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Published: October 24th 2010
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The boarder
We decided to spend some time in seperate countries. Tuesday 5th October 2010 15 hours on a bus later, we arrived at Foz do Iguacu. It was a cold and uncomfortable journey with the AC pumping out all night, especially when we appeared to be the only people who hadn’t bought our duvets along for the ride. Our hosts from the Klein Hostel picked us up from the bus terminal and on arrival we asked about tours. We were told a group of Germans were heading to the Argentinean side imminently. We’d planned to do this the next day, but there was a clear blue sky and you can’t rely on the weather lasting out here so we decided to take the bull by the horns. A quick change, some breakie in a bag, rucksacks into storage, and we were off 5 minutes after our arrival for another short hour on a minibus over the border stopping for customs and photos on the national divide.
Heading through the sub-tropical rainforest on a Jeep with our new Aussie friend Bindy from the Hostel, our guide told us how there had been snow only a few months ago, even though it was about 75 degrees now... no Toucans yet but
plenty of wildlife, especially butterflies - thousands of them. 45 minutes later we reached the river and boarded a speedboat, donning our life jackets (Joanne prepared simply wearing a swimming costume underneath to soak up the masses of water about to be dumped on us) and putting clothes and valuables into a waterproof bag, we headed down river to the falls. We were shown both sides of the falls for photos and then the guide shouted “cameras away”. Shoving them quickly into the green bag and our video camera at the ready (much to the horror of other passengers who didn’t realise it was waterproof), we approached the falls on the left. The sheer volume of water meant you couldn’t keep your eyes open. Then we hit the other side, which was even larger and felt like twice the amount of water!
Soaked through we were dropped off to explore the falls by foot and walked for hours, finally heading along a path to ‘garganta del diablo’ (the devil’s throat) the most ferocious part, especially as we visited at the period of heaviest flow with ~12,750m3/second flowing over the falls. It was absolutely stunning - Joanne was totally absorbed
and could have stayed at the top of the falls forever - it’s something you just have to see with your own eyes. You can understand immediately why it has gained UNESCO status. On the train back we grabbed an ice cream and headed for the entrance where we finally saw a toucan in the trees, unfortunately it wasn’t quite the pleasant experience we’d hoped for as the cruel taste of nature took place in front of our eyes - while a smaller bird was screaming and flapping, the Toucan was eating her eggs without the slightest hint of remorse - it was like finding nemo all over again. Back to the hostel for a quick swim in the postage stamp pool much to the Germans amusement & a R$10 dinner with a few beers before bed.
Wednesday 6th October 2010 After a good sleep in our massive dorm we took a couple of local buses to the Brazilian side of the falls since the weather was still lovely. Skipping the expensive activities we headed straight for the views. We hadn’t expected much from this side of the falls based on comments from others, so were pleasantly surprised
with their beauty and how close we got on some of the paths, one of which was under one of the heavier falls. On the paths to the various viewing points we kept crossing large lizards which were amazing. We took in the spectacular panoramas with plenty of video and pictures and after 2 hours we were done. From here we crossed the road to the bird park, not sure what to expect, the number of exotic birds was immense. The range of parrots, parakeets, toucans, flamingos etc was huge and there were massive cages the size of several houses that allowed you to strolled through and stand next to the birds. Further round the park past the reptiles and larger birds such as emus, rheas & cassowarys, we entered another bird house this time much smaller although plenty big enough for its occupants, which were butterflies and humming birds that were mesmerising to watch hovering in mid air and then zipping across the cage along with the whooshing sound as they passed close to our ears, if you weren’t watching closely you could be forgiven for thinking they were teleporting! We finished to find a group of mccaws out
with a keeper who let us hold one for about a minute each. The journey home took longer due to mismatched bus timetables but we met a nice local lady who gave us the ‘low down’ on Foz and lived nearby so told us when to get off! After nearly getting attacked by a dog we walked in to be greeted by the smell of dinner. We tucked in, had a chat with the others and hit the sack.
Thursday 7th October 2010 Just a lazy day ahead of another 15 hours coach trip to Florianopolis which the hostel booked for us and added to the bill, they were really helpful - the best so far! We chilled out, watched a film, did a lot of trip planning for the weeks ahead in Patagonia, then had some drinks and played pool with Joe & Lucy another English couple, who we arranged to meet in BA. Klein dropped us back at the bus terminal and we settled in for a long ride - this time armed with warm clothes and towels for blankets.
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Mark
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Falls
Looks & sounds fantastic, sounds like you're having a great time. Playing a bit more golf now as I've retired, got no chance of getting a job! Level 42 tonight.