Harbor Querencia Hotel Cascavel

... little bars and juice shops we open, complete with customers. (maybe they stay open all night?) We got some great photos this morning, then back to bed. We spent the rest of the morning stuffing our faces at the buffet breakfast on Copacabana, then to the beach. The beach was getting crowded by this time... it was almost Friday afternoon. After relaxing and swimming in the surprisingly cool waters (really refreshing) it was time to take a few last minute ...

... but a proper tropical storm. We discovered that in these conditions it does'nt take long for a bus with no windows to fill with water!!! Even in the pouring rain the falls themselves are an impressive sight!! Foz de Iguaçu translates as 'the mighty water' and it wasnt hard to see why ( i like to think that the Foz bit translates as "the"). it didnt take long before we were both soaked through to the bone, from the rain and the spray from the falls. We ...

... up this morning to a torrential downpour that hasn't stopped all day. So instead of the falls, we went to see Itaipu, the world's biggest hydroelectric power plant, which is situated on the Paraguayan-Brazilian border. And tomorrow I am catching the bus to Posadas, Argentina ...

... Falls. Got bus marked Parque Nacional which goes via the airport to the main entrance and paid our 20 pesos each to get in. Then got on a double decker bus to one of the main stops and walked towards the falls. We were a bit apprenhensive at this point as we had heard that the falls were suffering from limited water at the moment due to the worst drought here in 20 years. As we approached we were a little disappointed ...

... has the gift of hang out´. We spent the day on the beach, had lunch at a little corner spot, quiosco do surf, complete with two adorable ladies...one in her mid 40s and the other probably early 60s...the first wore short shorts and a bikini top, adn didnt care what the world thought of her...she let me back into the kitchen when i couldnt understand the menu, and just showed me all the pizza toppings...hilarious. she had a cute momma dog, who was ...

... made the 2star hotel complete with Wine Steward seem like the Ritz) and had our first fill of the Brazilian double meals...HUGE!!! The guy had to set up a third table just to hold the food. Smeeve, this place is for you! They said the meal was for two, but it probably could have fed 5. Ridiculous....

... pretty difficult on our own. We arrived at the national park in Brazil about an hour after having left our hostel. Again, we were surprised at how organized and well run this park is. The falls are pretty far from the park entrance so instead of walking 9km, we hopped the park shuttle bus. Basically, this park is really one long walk along the river's edge that gives great views of the wall of waterfalls on the Argentinean side of the gorge on ...

... on a bus Friday that said Paraguay, we assumed that because Paraguay was right over the river from Argentina that we would be going strait their. We get on the bus with a group of Paraguayans that must be crossing the boarder weekly to work, we paid US$1 and off we went. As we sat down i realized that everyone around us was not speaking Spanish, mmmm they where all speaking Guarani. Guarani is the non official language, yet seems to be spoken more then Spanish ...

... Our bad luck just never ended! The border town was near Iguazu. We dropped off our bags at the hotel and headed for the falls. The falls where best seen from the Braziallian and Argentinian sides and we´d set out for Brazil on our first day. ¨Why are we at immigration¨ Andrea asked noting that going to the Brazilian side from Brazil shouldn´t require going to another country. It turns out we´d taken the wrong bus and were headed to Argentina! A few quick schedule ...

... we are acutely aware of thier presense; there is a thunderous noise off in the distance and the air is thick with water vapour. We round some trees and get our first view of the mighty Iguazu Falls spilling 3 million litres of water off a high plateau to the misty basin below. As we walk further we are treated to amazing panoramic views of the falls which rise up out of the surrounding jungles and stretch far off into the distance... it´s really quiet ...