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It was about 100 degrees with zero breeze today…as in sweat beads dripping off of us as we simply stood outside waiting for the public bus to take us from the hotel to Iguazu Falls.
The bus stop was right in front of our hotel and came by regularly, so after a completely nasty breakfast buffet at the pretty bad hotel, we caught the bus. We grabbed one of the few seats that were left and rode the bus the 20 minutes or so to the Iguazu Falls entrance.
After paying for our tickets and getting a map of the park…we asked for a suggested itinerary on what to visit today and tomorrow, they said to start on the green trail. The map showed many different trails leading to many falls. We walked down the wide paved sidewalks taking pictures of the trail signs and then saw our turn for the green trail. It was still a paved walkway which was surprising to us…we had pictured Iguazu Falls more in the middle of the jungle on dirt paths, but everything so far seemed very tourist friendly with paved walkways, clear signs and stores selling their trinkets along the way.
One of the first signs we saw walking down the green trail stated to be careful of dangerous animals…minutes after, we saw Coatis’s walking quite comfortably in the bushes and crossing the sidewalk. They looked similar to a very large possum but had huge claws and the signs said they do bite. We stopped to take pictures of them and then watched one of them grab a bag of chips out of the hands of a tourist…obviously they were hungry.
As we kept walking, our trail ran into other trails and we took the “lower trail” and saw our first massive waterfall in the park…it was pretty far away but was fun to see what we were walking towards. As we continued walking in the heat…we saw many other waterfalls and stopped to take it all in…we got some beautiful pictures.
The numerous waterfalls were rushing down the cliff walls into the river and spread over about 1.7miles varying between 197 to 269 feet high. There were about 150-300 smaller falls throughout the park depending on the water levels throughout the year. We have been impressed by a single waterfall in a place like Hawaii cascading down the mountain…now as we looked at the panoramic view…there were just tons of them one right next to each other falling effortlessly to the river.
As we continued walking around in the stifling heat, I realized I hadn’t had enough water and began over-heating, it was so hot that just an easy paced walk was tiring. We saw a women laying on the ground with people around her as well..clearly needing water! We quickly chugged the water we had adding a hydration pill to it and then started looking for more.
We walked through the current trail which merged into a point where we could now take the “upper” trail and found ourselves on top of the waterfalls watching them rush down below. It was beautiful and Giff decided to sprinkle some of his dad’s ashes into the water. The paths had led us below, on top and between various falls which gave us all kinds of different view points throughout the park.
We took our time on the various walks and enjoyed the falls before getting back towards the entrance. We did see a lot of the trails and falls from this side of Iguazu (the falls sit on the border of Argentina and Brazil) but still have a couple trails to explore tomorrow including what is said to be the most spectacular…”devil’s throat”.
We were hot and sweaty and had worked up quite an appetite walking around all day. We caught the public bus and took it past our hotel to the village of Iguazu. It was a small town filled with restaurants and little shops. We found a Steakhouse and ordered a bottle of refreshing chardonnay with our steak and salad. We sat and enjoyed our dinner after our long day of exploring one of the seven wonders of the world!
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Published by Giff Kabat
I grew up in Ohio as a kid, so of course I went to college at “THE” Ohio State University. I graduated in 2001 with a major in business finance. A month after graduation, I moved out to California with my college girlfriend (whom I married in 2005)…and started my career in sales (industrial sales for 5 years…then moved into medical laser sales for 4 years).
In 2009 I was 31 years old. I had a great job, a new house, and a beautiful wife. Just when I thought things couldn’t get any better…my wife and I found out we were going to have a baby. Everything was going according to plan…and I couldn’t have scripted a better life for myself.
Then in the same year…everything changed. My wife, Brandey, called me when I was on my way to work and told me over the phone, something I never thought could be possible in a million years. My beautiful 30-year old pregnant wife was just told that she had breast cancer. At that moment, everything stopped all at once. I immediately went to her…and learned of our new plan…which began with her needing surgery immediately…and the rest we would find out later.
The day we returned from the hospital after Brandey’s surgery…my father died. He had been battling an aggressive cancer of his own…and although he was the one person I wanted to speak with about Brandey having cancer…I never told him. My sister, Brooke, had just gotten married a few months ago, and although he was weak, he was able to walk his little girl down the aisle of her wedding. On the night before my sister’s wedding, Brandey and I told him that we were pregnant and about to make him a grandfather. It made no sense to tell him that everything had changed for us…so he died in peace knowing everything was “the way it should be” for his only 2 children.
2010 was the worst year of my life. We had lost our baby…and for 12 months I watched my wife fight cancer with multiple surgeries, chemotherapy, radiation treatments, and drug therapy. It was a difficult year for us…but we made it. When you go through something like this in life, you learn a lot about yourself and the people around you. I was amazed at the strength and courage of my wife…and how many good people there are in this world. I will be forever grateful for the ones who never ceased to amaze me with their kindness during this hard time. Family, friends, and sometimes complete strangers…helped us make it through this. I am, and will always be especially grateful to my mother, who was with my dad at the very end, when I couldn’t be there, and when things were at their worst. She has been so supportive throughout all of this, and without her everything would have been so much harder for me.
It’s 2011 now…and the plan we have for our life this year…is to make it the best year of our lives. Brandey is officially in remission from breast cancer and she has a 95% chance the cancer will never come back. Besides the love that I have for my wife and family, the loves of my life are food, wine, and adventure travel. My wife and I love traveling to new places, seeing natural wonders, and meeting new people from different parts of the world. So for the next 400 days…we’ve decided to travel the world…and celebrate our lives. There are so many things I took for granted in life that I will never take for granted again. My father worked for over 30 years at the same job with the same company…rarely took time off…and died at 64 years old right after his retirement. For me, this trip is a combination of a tribute to him, along with wanting to spend the time of my life with the “love of my life.”
* The only thing I will miss while we are gone is our family and friends (who we hope will meet us somewhere throughout our trip) and especially our 3 little kitties we left with my mom in Ohio to catsit for the next 400 days. I will also miss watching “American Football” over the weekend…but I’ll do my best to check the scores in the middle of the night.
GIFF
View all posts by Giff Kabat
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