Buenos Aires - Secluded in what feels like a forest hideaway, La Cantera Hotel was perfect after a week in manic-energy-eating Buenos Aires, the Argentinian capital where regular visits to a psychologist are an obsession.
La Cantera is more a lodge than a hotel and it stands at the end of a dirt road, off the main thoroughfare to the small town of Puerto Iguazu, where countless tourists to the famous Iguazu Falls find a base.
Not much happens in Puerto Iguazu, which makes it ideal for a tranquillity trip. The entertainment highlight each night is the selection of restaurants on the main street. It felt too good to be true to wake up each morning in a wooden cabin, surrounded by towering trees, and to find one’s way along an elevated path to a poolside.
The Iguazu Falls are an hour and 45 minutes by air from tangled, sweaty Buenos Aires.
The falls straddle the border between Argentina and Brazil. Although the greater part lies in Argentina, one needs to see them in both countries to appreciate their full beauty and grandeur. Brazil is a fairly short taxi drive from Puerto Iguazu.
South Africans do not need to apply for visas for either country, and crossing the border from one to the other is hassle-free.
For a private taxi fare of R300, one can cross from Argentina, visit the Iguazu National Park and move on to other parts of Brazil, or return to Puerto Iguaza in the same afternoon.
The park, which also straddles the border, was established in the 1930s and declared a World Heritage Site in the mid-1980s. It is pleasantly organised and easy to navigate.
The falls are a series of 275 waterfalls, the highest 97m. The Argentinian side offers better views of the arteries flowing into the Iguazu River. The Brazilian side offers fewer close-ups, but greater panoramic views.
In the Guarani language, “iguazu” means “great water” – but this is an understatement. As one moves from viewpoint to viewpoint along the trails and bridges, one is overwhelmed. It is easy to spend more than an hour on the lookout bridge.
In Argentina, a speedboat offers views inside a chasm called Garganta del Diablo or The Devil’s Throat. Helicopter rides provide a bird’s eye view.
On the Argentinian side, the park is a hiker’s dream. It runs along a horseshoe-shaped cliff for 2.7km. Hiking paths leading off it take one around, under and above waterfalls, a world of rainbows, plants, birds and scampering coatis.
If trekking is too tiring, there are trains and buses.
Saturday Star