Iguazu Falls - Part One - Foz do Iguacu

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After our long and bumpy 16 hour, budget bus journey from São Paulo, we finally arrived at Foz do Iguazu. This town is the gateway to the Brazilian side of Iguacu falls, which lie on the borders of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. After getting a bit lost we found our hostel, Iguassu guest house. It was lush; there was a swimming pool, hammocks, we had our own room with en suite and even a full length mirror, which was pretty weird as we hadn't seen ourselves full length since we left home. Straight away we noticed the weight we had lost, especially Jon, whose jeans were now hanging around his bum!

We spent the first day chilling by the pool and recovering from our mammoth bus journey. The next day we got up early, had breakfast - the same breakfast we'd had during our entire time in Brazil; a bread roll, ham, cheese and coffee (what I would give for a bacon sandwich) - then took the local bus to Iguacu falls. The falls are made up of 275 waterfalls that all come crashing 80m down to create a thunderous roar and a spectacular sight. As soon as we saw the size and scale of these enchanting waterfalls it was like we went into a trance. There was a group of four of us and the only words we uttered for the first 10-15 minutes were: 'Oh, wow!' 'This is amazing,' etc. Each viewpoint was as incredible as the one before, water careering down the river and hurtling off the top of cliffs to thud into the river below and create an almighty spray but despite this, the falls had a strangely calming feel.

What wasn't so calming was when a group of Chinese tourists started throwing there bags of food at the wild coatis that came up to them. The coatis were kind of like a cross between a raccoon and a possum with the sharpest claws I have ever seen. When approached by a coati, the Asian tourists all started screaming hysterically as if they were being chased by an axe wielding psychopath. They threw their bags of food and coatis started coming out from the trees and ripping open their bags and feasting away. After being told on the bus on the way there to not aggravate them as they may have "rabbies" we quickly escaped from the madness and carried on experiencing the breathtaking views! It took us around 3 hours to walk around the falls and after forgetting our rain macs and getting absolutely soaked we headed back to the hostel, sodden but very content.

That night we decided we wanted to go out for dinner to try one of Brazil's famous churrascaria restaurants that everybody had been talking about. A churrascaria is ais a place where meat is cooked on a barbecue and the passadores (meat waiters) constantly keep coming to your table with skewers full of meat. There was literally every kind of meat you could think of, as well as every cut of beef physically possible, loads of salads, breads and other tasty Brazilian dishes. We tried nearly ever meat which came our way and Jon even made me eat a chicken heart, which just tasted like liver but I don't think I'll be eating it again. After stuffing our faces we headed home not really speaking a word we were so full! It was so worth it though.

The next day we got up and headed to the bus station to get our bus to Puerto Iguazu (the Argentinian side of the falls). Surely their side of the falls couldn't be any more beautiful than the ones we had already seen!? We shall see!!!

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[Joy Bagley]

Having a good time we see! Love to you both xx