Blogs from Brazil, South America - page 627

After another night on the road and lots more driving, we arrived in Foz do Iquaçu, the brazilian city closest to the mighty waterfalls for which the town is named. The cataratas are actually about 275 separate waterfalls altogether on the river iguaçu; a million or so years ago they used to be where iguaçu emptied into the river parana' (which forms the border between brazila and paraguay) but do to erosion they have moved farther and farther upstream. due to different erosion rates of rock types, there are two levels of falls in most places, like steps. they are amazing. To visit the cataratas (waterfalls) you can go to either the brazilian or argentinian sides of the river, though we (and most tourists) opted for both. you need about a day to do each side. ... read more

hey all, after enduring the rain in gramado and canela on sunday, we hiked a bit on monday at parque do caracol, named for the waterfall that is the main attraction. because its so steep there are 927 steps you can take to hike down to the base of the waterfall. it was really cool - there is so much vapor at the base that we got pretty wet just standing there and watching. all the plants on the hillsides were green and wet (they reminded me of the produce section after the grocery store after the misters have turned on) and it smelled great because of the little flowers dotting the greenery. we saw a few humminbirds there as well, flitting about in the mist. in the afternoon we drove south through Novo Hamburgo to ... read more

After floripa we went to Praia Grande (Big Beach), oddly named because its quite far inland and miles from anything more than a creek. Its the closest town near the Aparados da Serra, a national park in Rio Grande do Sul (the most southern state.) We stayed in an Albergue de Juventude (a youth hostel) that we highly recommend should any of you be along that way. Its an hour drive from Praia Grande along a rocky dirt road to the national park, but unforunately it was so cloudy and misty that once we got there saturday morning visibility was limited to about 30 feet - not good for viewing the amazing canyons that are the park´s main draw. Disappointed, we pressed on to Canela, so we could visit Parque do Rio Ferradura and Parque do ... read more

Ive spent the best part of the last two days waiting around for buses and boats. Im leaving Brasil tonight and heading for Paraguay on a cargo ship. It should be quite exciting and im looking forward to getting into a spanish speaking country again. Its quite frustrating not being able to speak the lingo. Sometimes if the brasillians speak very slowly i cant understand and its the same if i speak spanish slowly but at times its quite difficult. Portuguese is really quite hard. Paulo tried his best to teach me some phrases but it was just beyond me. Sometimes it sounds like spanish with a welsh accent! I've been in the Brasillian border town of Puerto Murtino for two days now waiting for my ship. Im the only tourist in town and a source ... read more

Ive just spent a couple of days here in Bonito in the South of Brazil. It's quite a touristy town where alot of Brazillians come on holiday. I can understand why its called Bonito becasue it's really beautiful here. The town is'nt anything special, but then it is the low season but the surrounding countryside is gorgeous. I got the bus from Corumba with the english couple, benji and hannah, i met in the Pantanal. We took a trip to the Rio Prata together where we floated down river for an hour in wetsuits and snorkels. The river was totally stunning and full of colourful fish and plants. It was really peaceful and if you got fed up of fish you could float along on your back and look up into the trees and see monkeys ... read more