungle. When you get to the park, the walking begins. After entering the park, about 1/2 km away is a train, that after one stop, will eventually take you to the Devil's throat falls viewing area. My problem set in about 50 meters after entering the park, I seemed to have pulled a muscle in my left calf and walking after that was real pain. This pain was amplified by the fact that after getting off the train it was another 1100 metres of walking across a series of bridges across the Iguazu river.
When I finally got there, the wow moment kicked in and the pain and the heat faded to a dull blur. The falls are really spectacular and at the moment there is plenty of water flowing. Pics and videos will not do justice. The endorphins of the view soon wore off as I had the walk the 1100 meters back across the gangplanks to return the land. Pain was sharper on the return.
Bill had booked a boat ride back from there to the central strain stop, so we got into this big rubber boat and gently floated down river to a drop off point I was told was only 300 meters from where the train went to, but it turns out people had lied and it was more like 600 meters (think pain again) walk along a jungle path in the heat.
After finally getting to the place, I rehydrated with lots of water, a couple of small empanadas (like a small pastie), some ice-cream and Ibuprofen.
The next great adventure involved (we were told) about a 1 hour hard walk (read 1.5 hrs) uopand down many steps to get onto a path that will be able to view the falls from above and below and where you could get a boat that would take you under the falls to be soaked.
No amount of drugs was going to get me through this so discretion, being the better part of valour, allowed me to quietly abstain from ongoing adventures and return to the hotel where I went to the Pool and paddled about in the cool water. It was good.
Bill is out there somewhere, as I write this, slogging through jungle, a million butterflies, probably some very nasty mosquitos to enjoy the iguana experience to the max. I know that if Julie were here, she would be (sensibly) back at the hotel with me. I hope his photos are good.
Here are mine.
Tomorrow it is back to Buenos Aires, this time to actually stay there.
The hotel
The Park entrance
The train
Devils Throat
And again
Other parts of Devils Throat
What a great pity that:
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2. you have injured yourself and are in pain.
Hope that you heal soon and that you feel satisfied, to some extent, that you got to see some of the falls. They are certainly spectacular.
Was the "strain stop" due to a Freudian Slip?
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