Today, I realised a travel dream. It was back in 2022, just before Christmas. I’d just come back from Antarctica, while the other people in my travel group stayed in South America for longer.

Eneko posted a video of himself at Iguazu Falls, in a boat on the river underneath a huge waterfall. Something about that video never left me. I knew I’d have to go there someday.

Today, 4 years later, I’ve now ridden on that same river and had my face covered with water from that waterfall. Isn’t life fantastic?

Iguazu Falls, on the Argentinian side, has 3 trails that you can walk. I did the Devil’s Throat, and the Upper Trail, before taking the boat ride.

The Devil’s Throat was unreal. It took around 15 minutes to walk to it, on a steel walking track that took us over about 27 rivers. Ok, I’m exaggerating slightly, but it was a LOT of water. As an Australian, I don’t think I’ve ever seen this much water in one place before.

And then this happened.

I zeroed in on one small section. Look at the amount of water going over the edge!

The Devil’s Throat is a circular hole, where torrents of water flow in. There was a huge amount of rain in the area recently, and 2 days ago the Devil’s Throat was closed because of high water levels.

Fortunate Frogdancer strikes again!

Who’s ever heard of a striped waterfall?

The mist rising up from the force of the water.

The colours…

The waterfalls go on forever…

But we still had Things To See, so it was back along the bridge to the little train we rode in on, and we went to the Upper Trail.

This was a walkway suspended above many different waterfalls. Both trails were flat and extremely easy to navigate, so don’t let a laziness streak put you off. Anyone can walk these trails.

It looks almost solid as it goes over the edge, or maybe “viscous” is the word I’m thinking of.

Here’s a still from the same waterfall.

This is a coati, a kind of cross between a raccoon and an anteater. We were warned against feeding or touching these.

Nikki saw a tourist offering one of these some food. It leapt at her, tearing up at her chest. I chose to give this one as wide a berth as I could.

This looks like molten silver.

I finally unwrapped the poncho from Cusco. It was time for the river ride.

I brought the waterproof over-pants that I originally bought for Antarctica. At the time, I thought they would be a one-off. Now, they’ve been to Greenland and now Argentina. Part of this trip is getting “a shower” under the spray from the waterfalls. Seeing as I have very few clothes with me (only having carryon luggage), I didn’t want to cope with wet clothes. I was PREPARED.

Of course I sat at the front.

There comes a point when you have to put your phone away, so I can’t show you footage of the whole thing. But see that boat on the water? That’s what our boat looked like.

This is the closest I was willing to risk my phone. Remember how I said I was sitting at the front?

The water from the spray was full on in my face. I had to close my eyes and lower my head. After a few seconds, I wiped my eyes and opened them.

We were so close to the waterfall! Like, just a few feet away. I could hardly believe it. The sound of the water was overwhelming and I was so happy.

Wet face, blue phone lanyard sticking out… living the dream, baby!

On the way back to join the rest of the group for lunch, we saw this Cappuchin monkey.

The guide said he was probably the head of the troupe, checking the area to see if it was safe for the group.

We saw a toucan!

This isn’t my photo. Lyn from the other group posted this, and it was almost exactly the same as the one we saw, except ours was facing to the right.

I knew they were in the area, but I didn’t expect to see one. It was very exciting.

And finally, two kids sharing some chips they scavenged from the bin.

All in all, not a bad day…

Dad joke of the day: