Iguaçu Falls

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From Paraty we headed by bus to Foz do Iguaçu, it was a 22 hour journey which took us via Sao Paulo, where we stopped for 3 hours. As we arrived after dark, we only had enough time to eat dinner in the station, so we really didn´t see much of the city. When we finally made it into Foz the next morning, the town was really not what we expected... we passed Pizza Hut and McDonald's on the way in, and it really was a city not the small little town we imagined!

Iguaçu Falls are the largest falls in the world with over 275 waterfalls at any given time and can either be viewed from the Brazilian side or the Argentina side. We first went to the Brazilian side which gave a fantastic view across all of the falls without getting too close. It was a beautiful sunny day as we walked along the various platforms looking at all of the different waterfalls and spotting some interesting wildlife along the way including some amazingly coloured butterflies. Racoon's seemed to be everywhere and they have a hunger for any type of food, one even went for someone in our group as he was holding a packet of biscuits. It was a spectacular view from the Brazil side, and we took loads of photos as you can imagine! By the time we got down to the lowest platform near what was called "The Devils Throat", which is the biggest waterfall at Iguaçu, we were glad to get covered in the fine mist and spray to cool us down.

Our second day in Foz, we headed over to the Argentinian side to view the falls from the other side. The Argentinian side is completely different to the Brazilian side, as you are much closer to most of the falls and there are a few more things to do as well, such as a bus ride through the jungle and boat trips along the river. The boat trip was great fun, especially as they literally took us into two of the waterfalls, completely drenching everyone on the boat. We sat on the "wrong side" of the boat as the driver was on the other side and tried to protected himself so he kept directing our side under the falls and got drenched every time!! Luckily it was yet another gorgeous day, so we soon dried off as we walked around the various platforms... that was until we went up to the other side of the Devils Throat and got wet again...

We had a couple of great nights out in Foz, and one night we were treated to a fantastic Brazilian BBQ with lots of different types of meat, with a great Brazilian salad and topped off with some fresh bread, apparently just the way it should be done in Brazil... it was delicious!

Foz is also really close to the Paraguay border so whilst here we managed to squeeze in a quick visit to Paraguay as well. It is a lot cheaper than Brazil, so a lot of Brazilians head over the border to pick up cheap goods... trouble is, with so many people going across, they don´t stamp everyone´s passport so we were very disappointed! The two countries are separated by a river and even though they are so close, it was a bit like stepping back into some of the mad shopping streets in Asia. It was full of market stalls and shops, a lot seemingly selling the same items and after a couple of hours of exhausting shopping, we headed back across the border to the less chaotic Brazil...

The falls were absolutely amazing, there were so many waterfalls it is impossible to describe how spectacular they were but we leave Foz now and head on another overnight bus to Bonito and then onto the Pantanal for a few days... hopefully spotting a lot of the amazing wildlife in the area.

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