Carima Hotel Foz de Iguacu

... but help with the effect.
Then round the corner the falls come into view. WOW! They are something else. If Carlsberg made waterfalls they would have done this one.
Having seen Victoria and Niagara, both of which are spectacular, I think this is probably the best and well worth the extra miles. Definitely a not to be missed site!
We get various views of the falls including the close ups. The trousers and underpants are getting their monthly ...

... at the moment over 3 million liters of water are going over the falls every second - it is just amazing... Fantastic


We made our way back to the train and to the van.. then the rain came down and I mean down.
Then we went back to the hostel to relax... So got 3 new stamps in the passport today!


Tomorrow I fly to Buenos Aires after taking a tour of the brazilian side of the falls...

... we were going back to "buenos aires" meaning "good air" At any rate we were very grateful that we had a smooth ride especially since we had a 17 hour bus ride to Iguazu!

When we arrived back into BsAs we jumped on one of our lovely mini busses and headed to the bus station. We had some time before our bus left so we hung out at the station for a little bit. We climbed onto our bus and prepared ourselves for the long ride ahead. I gotta say the ...

... new roles as cocktail waiters. Thankfully Helen's sommalier abilities are coming good and we serve a couple of rounds of great Caipirinhas before heading to a local restaurant for grub. The waiter is the most charming creature you could ever meet - Michelle and Anita have their eyes on him. He'd better watch out.

Monday 2 August 2009 - Happy Birthday Lois

Lois turns 51 today and looks no more than 40. Fair play to her. We head ...

... crossing... but I was so wrong! I made it into Brazil, where you don't need a visa if you are just going to the Iguazu Falls for the day. The bus dropped me in Foz do Iguacu, a really big Brazilian city and I was totally lost. The only thing I knew how to say in Portuguese was "thank you" and that didn't really come in handy when trying to get directions to Paraguay! Well, eventually I made it to the "Friendship Bridge" that joins Foz do ...

... Diablo, we had lunch, took a hike to the upper part of the falls and then got ready for our boat trip. There were many coati around - little raccoon-like animals - that in this park, had no fear. My friend got a picture of me surrounded. We had seen many coatis in Guatemala, but here they are less intimidated of humans. After being loaded onto a giant truck and given an informative overview of the park, they took us out of the small boats. Here we were dwarfed by the ...

... the morning wandering in and out of all the bizarre stalls and shops. Steve’s eyes would light up at the sight of all the cheap camera equipment but did well to keep himself in check. He was also the target for many street vendors trying to sell him electric razors to control his ever growing beard but some how he resisted that too. Other things that seemed to be a theme here were socks (of all descriptions) and Pringles! Whatever the stall was ...

... parrots outside our hostel window here.

Since the trip is drawing to a close, we have been doing some reflecting lately. In the prcoess, we realized we inadvertantly picked up a new skill during our time here. The long bus rides (172 hours- over 1 solid week of a 4 week trip) have taught us a bit of patience and the ability to block out everything and to just ¨zone¨. Granted, it´s not a particularly useful skill seeing as how we are not sloths ...

... and what we are pretty sure was a Crowned eagle, just hanging out on a rock. After lunch we decided that since the boats were running that day, we would not worry about the expense and take a speed boat on the river, down to the base of some of the smaller falls. It was so worth it. After taking the double decker bus back down the road, the tour started on an electric open air vehicle through the forest, much quieter ...

... the front right side of the speedboat. This was the main reason we´d booked this tour: a 20 minute speedboat ride over rapids, and ultimately under the ...