[This is a continuation of my honeymoon trip reports from Mendoza, Bariloche, BA, and now Iguazu)

We had to get up (AGAIN) too early for us to get our flight to Iguazu. But once again, marvelously, the flight went smoothly. I had the smart – I think – idea to leave most of our luggage behind at the Four Seasons since we’re coming back there Fri night, and just take one bag with us to Iguazu, which was nice for a change. We got our bags and got in a cab to the Sheraton, which for some reason cost 60 pesos, but the hotel said that was normal even though it’s only a 15 minute drive. The hotel is..well…from some of the reviews on trip advisor, I was expecting something bad, and really it’s a fine hotel. It could use a facelift, but the room is just fine. The service is also fine, of course we’re spoiled from the four seasons but obviously the great thing about this hotel is its location, and we have a view of the falls from our room which is amazing. There’s also a really nice pool here, and good food at the lobby bar that we had for lunch. Our really nice taxi driver from the airport suggested we go to the Brazillian side of the falls today because we only had a half day and the walk over there only takes a few hours. We decided to take his advice and he came back to pick us up to take us there. The drive to the Brazillian side takes about an hour because of the slow customs, for some reason I don’t really understand you have to go through Argentinian customs when you leave the country (and Brazillian when you leave there), as well as the country you’re entering. According to our taxi driver, if we didn’t have the visas, we could’ve paid $50 for each of us to the customs official to let us through. Ha…I figured…but I feel much more comfortable doing things the legal way!

Once we got there, we took a bus to the start of the trail, and before we even got to walk more than a few steps, we saw our first amazing lookout point on the falls, and it just kept getting better and better. I will only allow myself a few sentences of gushing about them, because we’ll be here for a few days and you all will get bored of it, plus they’re just impossible to describe in words. The falls are absolutely breathtaking, in the literal sense of the word – they have both incredible power, and incredible scope – just when you think you’ve seen them all there’s more and more and they seem to stretch on forever. I think there’s 237 individual falls in all, I read somewhere. We walked along (in the STIFLING heat…it felt like a bikram yoga room), stopping to take many pictures, along with hundreds of other people. Every time you see the falls from a different vantage point, it’s like you’re seeing them new again. At the end of the trail you walk out on a long catwalk basically INTO the falls and you’re right up close with the biggest one (devil’s throat) and the mist and spray cools you off and you can hear the loud roar. We even saw a couple rainbows! Then we took an elevator up a couple stories to get a view from high up, above the falls, and had some ice cream. Really, the money and hassle to get the Brazillian visa was well worth it - although obviously I haven’t seen the Argentinian side yet – can’t wait to see it tomorrow! The hotel, just like our hotel on Christmas, is closing their restaurant to have an insanely expensive new years dinner, so we were lucky to get a reservation in town at the recommended La Rueda. They are also having a special menu, but much more reasonable, and our favorite taxi driver is going to take us there soon.

Planning to do the same in March and already I am excited. Just wondering if you paid $100 for both of you to go into Brazil. We will be 3 people so I want to get the visa ahead if it is worth it. Can't wait to read your next installment.

if you have time, could you do me a favor and ask the hotel if there is a way to get from the sheraton to asuncion, paraguay without flying or going into brazil....i have been getting many different answers...

i'm loving your report...

btw, it is much easier for readers if you write the whole thing in one continuous report....then we do not have to look around to find it...i just came upon this segment by chance...thanks and enjoy!!

rhkkmk, Asuncion, Paraguay? Poppy seeds back to the next GTG.

Interesting report.

I second rhkkmk's (Bob's)suggestion. It is better if all parts of a report are on one thread.

[sorry guys..it's my first time posting a trip, and I thought it better to divide it by place for people who are searching for a certain place, but I'll know better for next time!]

So dinner was, unfortunately, another spectacular failure. I’ll try to keep this shorter than my rantings about Sucre. So Luis, our cab driver from earlier in the day came to pick us up at 9 pm, and this time he brought his nice wife Mary along. I started to realize that maybe this was going to be a little awkward. It turns out they were going to a new years dinner at friends, and as we began to talk about when they were going to pick us up I felt more and more like we were interrupting their night. I know obviously that he wanted the money or he wouldn’t have agreed to drive us, but it still felt weird. He said to call at his house after 11, but then he told us maybe he should pick us up after 12 so we could see the fireworks, but I wasn’t sure if it was for us or because he didn’t want to pick us up until then – I was so tired I wasn’t sure I’d make it that late, even though it was new years. So the restaurant had a special menu of course for New Years – generally we are very wary of these set menus because of all our dietary restrictions but on new years we didn’t really have a choice. On the phone the restaurant had told us nothing had pork, and that there was a meat, a fish, and a pasta so I figured we’d be fine. As I looked at the Spanish menu and began deciphering it (I’ve gotten good with food words), I figured out the fillet had pancetta in the sauce, the ravioli had shrimp in the sauce, and then there was a grilled fish that didn’t sound like something we’d really want. I must say, after we asked the waiter, who said we couldn’t make any changes, we then talked to a manager who was very accommodating and said we could have the fillet without the pancetta and the salmon ravioli without the shrimp in the sauce, so we were happy about that. The first course was some sushi, that wasn’t very good (the ones we could eat), but I wasn’t particularly surprised. Then a duo of smoked surabi and salmon, the salmon was ok, it had nothing on it – no garnishes, no acid, dressing, anything, and I didn’t care for the surabi which then made me very glad I hadn’t ordered it as my main course. The first two courses took a long time to come, but we didn’t care, because we were hoping at first to drag things out till midnight anyway. Our main courses eventually came, and my husband really didn’t like his beef – and he’s liked all the beef in this country so far, so he’s not like a super picky eater or anything like that. He felt bad not eating it, so he just told the waiter he wasn’t feeling well (he was sort of full at this point anyway). My ravioli was ok I suppose – the salmon tasted like it was smoked or something, which is really weird in ravioli and not appreciated after just having had smoked salmon, and the tomato sauce was super salty. I was hoping dessert would redeem the restaurant, but it was a very sad plate of some sort of dry biscuit, fruit, and an orange mousse – it’s rare that I don’t finish a dessert. At that point I was so tired I could barely hold my head up, but we didn’t want to call Luis until we paid, because we knew how long the whole getting the check process could take, and we were right. The restaurant brought us some mini bottles of champagne right before midnight, but we took it to go, and went outside to wait for Luis just as the clock was stroking midnight. Not exactly as festive as I might have hoped, but it’s my own fault for being exhausted I suppose. The evening ended up costing a LOT of money, what with the bottle of wine, and the “welcome cocktails” at the beginning that were not included even though they were on the “special menu.” In the end, we probably should’ve just gone to the Sheraton banquet/party because wine was included so it wouldn’t have been that much different in the end, and might have been better food/more fun. However, the night did have a fun end to it!! Luis drove us through the streets and then stopped in a really good spot to see TONS of fireworks in all directions – and I love fireworks!! So for me that made the night a lot better!!

The next morning we slept in without any alarm to wake us, which we really needed. We woke up too late for the breakfast buffet so I just ordered a continental breakfast from room service (lots of bread…carb loading for walks in the park HA). We didn’t get out of the hotel till about 12:30 and we decided to walk the lower circuit and take the boat ride to the falls. The Argentinian side, or at least the places we walked, were much less crowded than the Brazillian side, and there was cloud cover and less heat today, making the experience even more enjoyable. The lower circuit walk is fun and different from what we did yesterday, as it meanders in and out of trees and then all of a sudden you’re right up close to a waterfall!! They are EVERYWHERE..it is just so so amazing, I can’t explain. We walked down to the company that runs the boat rides and decided to do the shortest one that is about 15 minutes and goes underneath a bunch of falls and goes right up to devils throat. We saw people getting off the boat soaking wet and realized we should’ve worn bathing suits, brought towels, etc. At least they give you a bag to put everything in – camera, socks, shoes, etc!! And you definitely need to!! The boat is really fun and fast and gets you totally wet – but it feels GREAT in the heat – what a thrill, I highly recommend it!! They take a video of the whole thing that you can buy for 90 pesos afterwards. After the boat ride we wanted to get back to the hotel, so we walked the rest of the lower circuit back, changed, took a shower (you kind of smell like sulfur..I guess there are minerals in the water from the falls), and had lunch in the Sheraton restaurant looking out at the falls. Lunch was REALLY good – I’m really impressed with the Sheraton food, which makes me wish even more we’d paid for the dinner last night, but what’s done is done. We shared a chicken/avocado/onion sandwich with fries, and a margherita pizza – great lunch. We decided to spend the rest of the afternoon sitting at the pool. I sat hiding in the shade (because, I forgot to mention, despite SPF 55 sunscreen I’d gotten burned AGAIN at the estancia and was not just avoiding all sun in my silly floppy black hat), although I did take a dip in the pool which felt great in the heat. The Sheraton has a really nice pool area – big pool, lots of comfy chairs, and a pool bar (ok the drinks aren’t that great, but it’s nice that it’s there). It was nice to just spend the afternoon hanging out, and now we’re going to go have a drink in the lobby bar and dinner in the restaurant, which I’m assuming will be as good as lunch! We decided that we’d seen the falls sufficiently and wanted to get back earlier for our last 24 hours in Buenos Aires, so we changed our flight to 1 pm tomorrow instead of 5:30. Certainly we could do the upper circuit or the walk to devils throat on our side, but the Brazillian side had given us a really good panoramic view and a view into devils throat. Maybe we’re missing something we shouldn’t be, but I guess we can’t help wanting to get back to BA and the Four Seasons for another day before we have to leave Argentina (booo)!!