The Falls

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We awoke at 7 am and planned to visit the falls at the opening time of 9 am. It was to rain this day, but they said it would start after noon. Well, the opposite happened.

Bernadete made a wonderful breakfast for us and then drove us to the bus stop. It took about 20 minutes to get to the falls by bus. It had begun to rain very hard, but what can you do? You are there to see the falls and must march on no matter what! We thought about waiting to see if the rain would stop, but decided to put on our ponchos and head out on the trails. The first sight of the falls was amazing! There are no words to describe it and the photos do not do any justice. Even in the rain and cloudy skies, this was beautiful.

It was tough because you want to capture many photos, but you also want to stand back and take in this awesome creation. We did both.

You can hear and feel the power of all this water rushing by you.

Because of the rain, it was not very crowded, so that was good for us. It took over an hour to walk the trails and by the time we got to the end where the walkway was, the rain began to let up. I just did not want to leave. This place is somewhere everybody should see and I wish all who want to can visit someday. The entrance fee was reasonable at about $18 per person.

We had decided that if it stopped raining, we would visit the nearby Parque das Aves and see all the birds. Well, it did stop, so we walked across the street and went in. I was not overly excited to see this attraction, but I must say that it is well done! Most of the birds are rescued from the illegal pet trade and the facilities were immaculate.

We stayed here for a couple of hours and also had lunch, which was a bargain for the three of us, at a cost of around $15. We then went outside to the bus stop to get the bus back to the city. When we got there, we went to eat dinner at Oficina de Sorvete and the sandwiches were very good, as was the ice cream. From there, it was bout a 15 minute walk to Benadete's home. When we got there, we just sat around chatting for a bit.

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