Hotel San Rafael Foz de Iguacu

... wandered through the square and to the park to the
north of town. Feeling hungry we chose a barbeque restaurant for
lunch. I (Nat) was very excited because this one had signs advertising
its barbequed river fish (in addition to the usual beef) and this made
my mouth water.

The first sign that this was going to be an unusual meal was when my
side salad arrived. This was HUGE and could have been a lunch in
itself. Then out came Al's ...

... about an hour in one go so felt very much the worse for wear. Shell was in much better shape after persevering with the travel tablets so she was well away most of the night.

The usual drill people do is to go see the Brazilian side of the falls, stay one night on the Brazilian side, then book the full day tour of the Argentinian side and then leave that night on yet another long over night ride somewhere. We decided to take it a bit easier, and have now crossed over to ...

... why they would buy the slickers that were available. I enjoyed the freedom of not caring.

After dinner in the hotel's only restaurant (the downside to staying at the Sheraton) we retired to the room. We were treated to a night of thunderstorms and lightning, some of which I captured on video (as soon as I edit it I'll post it). It was eerie seeing the falls lit intermittently by the lightning, each time looking different because of the shifting mists. It was also during ...

... and they wore bright ponchos with tassles and sang weird harp/guitar versions of 80s music. Obviously, I bought their CD.

The next morning we got up really early and, after some bus confusion, headed to the Brazilian national park. We got there for when it opened and hopped on one of the first buses to the main waterfall area. We walked along a trail into the rainforest and, after spotting some beautiful butterflies and a wild toucan perched in a palm ...

... every 10 min but it was Sunday night and later so I had to wait an hour. At least a friendly Brazilian started waiting with me otherwise I'd had given up and flagged down a taxi -- which on hindsight I should have done.

After getting back quite late and not really eating lunch I was famished. So when I walked by a Churascaria I didn't care about the higher price. It ...

... on him, I legged it back to the bus:
Joe: Gary. Wake up. Steak buffet.
Gary: Yeeeeeeeep!
Joe: You hungry?
Gary: Nooooope...
Joe: You coming?
Gary: Yeeeeeep!
There was no chance of waking Egan up, so we got him a lolly.

Sat 04/07 - We got in to Foz de Iguacu at 0800....but coulnt figure out if it was 0900 here??? We didnt care enough to solve it so we got the driver to sign our ball and after he initially drew a smiley face on it and quite clearly took ...

... stare at this awesome sight. Although it was nice to have a sunny day so we could take some nice pics.

Our lesson for Iguacu - we have so many fadulous pictures to share but we are having trouble getting them onto the blog. Stay tuned - it will happen eventually.

... outside it. It was the most exquisite , colourful and tasty looking cake display that I had seen since my time in Paris, but with extraordinary South American twists. They sold you cakes in pink boxes, it was a far cry from Bolivia and you could tell this was where the elite Brazillians got their baked goods. I got some pao de quezo, cheese dough balls of bread baked in the over, they´re everywhere here, a mini quiche, a chicken fritter and the piece de resistance a soft ...

... on its own, but then came back to nurse. It was amazing. Eventually, as other hikers approached, we decided to move on. We went to the top of Arrechea falls and had a snack, then climbed down the stairs that descended to the forest floor to see the bottom of the little falls. We then decided, and who wouldn't really, that what we really needed just then was to get into the waterfall and bathe in it. We took turns so we ...

... considering that was the first wheelchair friendly facility either of us could remember seeing since arriving in South America... We completed the ...