Iguazu Falls

---

From Ilhe Grande we made a brief ovenight stop in Parati, a beautiful old Portuguese colonial port and then we headed for Foz do Iguazu which is on the border of Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. The initial plan was to take a six hour bus ride to Sao Paulo then catch a flight to Foz. However, due to the plane crash in Sao Paulo we had to take an additional 15 (yes, fifteen!) hour bus to Foz. I thought it was going to be my worst nightmare, but no! The buses were great - loads of legroom, reclining seats, dvds etc. I wish my flight could have been that comfortable. I even managed to sleep quite well.

We arrived early in the morning and after checking into the hotel headed across the border into Paraguy to do a bit of shopping. The town of Ciudad del Este is a mad, crazy place which is full of shops mainly selling electrial items, copy dvds and cds, sunglasses, clothing and almost anything else. Most of us bought something and we had to remove all the packaging on the goods before we retuned to Brazil so that if we were stopped we wouldn't have to pay duty.

The next day we went to visit the falls. Wow, what can I say? Amazing! We visited the Argentine side which has many walkways on various levels to view all the falls. Iguazu Falls are not the highest or have the largest volume of water flowing over them but what makes them special is that there are 275 interlinking falls that extend over 3km across the river. The largest fall - both in height and volume of water is the Devil's Throat which when you are up close is huge - a spectacle in itself. We spent the day wandering on the walkways, had a nature tour and took an amazing jet boat ride into the falls themselves. If anybody ever comes here this is a must!!

At night we went to see what was probably the cheesiest show ever. It was a display of different types of dance and music from S. America from tango to pan pipes (and you know how I feel about pan pipes!) with a host who looked like Ainsley Harriot on speed!! The show ended with a carnival 'extravagaza' and a lady, who could have easily been a man (we are not sure), shaking her almost naked booty at us. Hilarious if it wasn't so cringe-worthy! The food was great though.

The following day was spent at the Brazilian of the falls. There are not as many walkways but the view is much better as the majority of the falls are on the Argentine side. We also took a helicopter flight over the falls which was good, but not really worth the money - if you have a choice, spend it on the boatride!!

We then hopped back over to Argentina to catch our second long overnight bus journey to Uruguay. My passport stamp collection is rapidly growing!

---