Driving 'The Beast' through South-America

A short break at the Iguazu Falls

By Isabelle Demaeght, October 30, 2018

We have arrived at the Iguazu Falls, the largest collection of waterfalls in South America. The whole of about 300 waterfalls is located on the border between the Argentina and Brazil. We visited Iguazu on the Brazilian and Argentine side. The pictures speak for themselves: it is breathtakingly beautiful. The sound of the water crashing down at high speed will stay with me for a long time. We enjoyed it.

The world's largest waterfalls Isabelle The world's largest waterfalls

We rented an apartment for a couple of days, a sort of rest period before the next leg of the journey. The incessant rain of the first three days did not encourage us to go for a walk, which gave me the time and desire for this blog episode. We outsourced our dirty laundry of three weeks during this layover) : )

From Uruguay we drove further north and crossed a swamp area. Corientes. Wet, very hot and many insects. Our second campsite, which we reached via a 30 km long, sandy road, was a place in the Ibera (swamp) reserve with lots of animals. From the beginning of the reserve we encountered water pigs, (small) crocodiles and many birds, including great herons. The camp site is given a lot of attention by a number of park rangers so that it would be worth staying there for a few days if it weren't for the fact that just about every one of my blood cells were being punctured by mosquitoes or the hateful horseflies. The next morning we left (after a short walk through the swamp).

Cayman Huge swamp

Whenever we are at a campsite with our tent unfolded, we get a lot of interest, especially from the locals. (In South America locals come to the various campsites for a day trip). Pictures are taken and chats are had or advice given of 'what we should definitely see'. This is how we ended up at the Mocona waterfalls. Police officers, pump attendants, everyone was talking about these particular falls. During our drive there, the landscape changed greatly. It became very green, subtropically humid. These waterfalls also form a border between Argentina and Brazil. Since everyone is getting ready for the upcoming tourist (summer) season that really starts in December, there were no boats in the water to see the falls yet. So we only remembered the sound of the falls and a very nice road trip of 200km.

Missiones, Argentina Missiones, Argentina Isabelle

Both our mattresses failed. We chose airbeds because of my back problem. Of both mattresses, a seam between the different strips is torn. My dear colleague Sarah made sure we got new ones. They are in Hasselt waiting for a possibility to get to South America.

Before we cross the border into Paraguay next week, all of our fresh food must be finished. At every border crossing, they check our car for food. Any remaining organic food is dumped into a container. I find it a challenge to whip up a delicious meal with the last of the leftovers.