AND THEN THERE WAS JUST ME
Being alone, all by yourself can be eerie. You look around and see no one, just a gigantic roaring section of the Iguazu Falls. You may think to yourself “This doesn’t make any sense. I probably shouldn’t be here”. A deep voice inside you may whisper “How couldn’t you see the ‘no entry’ sign. Someone is surely on his way to get you”.
All I was thinking was “Holy ****! This is just too good to be true”.
Thank god I didn’t pinch myself.
I then took my Nikon camera – trying as hard as I could to protect it against the spray. I then quickly replaced my usual camera lens with a set of wide lens (“wide lens” does the opposite of zoom enabling the photographer to capture a wider set of the scenery as if taking a big step backward to appreciate the whole landscape). I then waited for a minute until the clouds and mist cleared a bit and pressed the shutter.
Congestion as a way of life
We are so used to congestion – to be jammed into a bus or a train on the way to work, to be shoveled from one place to another on a guided tour, to wait hours in line for an attraction or to battle the horde of other tourists in order to snap yet another quick and cheesy photo of the “Mona Lisa” – that to be alone, in complete solitude, faced with this mammoth of a waterfall can be a very strange if not an unnerving experience.
Some say a picture is a moment frozen in time. I personally subscribe to this opinion.
Every time I look at the photo above I recall how at awe I was. How crazy it seemed to me at the time to be standing there, just me, in what is arguably South America’s most breathtaking spectacle, at a perfect dusk, at a perfect moment.
One might say this must have been the way the first explorers saw it back in the 16th century…
Only unlike them I went back to a nice hotel, took a nice shower and had a nice dinner with a very nice Argentinian red.
Here’s a tip
Although close to a million visitors frequent the Iguazu Falls every year, you too can find yourself alone.
I kid you not!
Look for Belmond Hotel das Cataratas. It may not be an option for the budget traveler. But it will put you alone in front of the Iguazu.
Would you like to know how exactly, and get more tips on the way?
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Have you visited the Iguazu Falls?
What was your impression?