Iguazú Falls: Gran Aventura

In my morning post, I told you about my walk along Circuito Inferior and how I got up close and personal with a falls at Garganta del Diablo in Argentina’s Iguazú National Park.

Skip past this paragraph if you don’t like spoilers. I’m here to tell you that this afternoon, I learned the true meaning of the phrase “up close and personal” when it comes to waterfalls.

This afternoon I bought a ticket for something in Iguazú park called “Gran Aventura.”

Gran Aventura

Gran Aventura translates to, as you might guess, Great Adventure. Whether it’s great depends, I guess, on both your tastes and your definition of “great,” but it was spectacular, whether or not it was great.

Before they would sell me a ticket, they asked me a series of medical questions. I couldn’t have back problems, a heart condition, sight or hearing impairments, mobility problems, and a few other things I forget. I’m still waiting for the results of the blood tests and imaging. (I’m kidding about the blood tests and imaging, but not about the medical questions.)

In the waiting area, after the ticket window, but before beginning the Gran Aventura, there were two video screens with text and images. The text on one screen was in Spanish. The other was in English.

The screens repeated the health restrictions regarding the Gran Aventura. But they also provided new information about what skills you might need in the case of an emergency. Two that I remember are that you may have to hold your breath for a long time. And you may have to climb and grip a rock face. With the latter requirement, there was a picture of a guy precariously climbing a V-shaped rock formation.

I’d be okay with the holding of my breath. But I’d be dead if it involved climbing rocks because of 1) my fear of heights, 2) my fear of climbing, and 3) my total klutziness and weakness when trying to climb anything.

The thought in my head at the time was: What the fudge am I getting myself into?

The Gran Aventura starts in an open-top truck with seats on its truck bed. The side walls on either side of the vehicle are made of railings. They can be lifted up and pulled down to prevent people falling out or to allow access and egress, respectively. The sides are kind of like those on a hospital bed, except it’s much bigger than a hospital bed, and there are seats rather than a bed, and there are no nearby oxygen supply lines and… well, okay. Forget the hospital bed analogy. Just try to picture the sides.

With the side walls down on one side of the vehicle, the truck pulls up to a raised platform on that side so you can walk on or off the vehicle level with it.

After someone lifts the lowered side walls, the vehicle then drives out of the park, onto a normal road and then back onto a dirt road into the jungle toward the river, farther downstream from the rest of the park. This drive takes about 20 minutes. During that time, a guide provides information in Spanish and English about the park, the jungle, and the falls.

I mentioned in this morning’s post that Iguazú Falls is a series of falls lined up along an escarpment. The guide mentioned how many there are, but I forget, except that it was a very high number.

She also mentioned that the jungle is a young one and, therefore, the trees aren’t as tall as in an old-growth jungle. It had been a deforested area, but the government reforested it. I forget the precise year she gave for he reforestation, but it was in the 1950s, sometime after I was born. I remember thinking, “The trees are younger than I am, yet they’re several times taller than I am. How is that fair?” Sometimes, I have inane thoughts.

The vehicle stops well above the river. We had to walk down a very long flight of stairs. On the way down, I was handed a lifejacked and a large, heavily rubberized waterproof bag. We then had the lifejackets tightened and were directed onto a boat with rows of seats.

The boat is the main attraction of the Gran Aventura.

The rubberized bag was to hold valuables that might get damaged by water.

The boat proceeded upstream, passing some small cataracts along the way, which reminds me that I have a cataract evaluation scheduled for about a week after I get back home. But never mind that. These cataracts are of the rapids and eddies kind. A little water splashed over the side of the boat when passing them.

The boat pulled up a piece back from one of the small falls and sat for a while while we took pictures. The boat then continued to a bit of a bay in front of one of the bigger waterfalls. It then did a bit of a slow half-circle there for more picture-taking. We were then told to put our phones in the rubberized bags we each had, along with our other valuables that were already in there.

With that done, the boat then proceeded to go under the falls. Everyone got thoroughly soaked. I closed my eyes as soon as the water started pouring down on me because I was hoping to still have contact lenses in my eyes when I got back to shore.

However, if I thought it would have removed the cataracts from my eyes, I would have kept my eyes open.

After the boat driver moved out from under the waterfall, he turned around and did it again. And again. We went under the falls three times without any rain gear on.

Then, the boat driver pulled away from the big falls and went back to one of the smaller falls. He did the same thing there.

Needless to say, I and all of my clothes were thoroughly drenched at the end of the experience. However, I will hesitantly admit that it was very exhilarating.

He then went back downstream to the dock, handed in the lifejackets, retrieved our valuables from the bags, returned the bags, got back on a vehicle, returned to the starting point, and ended the Gran Aventura.

There is a similar operation on the Brazilian side of the river. (I mentioned in this morning’s post that the Iguazú River forms a boundary between Brazil and Argentina.) However, on that side, customers didn’t have to walk down a long flight of stairs to get to the boats. Instead, the operator had what looked like a very old funicular to transport customers up and down between the river and the plateau above. I think I was in the wrong country.

The scenery on the river and at the falls was gorgeous. And, as I said, the time under the falls was very exhilarating.

However, I do have two regrets about the experience. For one thing, walking around after the Gran Aventura in thoroughly soaked clothing was unpleasant. To be fair, the company does warn you before you go that you’ll get a shower on the Gran Aventura.

For another, it would have been better if I had come with a child. Then I could have extracted a promise from her to take care of me in my old age in return for agreeing to go on the boat with her. I’ve only done that once in my life, and I, foolishly, eventually let that young girl, now a young woman, out of that promise.

Now that I’m creeping toward (dashing toward?) decrepitude, I regret excusing her from that promise. Today involved traveling under many, many, many more times the volume of water and for much longer than that earlier experience, which was at an amusement park. Maybe I could have locked in the promise for longer this time if I had a child with me. Then again, along with the health restrictions for going on the boat, they also wouldn’t let anyone 12 or under go on the Gran Aventura, so that narrows the field somewhat.

And so ends another day in this Argentine journey. There aren’t all that many left now.