Subject: There's a very funny scene in Charlie Chaplin's silent movie "City Lights" where....
Date: Sun, February 14, 2010 9:55:12 PM
... "The Little Tramp" is trying to stop a drunk man from killing himself by drowning, and he ends up falling into the river multiple times himself. His oversized pants get so soaked that he has to lift his feet up at an angle to let the water out, and he finally ends up "adjusting" his back side in a comical way. I did the same thing today. :)
I left the hotel after breakfast -- about 10am and went to the "Lower Circuit" trail. This trail descends to the river and gives head-on views of all the falls from the riverside. It also makes you very, VERY wet at a couple of viewpoints. The first two waterfalls were Lanusse and Alvar Nunez. They're relatively small, but a good viewpoint about half-way down the trail to the MAIN falls... After these, the trail goes along the side of the cliff with great views of Cataratas del Iguazu -- all the same waterfalls that I had seen from the Upper Circuit Trail yesterday, except from a different (and much better) angle.
To those of you who've been to Niagara, there are a couple of viewpoints here which are similar to the "Hurricane Ridge" point at Niagara... the trail goes right up to the cliff next to one of the falls, and the mist there makes you very, VERY wet (as opposed to SOAKED -- that's later). I was enjoying it -- that's what I came here for! All my photos are uploaded so you can see for yourself. These waterfalls are several orders of magnitude better than Niagara!!! It's just HUGE ... the river falls over a horizontal distance of 2700 meters (and vertically it's about 80m)!!! Besides the falls there were also a species of monkeys I've never seen before, plus HUNDREDS of butterflies. That's not an exaggeration -- the butterflies were everywhere!! (I was debating an alternate subject line to this email: "Butterflies aren't shy about hitching rides with complete strangers" -- one of them was calmly sitting on my backpack during a walk.)
Well, there's also a booth here for the speedboat ride... I bought a ticket and got on it. This is a must for any visitor here. It's a little pricey (starting at 100 pesos = $26 USD) for about a 15 minute ride and the prices go up from there (they combine it with an ecological tour or an extended ride down the river). I bought the 100pesos trip. There was a guy on board who was filming everything on video (yes I bought the video too and am quite happy with the results). There were about 30 of us on the speedboat and we were all given life jackets and a waterproof bag for our belongings. This was arranged really well... the boat goes under the mist of 2 different waterfalls, but they know everyone wants to take pictures from the river. So they take the boat out to the first waterfall and wait far enough away that we don't get rained on -- enough time for everyone to take pictures... But before going inside, the same thing is repeated for the second falls (while everyone is still dry). THEN the boat goes inside ... and it's wet. Wetter than Niagara's Maid of the Mist ride... as wet as the "Hurricane Ridge" on the American side of Niagara -- except there's no poncho or raincoat! So I got drenched. I got so drenched that I had water going inside my shoes and socks, and inside my shirt and pants. I was wearing jeans, and they were SOAKED. And uncomfortable. And cold. And tight. And it was FUN! The boat then goes back to the first waterfall and goes straight into it -- this is the "Garganta del Diablo" ("Devil's Throat") waterfall. Garganta del Diablo is devilish. It's horseshoe-shaped, and the mist generated from all the sides of it is so thick that you cannot see the actual waterfall from the river. But you can feel it. It's windy, it's wet, and it's ... uhhh... wet. Really wet. This was the highlight of this trip!
When the boat got back, I ordered my video (to be delivered at the hotel at 7pm), then went in front of a family with 2 small children and just couldn't resist doing the "Charlie Chaplin thing" from the movie City Lights! Both the little boys behind me started laughing and I could hear their parents telling them to be nice, not to laugh! I was also having a hard time not to burst out in laughter myself... but later on down the trail I asked them to take my "after picture".
Anyway, part of that was serious -- my pants were really soaked to the point where it was difficult to walk, and I did not have a replacement pair! I found a spot where I could lay in the sun and "dry out" ... but that only worked partially. Soaking wet jeans get REALLY uncomfortable after 10-20 minutes!! And those were only part of the problem -- my shoes and socks were also soaked, and I had to get back to the hotel soon to at least put on a dry pair of socks! So that was the end of the touring day in my mind -- about 1pm or so.
There isn't an iron in my room (what kind of a Sheraton hotel room doesn't have an iron???)... but there is a hair dryer. I used that to dry my pants and ... hmmm... I guess there's a first time for everything! It actually worked quite well so I decided to go out again. I went to the hotel restaurant for lunch then started walking to the train station for a (free) ride to the start of the "Circuito Garganta del Diablo" trailhead. The trailhead is a 10-minute ride by train (it's pretty slow). From there it is 1100 meters to the Garganta del Diablo waterfall.
The "trail" is an elevated metallic walkway over the river and several islands along the way. All along the trail there are many butterflies, birds, etc... the wildlife is Iguazu's second biggest attraction. At the end of the trail was something I did not expect -- I GOT DRENCHED AGAIN!!! After more than 1/2 hour blowdrying my shirt and jeans in the hotel room, they were back in the same state as they were in after the boat ride! New dry pair of socks -- DRENCHED. Shoes too -- totally wet! And my camera got quite a beating too :)
The trail ends right on top of one side of the "horseshoe" of this waterfall. So you're out there with water pouring down on you -- water that first fell 200 feet from the falls then bounced back up more than 200 feet in the air, then fell again on top of you! Sorry, not you ... ME!!!! It was ME who got totally soaked out there!!! Yup, definitely another memorable highlight of this trip!! :)
But that was really the end of the day for me... I came back to the train station and took the train back, then back to the hotel and another blowdry of the jeans, shirt, socks, and shoes!! That has taken me the last 2-3 hours...
The 156 photos from today are uploaded on the website too.
By the way, the scene from "City Lights" that I was talking about is the first 4 minutes of this video (the entire movie is in 9 parts if you click the other links there -- this is in "Part 2"):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlwKAcifid8&feature=related
I'm hungry. Buenos noches...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Feb 13 | Contents | Feb 15 |