Iguassu

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I was awake quite early but felt miles better having caught up on my sleep. We weren't meeting until 10am, so we had a leisurely breakfast, chatting over fruit and coffee. In the lobby, Santi explained that we were getting the bus to the Brazilian side of Iguassu falls, which has about 30% of the water falls. We were waiting for the bus as we were going with another group for the next couple of days. I think I'd once read somewhere that Iguassu was one of the natural wonders of the world. They seem to have different wonders of the world these days, natural world, modern world man made world.... Either way the pictures looked fantastic and I was so looking forward to going here. In my mind it would be one of the highlights of the trip, so I hope it lived up to the expectation.



As I walked out of the hotel to the bus, I could see a mane of blonde hair in the front seat. I had to adjust my focus-No! It can't be! It was!!!!! Morning Chiccos!!!! Sat in the front seat was Karina, aka Shakira whom I'd done the India-Nepal trip with! Arrgghh! We screeched and I gave her a big hug! She said she had messaged me on Facebook as she'd seen I was in the area and wondered if my group would be meeting up with hers. I can't remember if I said in my India blog that Karina is from Bolivia and works as a CEO in South America. I'd hoped to see her but South America is such a huge place, and not only that I thought she was in Egypt! We babbled on so high pitched with excitement and kept hugging each other-people were sat on the bus looking at us like we were a pair of idiots! Every day in India and Nepal, Karina greeted us 'morning Chiccos!' She always had her earrings in and make up on no matter where we were going, she shopped and haggled at the markets like no other and got a great deal on a sari to wear at the Taj Mahal, looking stunning as always. She danced and sang the Macarena, all the way down from Sarangkot in Pokhora, and we had stood together in Durbar Square in Kathmandu where she gave us a gift she had brought from Bolivia. She was one of those people in life that you are glad to have met, and now here we were in Brazil, meeting again. It was great.



We got to Iguassu and had time for a quick toilet stop before entering the National Park. Almost straight away we saw the beautiful waterfalls in the distance, they looked amazing, and we stopped to take pictures. We had been warned about the raccoons there and told not to leave anything laying about or be careful eating food as they have a tendency to pinch it....



Almost straight away, we heard a kerfuffle and saw a raccoon making off with a carrier bag complete with iPod charger trailing out of it, and a boy from another group picking up a pile of his belongings which were by now all over the floor. Turns out he had cereal bars in that carrier bag-unlucky!



As we walked, the waterfalls were getting more spectacular and the most beautiful rainbows emerged from the huge spray they created. We got to the part they call 'The Devils throat' which is a long wooden walkway right out into the falls. I can honestly say it was one of the most amazing sights I have seen in my life to date. The noise from the falls, the spray, the rainbows, the vastness, it really was breathtaking and even more gorgeous in real life. I don't know if any other waterfall could beat what stood before us right now. Iguazzu was truly a wonder.



Sam and I took plenty of snaps, and I was gutted I couldn't see Karina anywhere for us to have our picture taken too. We'd stood at the Taj Mahal, sailed the river Ganges at sunrise, and I really wanted a picture together here too. On our way up the ramp to the exit, Karina came bustling down wearing a wig a hat and a multicoloured fancy dress jacket. 'Come to dance!' She said as random as ever.....



It turns out that the travel company were having a 25th anniversary competition to win tickets to their HQ in Canada. Staff had to make a 20 second video at their chosen destination dancing to 'uptown funk' and I guess there weren't many places that would be as good a backdrop as Iguassu Falls. I was laughing so much at Karina and Santi dancing as I filmed it for them-Karina shouting 'this is my ticket to Canada!'

Back on the bus we made a stop at the bird park to drop some people off. We decided we just wanted to have a nice chill out afternoon in the sun, so headed back to the town for some lunch before lazing around the pool for the rest of the afternoon.



For dinner we visited a lovely restaurant and Sam and I ordered a steak which was really nice. There seems to be a lot of Mixed Martial Arts on TV in Brazil, and soon we became fixated by this, commentating on the girls taking a few knees to the head-it was brutal! We headed back to the hotel at a decent hour, we were up early tomorrow to go back across to Argentina to see their side of Igussu Falls. Today had been an amazing experience, I wasn't sure if anything could top it-time will tell......

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