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Published: February 6th 2012
Parque Das Aves
The Tourist eating ToucansDay 115 Friday 3
rd February
An easy day again today so no need for an early rise. Breakfast was the usual rubbish but we improvised with supplies we picked up from the supermarket. Got our stuff together and headed out the door in search of the “three frontiers”. Had a bit of a glance at the Lonely Planet maps before leaving and thought I roughly knew where to head and of course being male didn’t think there was any need to look at the map again, till of course we got lost in the back streets of Puerto Iguazu. After walking for an hour I realised I had taken the wrong street on the first intersection, (there was 6 streets at this intersection so give me a break). We ended up back on track and walked the kilometre out of town to a lovely park that overlooks the point where the Parana and Iguacu rivers meet. So if you can imagine we were standing on at this lookout in Argentina and across one river (the Iguacu) was Brazil, and then across the other river (the Parana) was Paraguay, and that is why they call it the three
Tres Frontiers
Standing on Argentina looking to Brazil on the right and Paraguay on the left frontiers. On each point of land stood a concrete obelisk, painted in national colours, and around each were silly tourists like ourselves taking photos. There really is nothing much to see here but it is kind of strange being so close to other international borders, and we are so glad they all get on. Having experienced the closing of the gate ceremony at Wagh between India and Pakistan you do sort of appreciate the casual and friendly acceptance between neighbours here, at the moment anyway.
By this time the sun was right overhead and blazing down on us with all its fury so it was time to beat a hasty retreat back to our room. We both got a touch of sunburn from floating round in the pool yesterday, and have learnt to look out for sunscreen that states “Resistente al agua” (water resistant) as the stuff we had must have washed off soon as we hit the water. Thankfully it wasn’t too bad and we now know some more Spanish.
It was so hot outside that even the pool, which was completely exposed to the sun didn’t even look inviting so we laid in front of the
Iguacu Falls
Cascades on the Argentinian side air con and waited for the afternoon. Once the sun started to dip we went down to the local bar for a beer and then picked up some more supplies for dinner. Shelley once again created a pasta masterpiece from a few ingredients and on a tiny stove, making her a regular culinary McGyver.
Day 116 Saturday 4
th February
Well the day had finally arrived to say goodbye to not only Puerto Iguazu but to Argentina, as we are now pushing onto Brazil. Got up early and packed our bags and got our stuff together over our last crap breakfast…well at least in this place. Had planned on catching the 11am bus to Brazil but we somehow got all our stuff together earlier than we had expected and we were checked out by 9.45. It was about a 4 block walk from the hotel to the bus station, half of it up hill, and because we had our backpacks on we couldn’t exactly run, but we pushed as hard as we could and for our efforts managed to pick up the 10am bus out of town.
The bus is just
Iguacu Falls
The Three Musketeers falls in the foreground a local bus not a large tourist coach so we had to pay extra for our bags and just cart them on board with us. We decided just to leave our backpacks on and both of us took up two seats each, which was okay because thankfully the bus wasn’t crowded. We got to the Argentinian border and we all got off and got stamped out of the country for the fifth and maybe final time. Again we left our backpacks on because we had read that sometimes the bus can take off without you so you have to make sure you have everything with you. This time the bus waited till everyone was back on board before we crossed the bridge over the Iguacu River and into Brazil. We got to the border control building and our driver stopped the bus and gave an announcement which for once we could understand so we knew that this was where we had to get off to get our passports stamped. Only one other guy made a move for the door whilst everyone else sat there, eventually a handful of others wandered in as well, some of them Argentinians, so it was
Iguacu Falls
Garganta Do Diablo (Devil's Throat) good to know that we are getting smarter than some locals at border crossings.
Had expected a bit of a drama crossing into Brazil because it was the only country we had to get a visa in Australia before leaving and that involved a bit of work to get, but in the end we were in and out of the building in under two minutes. Not fast enough to get back on the bus of course because he had shot through….once again we had luckily left our backpacks on. This was at 10.30, and we then had to sit under a small bus shelter for an hour with the others from the bus who had jumped off. This at least gave us the opportunity to meet with other great travellers, including some Israeli’s and a couple from Buenos Aries who had bought along the girl’s mother. We all stood there under the flimsiest of shelters till 11.30 when another bus arrived that took us the 30 minutes down the road into the town of Foz Do Iguacu, our first stop in Brazil.
At the bus station we all said our farewells and wished each other a happy journey
Iguacu Falls
The boardwalks on the Brazilian side before heading off in different directions. Our Hotel we had pre booked and was 5 blocks from the station so with our backpacks still on and in the blazing sun we headed off to find it. The walk was probably only 15 minutes but in the heat it seemed like hours, so it was with great relief when we finally hit that air conditioned reception of the Foz Plaza Hotel. The room doesn’t appear to be too bad but we soon discovered that we had to pay extra for the WiFi (a first for the trip) and also extra for a safe (also a first). We got the room at a discount so guess they are trying their very best on getting it back. We weren’t long in the room when a huge storm roared through and just as quickly disappeared, which only reaffirmed that we are in the tropics.
Later in the afternoon once the heat had settled down a bit we headed out to check out our very first Brazilian town. Had trouble finding a bank that would accept Mastercard and had to walk about a kilometre before we did, later discovered another bank around the corner
Iguacu Falls
Fall from viewing platform from our hotel ddohhh. Also saw lots of Lebanese restaurants and no stray dogs so although we only just across the border this town seems far removed from Argentina. Ended up getting a really cheap feed of meat, salad, rice and black beans, which is a local speciality. It tasted so good it was incredible and was so nice to get a feed of something that wasn’t just a slab of meat and had lots of flavour. The biggest problem we now have though is that because we are in Brazil everyone speaks Portuguese instead of Spanish. We were just getting a handle on Spanish and now have to start to learn Portuguese or at least common phrases. Some words are the same or similar but others are completely different, and our Spanglish is completely useless here.
Day 117 Sunday 5
th February
To sleep or not to sleep, well first the double bed is tiny Scott’s feet hang over the edge it has a hard mattress and the thinnest pillows. We can cope with this but there is the old elevator which is not that close to us but is constantly banging and
Iguacu Falls
Garganta Do Diablo and surrounding falls shudders the room every time someone uses it and the final whammy a nightclub somewhere very close. Last night it was very hard to sleep but thankfully we fell asleep about 2.30am meaning it was hard to wake up early for our first breakfast in Brazil which did have a large variety. Loved the toaster, which I think its only purpose is to make you stand and wait 5 minutes because the bread popped out no warmer than when it went in. Never been much of a cake person especially at breakfast but these days been finding myself having slices of chocolate cake, cheesecake and today “donnut things” for breakfast. Well when the cereal is coated in sugar and the toaster doesn’t work I don’t have many choices.
After breakfast we walked to the local bus terminal to get the bus to the Iguacu falls on the Brazilian side. Because we are now in Brazil which speak Portuguese as opposed to Spanish in the rest of South America, the Iguazu falls become the Iguacu falls. The temperature today is 37 degrees and the bus was absolutely packed so the 40 minutes trip was quite hot and stuffy as there
Iguacu Falls
Top of the Falls is no air conditioning. We got off in front of the park and brought our tickets, I was lucky I could pay in Argentinian pesos so I got to use them up. The park is well organised and a bus picks you up from just inside the entrance and drives you to the different spots in the park, the final stop where we got off was the start of the walk to see the falls. The Brazilian side does not have the same access to the waterfalls as the Argentinian side, but has a great view of them all from across the river. It was crowded and quite a few people were showing signs of exhaustion and the first aid people were treating a few. The final lookout was the view of the Devil’s Throat and here you are not as close but you are lower so you can see the whole waterfall right to the bottom. It does not take as long to view all the waterfalls from this side but it is definitely worth coming to see it here as well.
After the Iguacu Park we walked across the road to the Parque Das Aves (bird park)
Parque Das Aves
Shelley with boa which we thought would occupy an hour before we headed back to town. We were surprised how big the park was and how much there was to see. We thought some of the first aviaries were a little small for the size of the birds, but there were much bigger walk through sections, so we think the smaller ones were for nesting. We saw flamingos, many different parrots, toucans and even walked in with them. The toucans are show offs and get annoyed when you are taking photos of the other birds and they will land right beside you so they can get in the photos. Both Scott and I got our photos taken with a huge parrot it was so beautiful and gentle thank goodness because I would not like a bite from that huge beak. Later I got my photo taken with a baby Boa Constrictor I must stop getting my photo taken with animals because they keep upstaging me and they are prettier.
We caught the bus back to town about 5.15pm and thankfully it was not as crowded but we did have to stand all the way. We went back to the hotel for lovely
Parque Das Aves
Shelley being upstaged cold shower and relaxed before dinner. Today being Sunday the town is dead and the place we had dinner at last night is closed so we went to a place a little further on which was Turkish/Brazilian the food choices sure have improved even though we are just over the border. We ordered way too much but it was tasty and we ended up with a doggy bag to bring home (lucky we have a fridge in our room) for lunch tomorrow. Our waiter could only speak Portuguese and a little bit of Spanish so we had a fun time trying to chat and at one point he went around the restaurant trying to find someone else that could translate for us, but without luck. We are starting to worry that we may need a crash course in Portuguese to get by.
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traudy glasencnik
non-member comment
Finally I'm catching up.
OMG! How beautifully coloured are they all. I'd love to see a toucan. Fruit loops is so pretty. Their comical looking, and full of personality it seems . The parrots are gorgeous also, they look like macaws. I know they have them in sth America? The photo's of the falls are again amazing. I really enjoy that. Love snakes too. Great shot! xx