There is not a lot that can be said about Iguazú Falls which isn’t conveyed ten times more effectively through photos. It is an unbelievably picturesque sight to behold, worthy of its place on many ‘world wonder’ and ‘bucket’ lists. We made sure to incorporate this national treasure on our journey through Argentina, even though it was quite a bit out of the way, and we weren’t disappointed.
To give some background, Iguazú (or “great waters”) was discovered in 1541 and established as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984. The chain of awe-inspiring waterfalls extends for nearly 3 kilometers between Argentina and Brazil. Yes, it’s large enough to be split between two countries (we briefly considered visiting the Brazil side until realizing it required buying an expensive visa and nixed that idea). The falls are surrounded by rainforest flora and fauna, and we were excited to see mischievous monkeys, gigantic lizards, and mysterious beasts called coatis. I was unfamiliar with these adorable creatures, which resemble a cross between an anteater, a lemur, a raccoon, and a bear cub. We couldn’t take our eyes off the coatis that swarmed the grounds in packs of fur, fangs, cuteness, and terror. They were generally friendly, except in the outdoor food court, where they ransacked tables for leftover food scraps.
Our Couchsurfing host was a young Argentine woman named Adelita who works as a botanist, performing research on vines within Iguazú National Park. She kindly invited us into her home on last-minute notice, and we all took a nice hike together to a more remote waterfall within the park. After swimming under the relatively minor falls there, we trekked back to the main area known as “The Devil’s Throat” where the massive iconic falls could be seen from above and below. We explored the many paths and footbridges around the falls, admiring the astounding natural wonder from all angles. Most exciting of the possible vantage points is a trip on a small boat into the actual spray at the base of The Devil’s Throat! We braved the 12 minute journey into the unknown and ended up completely drenched and exhilarated after barreling into two separate waterfalls.
Besides visiting Iguazú park, we didn’t do much else in town except for a trip to a small hummingbird garden. This is basically someone’s backyard outfitted with plenty of hummingbird feeders and an innumerable swarm of tiny, colorful birds. After that experience we boarded the most comfortable bus ride of our lives (complementary Argentine wine, anyone?) and headed for the country’s crown jewel: Buenos Aires.
Our last few days in Sri Lanka flashed by too quickly, but were packed with excitement up until the very end! Heading up north from the southern coast, we traveled with a young British couple named Rose and Maiyuran who we had met through a chance encounter in Tangalle. We loved hanging out with them because they are just as interested to experience the cultural aspects of the country as we are, and even more so at times—in transit we stopped so that they could make an hour long trek through the pouring rain up to Buddhist mountain caves! We also had a great time with them because they were able to teach us some badly needed new card games, and we spent a night making up nonsensical new rules to all of the games we already knew.
The reason we connected with these fellow travelers in the first place was to share an experience visiting Udawalawe National Park. The park was originally created as a home for displaced animals after the creation of the Udawalawe reservoir, and contains about 120 square miles of marshes, rivers, and grasslands. Since this is the prime viewing spot in the country for witnessing Asian elephants year-round, I’ve seen multiple descriptions of the park draw comparisons to East African wildlife parks. Entering Udawalawe at sunrise in our open-roofed jeep, I couldn’t help but reminisce about the life-changing experiences I had in Tanzania. Exactly four years ago (the day after our group celebrated the thrilling 2008 presidential election), we set out on a month-long safari into various African wilderness areas. Though nothing can compare to the experience of witnessing what could be The Lion King in real life, Udawalawe was incredible and we got a much better view of wild elephants in their natural habitat than we had in Nepal’s Chitwan National Park.
Udawalawe has herds of several hundred permanent elephants in its borders. Within the first fifteen minutes of entering the park, we passed multiple single males and came upon a gathering of eleven or so females and their calves. The elephants were unfazed by our jeep within their midst, except for one matriarch who approached us and lightly head-butted the jeep and nudged it with her trunk. She seemed playful, although she could have been acting out of curiosity or protection of her young calves nearby. After plenty of time getting up-close and personal with this group of pachyderms, we continued on and saw plenty of herds of water buffalo, a few sambar deer, golden jackals, mongooses, and even a jungle cat. Approaching a watering hole we stumbled upon a stampeding herd of bison and a crocodile sunbathing along the shore. In addition to this there were various turtles and land monitor lizards to be seen, and an impressive array of birds. We saw parakeets, hornbills, kingfishers, cormorants, storks, herons, and large hawk-eagles. The most interesting of the bunch were the beautiful, gleaming peacocks with almost fluorescent blue coloring and large feathers on display. We watched one tragic interaction where a brilliantly colored male had his feathers fanned out and was doing the mating dance, as two peahens tried to avoid him and run off with a more plain-looking male that was nearby.
All of us had a wonderful day in the park, and our guide took us up to a place overlooking some floodplains where we could get out of the jeep and explore on foot. After the adventure we said goodbye and parted ways with Rose and Maiyuran, and headed back to our home base of Negombo. In the last couple of days there we finished up our requisite souvenir shopping and attended a belated Halloween party with our friend Sachal Mir (for the record, I dressed up as a gypsy and Neil as a Lipton tea bag—and yes, we were the only ones there in costume). It was a crazy night. Our last day we drove into the capital city of Colombo and met with a mutual friend of Neil’s next door neighbors in Montana. Patrick works as a representative for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, and has been stationed in multiple exciting locations around the globe. We were interested to hear about his worldly experiences, and what life is like for an employee of the UN. His next trip out is to Bangkok, and we look forward to meeting up with him again if we get the chance!
–Mika
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A month wasn’t as long as we originally planned to spend in Sri Lanka, but we left feeling like we had experienced something really special. After being in Nepal and India, it offered yet another side of South Asia, with its own similarities and differences. Our overall impressions were very positive in all regards—from the friendliness and honesty of the people, to the culinary surprises (where else can you order “rice and curry” and have no idea what you’re going to get?), to the historical and natural beauties on offer. It’s nice that so many great things can be packed into an area so small. We absolutely recommend Sri Lanka to other travelers looking for a unique and relatively undiscovered experience.
We’re now in Bangkok, seeing a totally different side of Asia. For those that don’t know, we’re hoping to settle in Thailand at least until next summer, and possibly longer. We’re excited to do some traveling with family members that will be visiting, and to get back to teaching and volunteering in whatever opportunities we come across. This is the 10th country that we’ve spent any amount of time in since starting this blog, and we couldn’t be happier to be on this path.
The Way and the Wayfarers 