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The bus pulled into Puerto Iguazu at around 9am. Jeeves and I disembarked, then headed across the street to the Marcopolo Inn. It was too early to check into the hostel so we dropped off our bags and got directions to the Iguazu Falls park. We stopped by an ATM for some additional pesos and grabbed lunch from the bakery before hopping on a local bus that shuttled us to the Falls. It rained the whole way there, and even turned to hail at one point. At the park entrance, we purchased a couple ponchos and headed into the park. We got there just as the parked opened so it wasn't too busy yet, so we took advantage and hit the lower two trails first.
The views up to the waterfalls were fantastic going on forever, and I just couldn't stop taking pictures. The falls were so long that you had a full 180 degree view of them. The trails were structured metal pathways that allowed you to walk over a lot of the waterfalls and more unstable ground. Unfortunately, because of the rain it made it treacherous to walk on. Jeeves' hiking boots didn't even help; he slipped down
a couple of stairs right into me at one point. Luckily, it wasn't hard enough to leave a bruise or break anything. About an hour in, the rain let up and gave us some great picture taking opportunities.
At the end of the second lower trail, we got a boat trip right up next to the falls. The boat company gave you a waterproof bag to put all your items in (including shoes), and I wrapped myself up in my poncho. The group that came off the boat before us was soaked. I huddled in the boat next to Jeeves wrapped up looking like Kenny from South Park as we headed up to the falls. It was a pretty amazing view to be right up next to the waterfalls. Then the driver drove the boat right under the falls and gave us a nice chilly shower. I managed to stay relatively dry thanks to the poncho and my sunglasses acted as goggles allowing me to still see.
The weather got really nice after the boat ride which served us well to dry us off. We stopped at one of the falls to eat lunch. About half way through
these raccoon type animals converged on us. They went after our food so we ran away which left them wandering around on top of our bags and ponchos (which we left out to dry). With the sun out, we now got to see some pretty amazing rainbows by the waterfalls. Finished with the lower trails, Jeeves and I headed to the train to go up to "La Garganta de Diablo" or the Devil's Throat.
This was suppose to be the most impressive view of the falls because it brought you right up on top of them all. You walked on metal platforms over the huge river that fed the falls and could see all kinds of old scaffolding in the water. Apparently in 1992 a huge flood happened and it wiped away a lot of the previous structures and overflowed the falls. We past by many birds, butterflies, and even an alligator on our way to the Devil's Throat. The view was pretty impressive with the huge amounts of water gushing over the side, rainbows popping up everywhere. I actually preferred the view from down below where you could see the falls stretching on forever. By this point, we
were exhausted so headed back down on the train to the bus back to the hostel. Both of us kept nodding off on the trip back.
We checked into our rooms and walked across the street for some ice cream. This gave us some time to sit and chat about some of the things we wanted to see and do in Rio de Janeiro. Jeeves had a book "Rio for Partiers" giving us some good ideas about what to see and do as well as what to expect from the locals. Apparently, the men and women in Brazil are more forward about their interest. After chatting, we both headed over to the hammocks at the hostel to relax for the evening. I worked on my journal and read while Jeeves continued researching Rio. It was a nice calm evening to end our exhausting day.
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