Resistencia: There be Motorbikes Here!

After the heat of Salta I was looking forward in continuing this weather trend. While it was an experience to witness and feel 0 degree temperature in Calafate, I’m very much an Aussie and lose strength and vitality when absent from the sun for too long. Arriving in Resistencia the sky was grey and overcast, and as I sat
in the taxi from the terminal heading towards the city centre I lamented that
the cold had returned.

This was, in fact, not the case. While the early morning started off dreary, the rest of the day, and for the next few days, the sun rose and blasted out ultra hot weather. On the day I had arrive this ended up being a little disconcerting as I had
decided to wear trousers and a jacket when I ventured out to explore the city.
By the time the afternoon rolled around I had to return to the hostel and pass
out for a few hours!

Resistencia’s claim to fame is its sculptures. The council and the local art community teamed up and instead of having the old stuffy confines of a museum to display their works, they chose instead to use the city itself as the gallery. It’s a cool idea, and there are sculptures lining the streets and from the tourist office
you can get a map that draws out the route to visit all of them.

The only unfortunate thing is they’re just not that great. I can only attribute this to
either the artists not wanting their great pieces of art out in the open for
graffiti vandals to victimise, or that they need industrial quality sculptures
to resist the climate. Most of the sculptures are literally pieces of junk
metal wielded together. Or perhaps it’s all modern art or some shit that I don’t
appreciate. Eitherway, it was a little underwhelming with a dash of
disappointing.

With the heat and the sound of traffic outside my hostel window, I was getting some serious deja vu. It took a moment to figure out why – I suddenly felt like I
was back in Cambodia! Over half the traffic here are motorbikes, they’re
absolutely everywhere, similar to Cambodia. It was the only city in all of
South America that I’ve really noticed the abundance of them. Argentina in
general has some of the worst cars on the road I’ve ever seen in my life. Cars
that are missing their bonnets. Cars that have plastic held together by duct
tape for windows. Cars that would never be allowed to drive back home. So I
guess here in Resistencia they’ve ditched the downtrodden car and have
popularised the motorbike.

The morning I was leaving I had decided to head direct to Puerto Iguazu. I was toying with the idea to stop halfway in the city of Posadas, but considering it was only an 8 hour ride to Iguazu, I figured I’d stop in Posadas on the way back south.
After checking out of the hostel – and being accused of having someone stay in
the room the previous night – I grabbed a taxi to the bus terminal. After an amusing ticket purchase where the ticket seller wanted to practise a bit of his
English, I made my way north to Puerto Iguazu.

Puerto Iguazu: There be Big Waterfalls Here!

A 6am arrival in Puerto Iguazu had me wander around the small town for a bit before settling on a hostel. I decided on a private room to get some sleep and
discovered an old friend from Bolivia – the electric hot water shower. These
things are pretty useless, and you need to spend a good 10 minutes trying to
get the correct water pressure until the heating element kicks in. Even then
the shower isn’t that hot, or it’s boiling hot. No in-between!

The next two days the weather wasn’t all that great, and I didn’t want to visit the world famous water falls until there was at least a glimmer of blue sky. So I just
bummed around the town, and it’s a great little place. Despite being inundated
with tourists it very much is still a small town. This area is more tropical
than anywhere else in Argentina, and you can see it in the lush green jungle
surrounding the place and the soil is a rich red colour. It’s an extremely
beautiful mix and houses that would look run down in any other setting look
exotic here.

On the third day the weather cleared up and the sun attempted to make an appearance. In the morning I jumped on the bus to Falls and half an hour later we arrived. The nation park is absolutely brilliant. It’s well laid out and has signs and maps at regular intervals so you know where you’re going. Naturally being a guy, I only briefly looked at the maps and thought I knew where I was going, which for
the most part was correct.

The Green Path leads from the entrance to where the trail splits into the Upper and Lower trails. There are a few cafes along the way too, and they all have a swarm of these large anteater/racoon looking creatures climbing over the tables
generally being a nuisance. I decided on the longer Lower trail first and made
my way on.

After getting stuck behind a tour group for a little way, and wondering why anyone would need a tour group to visit waterfalls, I was finally able to get past
them and see the winding river that lead up to the incredible waterfalls. You
certainly hear them before you see them, and there sheer amount of water
tumbling over the cliffs is eye opening. The Lower Trail extends out to the
base of the waterfalls and you can even get up and personal to one of the massive waterfalls (and get wet too).

From this vantage point I could see the platforms of the Upper Trail above the
waterfalls, so I wanted to see them from the top and made my way back to the
start to the trail. I was getting hungry and thirsty at this point and stopped
at one of the cafes. For a tourist park it was surprisingly cheap, and I bought
3 chicken empanadas and a bottle of water. After paying the girl warned me
about those animals, to be cautious of them. Yeah yeah, sure I thought.

Sitting down and devouring the first empanada, I sat for a moment and watched one of these animals creep its way under my table. After a kick in its general direction I figured it would have been spooked, but no, not these things. The next thing I knew the little bastard had jumped up onto the table and in a blink of the eye it had its claws and sharp nasty looking teeth embedded in my remaining
empanadas. After a split second struggling with the vile thief, it won out and
bounded away into the jungle.

After a moment of surprise, I couldn’t help but laugh. As was the lady at the table next to me. I moved away from this area and sat nearby, watching as another one of these animals stealthily make its way to a bag of pita bread a woman had put on her chair. Soon enough it had buried it’s fangs into the bag and made off with it. I’m sure the many of us that have had their lunch stolen by one of these things
would put money towards an extermination project.

The Upper Trail takes you over the tops of the big waterfalls in the area. The amazing thing watching them from above if how calm the water seems just before it plummets over the edge. The entire walking trail is suspended over the swamp land, and on the Upper Trail it spans over the river about to become a
waterfall. You really feel like you’re in the jungle in some places.

After many hours of walking through the park and being in awe of waterfalls and decided to head back. On my way I passed another one of the park maps, and thought I’d check it one last time. It was then that I realised the biggest waterfalls in the park were in fact a train ride away. I’d noticed this train a couple of
times and just though it was for lazy people, but it actually made its way to
the Devil’s Throat falls. I immediately jumped on the next train and we
clattered our way along to the next stop.

A 20 minute walk from the train stop leads to an astonishing sight – the Devil’s Throat falls. There is what appears to be the entire ocean emptying itself out over this enormous gorge. Water collides together and roars deafeningly in this wonder of nature. I still can’t comprehend the sheer amount of water here tumbling over stunning cliffs.

After gazing into the devils throat I eventually left and was back in Puerto Iguazu, sipping a beer from an ice bucket letting in sink into my brain at what I had just
witnessed. Looking around I saw that everyone else in this bar were people I had
seen at the falls, and they too were sipping a beer in silent reflection.