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Published: August 7th 2007
Toucan - Iguasu national park, Brazil
Bill Oddie points = 9 (out of a possible 10)Our whole trip evolved from an attempt to plan a holiday which would take in one sight that each of us were keen to see; for Matt Machu Picchu and for me Iguasu Falls and after almost 11 months we made our way to the small town of Puerto Iguasu nearby the famous waterfalls. Arriving to a beautiful clear day with temperatures warmer than we had experienced for a while we wasted little time in a quick shower and change of clothes (we had travelled 16 hours overnight by bus) before jumping on another bus to take us the 18 or so kilometres to the falls. For a worldwide tourist sight the falls are cheap to get into with a fiver getting us in for the day plus the option of returning the next day for half price.
Set inside a national park of over 50,000 hectares of sub-tropical rainforest, home to jaguars, giant guinea pigs, monkeys and a host of birds and butterflies, the falls themselves straddle two countries Argentina and Brazil.
On arrival we made a beeline for the Devils Throat, a 15 minute train journey and a 1km walk increasing our anticipation. Even seeing pictures doesn´t
really prepare you for the sheer size of the falls and hearing them, feeling the spray and realising the force with which the water comes crashing down is hard to believe. As the misty spray rose off the water and sun shone through it rainbows appeared in different sections giving them a truly magical feel. Already impressed we made our way to two walking circuits ´upper and lower´or in Spanish confusingly to us, superior and inferior, they took in a different section of the falls and one gave a view looking down whilst the other got us standing right beside the crashing water.
By coincidence the time of this section of the trip coincided with both mine and Matt´s birthdays and Matt, in coercion with his parents, had managed to plan a 2 nights stay at the park´s Sheraton hotel. On coming to the end of the circuit we spotted, actually you can hardly miss it, the huge hotel complex complete with pool and decided to call in. The hotel looked amazing and the receptionist gave us a key card so that on our arrival day we wouldn´t have to pay the park fees but also meaning that we
Arty black & white sheraton photo #1
Complimentary dressing gown and slippers, room service sandwiches (club & steak) and white wine smuggled in from the "outside" got in free the following day when we returned to the park.
Heading out of the park to the bus that evening we heard a shout of "Too can....." and though looking forward to a rendition of Bobby Brown´s 90´s classic it was (even more excitingly) a Toucan flying overhead and landing in a tree. It wasn´t a great view as it was at a distance though Matt assures me that in the bird watching days of his youth it would have constituted ´a spot´.
The following day we were back again this time fairly early to get a full free day in the park. The falls we had seen the previous afternoon were in the shade but visiting them first thing meant that they were bathed in sunlight making them appear more impressive. A small island ´San Martin´sits in the centre of the falls and a quick boat trip connects it to the mainland, our early start meant we beat the crowds, got a boat straight away and had walked all the way around before all the lookouts had filled up. Later we did the Macuco trail a 6km round trip where we saw some of the
UN.......BELIEVABLE
Turning 31 can be quite depressing, but turning 31 here aint all that bad!! monkeys and giant guinea pigs but none of the jaguars!
The 27th of July was my birthday and we checked out of our hostel, squeezed into a ridiculously busy standing room only bus whilst wearing our huge rucksacks and headed to the Sheraton. The shower at our hostel had not been great and I had avoided using it since shower number 1 about 48 hours earlier so we (well I) probably didn´t look or smell like the typical guest.
A good hotel seems all the more luxurious in comparison to basic hostel especially in this case as Matt´s parents had upgraded our room to a ´falls view´meaning that from our window even lying in bed we could got a fantastic view of the Devil´s Throat. After a long soak and the first chance to use a hairdryer in months I looked, felt and smelt better and we splashed out on room service before walking into the park to stock up on cheap water. Returning to the room we were surprised to find a bottle of Champagne (arranged by Winn and Moz) and a huge chocolate cake courtsey of the hotel, which considering there was only two of us
we did pretty well to eat.
Our birthday luck had continued when we discovered that the full moon coincided with them as the park offers 4 nights of moonlit walks a month to the very sight we could see out of our window. Seeing the Devil´s Throat at night was a completely different experience, they seemed more dramatic as the view wasn´t diluted by being able to see the surroundings. The walk followed by a massive all you can eat parilla (BBQ) as well as the luxury of the hotel made it a birthday to remember.
The following two days were spent making the most of the hotel´s facilities particularly the pool area and the gym. The day we were due to check out was Matt´s birthday and he had said that he wanted to go into the park as early as we were able on the day. At 8am when the park had just opened we must have been the only people there, if you don´t count the sleeping man we stumbled across. Seeing the falls without the crowds was fantastic and the lack of noise meant that there were far more birds around, we hadnn´t even
noticed parrots in the trees on our previous visits but could see and hear a huge flock flying from tree to tree above us.
Leaving Argentina and heading to Brazil was painless, a local bus took us the half hour or so journey and we were quickly stamped out of Argentina and into the final country of our trip.
Foz de Iguaçu is the Brazilian answer to Puerto Igusasu and for a city with such a beautiful sight nearby it´s a bit of a dump with surprisingly few places to eat and drink. Our new country brought with it a new language, Portugese, of which we knew absolutely nothing and have resorted to asking ´Hablo Espanol´which is working so far as we are so close to the border, bizarrely our Spanish is understood here unlike in Argentina!
A trip to the Brazilian side of the falls gave us a different perspective and some really beautiful views though the bustling crowds all desperate to get pictures of themselves in front of them usually with a thumbs up or V sign, made us glad we had seen the Argentine side alone.
Close by the falls is a bird
Arty black & white sheraton photo #2
"so if I press this magic button, actual hot air comes out of this thing ?!?" park, Matt was close to wetting himself with the excitement at the prospect of seeing a toucan up close and I have to admit that even my love of birds has grown on this trip to such an extent that I too was pretty keen to see one. The park didn´t disappoint with Macaws, Parrots, Lorikeets, Peacocks etc etc and of course the Toucans, 5 different kinds to be precise and in a walk through avery where we could sort of pretend we were in the wild, save for the Japanese family stroking one like it was a family pet. One of the final stops in the park was a butterfly house and despite Matt´s fear of moths and whether there may be some in there too we headed in, hundreds of beautiful exotic butterflies fluttered around alongside tiny hummingbirds whose wings beat so fast at times it was at times impossible to tell the two species apart.
With a day to kill before our bus to Curitiba we decided to take advantage of Foz de Iguaçu´s proximity to Paraguay and the city of ´Ciudad de Este´, allegedly one of Latin America´s most corrupt cities mainly through the amount
Arty black & white sheraton photo #3
Bald idiot in a hair turban....did i mention that we stayed at the Sheraton of smuggling that goes on (we didn´t even need to bother with the fomalities of immigration or customs....good news as it turned out Matt was carrying prohibited cheese butties) but brimming with cheap shopping, so much so that on the bridge that joins the two countries hundreds of locals can be seen dragging huge bags of goodies. God only knows what they are buying because all we saw were gaudy blankets, socks, watches, shavers, cheap perfume and snide football shirts. In all our previous stops we had tried to give a country enough time to get a feel for it, going against this was Uruguay where we only had 25 hours but in Paraguay after just 25 minutes we had decided we were ready to go back to Brazil so it probably doesn´t even count as a country visited on this trip!
Our next stop is Curitiba and one that we have been planning and looking forward to for about 9 months since meeting sisters who live there Betina and Adriana in Vietnam last November.
PS As you may have seen there have been some problems with Travelblog and many entries have been lost, luckily we only have
The falls from Brazil/Germany
Looks great but what you cant see are the 100's of German tourists standing on my feet and elbowing my ribs two more to recover and they were backed up at home but thanks to the people who have sent us the missing text for other blogs through the web site, unfortunately we don´t get to see who the senders are.
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winn et mozza
non-member comment
water water everywhere!!!
How great to have the blogs back, thanks to Andy for backing them all up!!!Your birthdays looked fab so glad you had a great time, the falls are terrific and what a great sight to have seen as you say not to be forgotten in a hurry!!!! Well it maybe the last country for you guys but for us it has been a terrific journey and one we are so glad we were able to follow you with the blogs, so goodness knows what the "real thing" has been like!!! last adventure country but another journey will begin and bring you different wants and needs and will we know, make you as happy. We miss you and cannot wait to see you both continue on safely remember wants and needs.... Take care our intrepid travellersxxxxxx