[2015.01.30 18:37:36 | Brazil | one comment]

To Iguazu by bus. From the icy desert to the jungle; strange change. Acclimatisation for a few days, drinking coffee, laying at the pool, breathing tropical air. Mixture of languages ind the village, visitors from all over the world want to see some water falling down; granted, it falls highly attractive. Since a long time, the water is shaping a big canyon into the rocks, 2,7km long, up to 82m high. A small railway rumbles through the jungle, carries the tourists from the entrance to towards the devils throat. The name is no accident. Footbridges lead to a platform, build pretty close to the first drop. Masses of water hit rock bottom, nebulize and form an obscure curtain of drops. Heavy gusts spraying water all over the platform, everything is in a wet, thick cloud, a cold, moist devil's breath. More footbridges and ways through the jungle, past small an large waterfalls, sometimes above, sometimes beneath, sometimes almost underneath. Dull roar for the while day. A colorful flora and fauna between all the falling water. Green is the main color, also covers most of the brown patches in the scrub. Countless leaf forms on both way sides, often also from top. Noisy all the birds, sitting in the trees or flying close by. If you stand still, wait a second and take a close look, you can find any type of strange creepy-crawlies right beside you feet. But unbeatable in numbers an variations: butterflies. Around 250 different types are living in the national park, many of them are flying and sitting pretty close to the tourists or even suck their salty sweat. Not so peaceful: coatis. They have two hobbies: trash looting and tourist biting. If you're coming to close (or didn't hand over your sandwich fast enough) they snap. And that can end badly. All the signs (including bloody close ups from horrible bitten tourist extremities) are an explicit warning. Better to led some space... It's even more touristic on the Brazilian side. There is only one short way without extra fees and a guide for a walk and big shuttle buses are carrying the masses to the start and picking them just a few hundred meters later, close to the restaurants and souvenir shops - for sure. There are some lookouts on the way where you have a great view over the canyon and a huge tower and a big platform at the end, close to the devil's throat and the highest falls. I stay for some hours, find new perspectives, enjoy the view and the spectacle. I didn't get rid of the dull roar in my ears for the next days...

Henry says: "oh dude, my home is famous for a lot of water, but this..., holy shit, these falls are massive!! But, it's far too warm for a moose like me and thats probably also the reason for the incredible lack of elk women here. On the other hand, there is a lot of tasty green stuff around. But I don't understand why the hostel manager was so angry at me. I mean, the green specialties in the garden, why did he arranged them so lovely and appetizing if it was not for eating?!?"

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[2015.01.03 12:07:08 | Germany | no comments]

The german local newspaper "Badische Zeitung" has an article about my journey under the title  Pinguine, Partys, Südseestrände ("Penguins, Partys, South Sea beaches").

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