Jan 17 - The Argentine Side

 Today was a full day of visiting the Falls. We were picked up at 7:30 and it was only a 20 minute drive to the Argentine side of the Falls.  We were able to quickly check in and board the narrow gauge train that took us out to the Devil’s Tower which is same half circle of falls we saw yesterday.  But now we’re are above the falls looking down into the maelstrom!!  The mist would billow up and cover us as we stared down into the mass of water hurtling over the edges all around us. 


Today the volume was 2 million cubic feet of water a second.  During the last big flood in 2023 there was 20 million cubic feet flowing over the falls and all of the bridges and trails and train tracks and everything else was wiped clean from the earth.  It took nine months total to recover and get things running again.  As you can guess the Falls is a big tourist attraction so they got things running as quickly as they could.  


This was one of the highlights of the trip so we took some time to just look and feel the power of the water.  There was a pretty rainbow just above the water and I hope the GoPro captured it.  


Then back to the train and we headed for the next set of trails that took us above and beside many of the different water falls along the width of the Falls.  There are so many different ones with each having descriptive names.  In the earlier years you could enter some of the pools to swim but that stopped when some people went to close and got swept into the current and over the falls. 


We hiked along so many trails to get better views of the different falls.  There were so many different heights and widths and flows.  One was very narrow and it plunged down a narrow ravine - very cool.  


After all the hiking we decided we would enjoy visiting the falls from below - in a boat - that would drive into the bottom of the falls. Seems crazy but it looked like fun so we decided to have the ‘whole experience’!  It was SO MUCH FUN !!  The water was cascading down upon us in sheets as the boat drove into the bottom of the falls.  Luckily our backpacks and shoes went into a dry bag so only our clothes and our hats were drenched.  It was a wonderful way to end a very special day. 




Movie link 


https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1p-I2FGAYgrR_P1ryUDL_-3IByDtr1w-a




























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