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Published: October 17th 2010
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So hi from Brazil again!! As most of you know, we are doing a 30-day Tucan Tour from Puerto Iguazu all the way to Lima, Peru. So that's what we had the meeting for yesterday, and so from now on (til 14th Nov), everywhere we go we are with a whole bunch of others and in an organised setting. We get to do a lot of our own optional excursions, so that's pretty cool too!! Just thought i'd let you know!! Now that that's done, let's move onto the 1st "real" day of our tour...
This day started very loudly!! With Rain!! It was absolutely bucketing it down and there was thunder and the power was out at 6am. This didn't mean too much, so we packed our bags as we were leaving this hotel and heading back to Brazil in the afternoon. We really needed some cash (as credit doesn't work without power), and so after being told nothing's open, it was raining, and the power was out so atm's probably won't work, we decided to head out anyways!! 😊 Again, God had our back, and walking towards town we saw a bunch of people going in and out of
bank that had a sign "ATM 24HRS" out the front. And there was power there too, so we were all fixed up!! Praise God. We then headed back to the hotel, had some breakfast (in the dark), met a few more fellow tour-ists, and hopped on our massive bus. By now it had stopped raining, which was nice because we were to head back to Iguazu Falls for the day.
This National park is so big, you probably need two days to see everything!! Because we had done most of the major walks the day before, we decided to take a longer, more forestier walk to a seperate waterfall. This was a nice walk, didn't see too much wildlife unfortunately because of the rain, but the waterfall was amazing, and if it had been sunny Mischa would've certainly gone for a dip. We headed back to have some lunch, and on the way back, Mischa saw what we think was a mountain lion. All he saw was a BIG browny/red thing moving through the bush and then out of sight. It moved slow, but Mischa never saw anything to actually make it out. But he was very excited!! 😊 No
pictures though as it was gone too quick...
After lunch, which was nice, we still couldn't find the rest of the group that we were going to join back up with, so we decided to head down to hop on the Speedboat ride under the waterfalls. Now, under, you can't actually go under as you would die, but man, we sure went CLOSE!! It was ABSOLUTELY, AMAZINGLY AWESOME!! We got absolutely SATURATED!! Hopefully the videos and pictures do it justice!! You can't see much because of being pounded by water!! It was well worth the $30 each!! 😊 After getting changed (Mischa got saturated, Jess wrapped herself up tightly in her poncho so didn't get too wet), we headed back up to the bus with ice-cream in hand to catch the tour bus across the border to our hotel in Brazil. After thinking his chances of getting a good Toucan photo were gone, on the way back there just happened to be a beautiful toucan sitting on a tree ready for photos!! And then another joined, so he was wrapped! 😊 Enjoy them!!
We all got safely across, and after checking in, having a shower and getting ready, it was
about time to get something to eat. The hotel restuarant was cheap and looked very good, but Mischa wanted to go for some more walks through town to see what else was out there!! After walking for about 20mins, we stumbled across what looked like a good deal....All you can eat Pizza, Pasta and Gelato ice-cream for only BRL$12.99 each!! We decided to give it a go, although we thought there must be a catch as we'd been told BRL$50 each normally...We dived in, having 6 different sorts of pizza each, lasagna, boccochini thing, fried chicken/manioc/chips/polenta, fried rice and then some gelato. Mischa had Napolitana, Cheese, Peperoni, a hot one, Bacon and CHOCOLATE pizzas!! Jess had Cheese, a Portuguese one, an Italian one, Chocolate, California and Fried Banana (these three are dessert ones!!!) We got some drinks, and asked for the bill, intrigued to see how much it was. To our surprise, it was a TOTAL of BRL$35. That's only AUD$15 each!!! (After a tip!!) We loved it, had way too much to eat, but walked back to our hotel and crashed, ready for another early start to, this time, the Brazilian side of Iguazu Falls!! 😊
Today started
like most. Breakfast at the hotel (HEAPS of choices - best so far!!), and then onto the truck to head to the falls. First up though was a visit to Parques Das Aves which is a bird park right opposite the entry to the National Park. This bird park had every bird in South America in it, plus a few of the common reptiles that you find. Jess wasn't keen on the whole reptile scene, especially the snakes!! But you could get some great photos as the birds would fly straight up to you, and even let you pat them!! You had to watch out though, as Mischa was walking away from a Toucan and it jumped to the ground and bit him on the foot!! It gave him quite a surprise, and stalked him for about 3-4 metres!! Jess was in fits of laughter, but there was no blood so he was all good!! 😊 There were also chances to hold a Macaw and also a Boa Constrictor, so Mischa took up the chance for that, Jess just did the Macaw (Jess didn't come close to the snake, used the zoom function on the camera to get the photo!!)
😊 After a few souveniers at the shops, we headed across to the falls to see them from the Brazilian side.
The Brazilian side is not nearly as big, in walking, as the Argentinian side. You go through the gate and jump on a bus that drives for about 5 mins to the station that you walk from. But the view is completely different. You can see the whole of the other side of the falls, and you go beneath the Devil's Throat, as opposed to on top of it...The walk only took about an hour to do though, as we were getting pretty waterfalled out!! We got a bite to eat (whilst being attacked by a bee) with another couple, and then walked back up to where we could catch a bus back into town. Once we had a bit of a rest, we went for a walk to find a supermarket to grab some things (Mischa's thongs had blown) (Good buy though Vee!! 😊) which was a lot closer than we thought. It was a HUGE supermarket, and was open (it was a Sunday...) so we got some stuff, including an ice-cream from a Macca's Icecream Stand....Very cool.
After that, had another rest (it's been big days) and will go grab something to eat tonight from a local restuarant. But, that'll do for now!! 😊 Chow
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mum n dad G
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Hi and happy birthday for the 22nd. Hope you arte enjoying your backpack Mischa. We are loving your blog - wonderful stuff. thanks. Any chance you have decided about the soccer in England - jeff reckons it will be one of the best game sof the season. Both young teams! Love to you both xxxxxx