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Published: February 29th 2008
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Leaving the Pantanal
After our two and a half hour ride back to Swampy on the "4x4" we set off again for another delightful day of driving with a free camp in a service station next to a road. Hmmm. Well at least it didn't rain! We then continued on south to Foz do Iguacu, the Brazilian town for the Iguazu falls. The journey was a first for me for two reasons. Firstly, I read. I was so fed up of being bored I thought I'd risk travel sickness for some amusement and I was actually ok! For about 15 minutes. Secondly I slept on the floor which up till now I had been refusing to do but its much easier to sleep down there! So we eventually arrived at our "Camping International" which was to be our home for three nights and a good home it was too! It has a swimming pool which delighted us no end and a lovely german lady called mama who did our washing for us (at an expensive price though!)
The Bird Park
Our first full day in Iguazu and we went over to the UNESCO park for the falls. There
Boa!
Me with the snake were three possible excusions to do, the first one being a helicopter ride over the falls but I opted out because it was very expensive especially for only 10 minutes. So myself and some others who were not flying went over to the bird park, primarily beacuse we wanted some good toucan and parrot shots and also because we heard there was an anaconda in there!
The park itself was pretty big and long especially in the heat so we made our way round quite quickly getting some good bird shots. And then we reached Monica. This beautiful anaconda was in a cage with another and a baby and my gosh they were huge. Incredible creatures but unfortuantly the photos did not come out too great due to really thick glass. But still I could not have come to South America without seeing one, even if it was not in the wild!
The best part though was definatly at the end. As we left the park they had one of those "holding the animal" sections. I managed to get both the macaw on my arm and on my head. The claws are really sharp and although it does
not really hurt, they leave a mark. But the best part for me (but by far the worst for Emma and mum) is that I got to hold a Boa Constrictor. Only a small one but still, I'm estatic I've finally been able to hold a snake!
The falls from the Brazilian side
After the bird park, we hastily braved the heat and walked over to the UNESCO park with the actual falls in it. Once we'd bought our tickets (foreigners have to pay more! Scandalous) we got a nice bus ride to the beginning of a 1.2km walk, which sounds short but it involved a lot of steps and in the heat we kept having to have breaks. But the scenery was fantastic the whole way round and when we finally reached the bottom, you could actually step out onto a walkway which took you right into the falls. You got completely drenched but in that heat it was so worth it. Absolutely beautiful, you get an incredible overview of all the different falls and it was really like nothing I've seen before.
Our day out in Paraguay
Whilst we were in Foz do Iguacu,
we had the opportunaty to cross the border into Paraguay for the day. It is basically an open border to this dingy little town where almost every single shop sells cheap electronic goods. So the open border allows Brazilians and travellers visiting the falls to go there and buy cheap stuff before entering back into Brazil. We didn't get our passports checked once. We arrvied and it pretty much felt like we'd been living the last two weeks in a first world country. We had no idea where to put ourselves. And everyone wanted to sell us socks. So random. We bought a few electronic goods between us. I got a watch, seeming my 20 pound Next watch broke within a week, for only 10 dollars and I also got a 2GB Olympus XD camera card for only 38 Reals (which is about 18 pounds).
We then headed over to a building called the Mona Lisa, purely because we had seen signs for it all over Brazil and had no idea what it was. However, as we approached it a Lacome sign came into view and we suddenly became overjoyed and delirious as an upper class shopping mall came
into view. Mostly though because we knew it would be air conditioned. And this place was beautiful. We went up to the third floor and had a relatively expensive lunch whilst being serenaded by a pianist. It was amazing and we were so happy for our little hour of luxury. We then had to brave back into the heat to get back to our taxi. So all in all our trip into Paraguay was one of two extremes. Oh well, its another country to tick off!
A random Rafain
Whilst still in Brazil, we decided to go to an evening show which provided a huge buffet dinner and variety show of different styles of Brazilian dancing. However, in the mad rush to reach the mini cab, I had a accident involving a toe nail and a tent peg. Very painful indeed! After it had eventually stopped bleeding and the lady who owned the campsite had cleaned it with some bathroom cleaner stuff, I hobbled along to the show in a lot of pain and drank a lot of wine to get over the pain. The food was really nice, though unfortuantly due to my inability to handle blood,
I was not very hungry. The show was a lot of fun too. Like most things, it had some very tacky moments, but also some incredible ones. The argentine tango and capoeria were especially good. All in all, a good night minusing the accident!
From the Argentinian side
Our main attraction in visiting the falls again from the Argentinian side was that there was the opportunity to do a boat trip, a bit like the Maid of the Mist at Niagra Falls. So we headed down to the river and queued for a good two hours in the midday sun with no shade and no water. As you can imagine, people were not very happy and were extremely sunburnt. So advice to all that may go, go either first thing or late at night! The boat trip itself was a lot of fun, but would have been a lot better if we hadn´t have been in foul moods. We ended up getting absolutely soaked though so at least we cooled down that way. My evaluation is basically that from the Brazilian side you get a great overview of the falls whereas on the Argentinian side, you get a
more close up view especially of Devils throat, the main waterfall.
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Mum
non-member comment
Its hard to believe
you have come from my gene pool-snakes!!!Mind you, nearly loosing a toe proves beyond a shadow of doubt you are your father's daughter.......