Foz Do Iguacu - February 26th
After our day away from the waterfalls, the lure of Iguacu
called us back again, this time to the national park on the Brazilian side of
the border. This involves a slightly
lengthy journey out of town, with a side trip to the airport, before you get to
the park gate. After paying it is onto
another bus to actually take you the 10km to the falls. Meaning that although we left our hostel at
08:30 it is nearly 10:00 when we get to see the falls.
As before they are spectacular. The vast majority of the falls are on the
Argentine side, but the Brazilian side gives you a good view of most of them,
and it also does have one or two up close encounters. But because it is smaller, it does feel more
crowded than the Argentine side. And it
is also faster to get around. We lunch
at a café overlooking the top of Gargantua Del Diablo, which is pretty good
except for one thing, coatis. These are
racoon like creatures which keep running in and nicking food. There are signs everywhere telling people not
to feed the rat creatures (as we called them, they are nothing more than big
rats scavenging garbage) but they do.
However I think the parks have themselves to blame because they have a
whole load of cuddly rat creatures on sale in all the merchandise shops.
Because of the smaller size of the Brazilian side you are
finished by early afternoon. However
they do have an added attraction, a bird park across the road from the
waterfall park entrance. But before we
could get to it the heavens opened and a tropical rain shower ensued. So we sheltered in a bus shelter for half an
hour before seeing the birds. Most of
the bird park was like a zoo with animals (not always birds) in cages. But a few places had birds in open aviaries
that we could walk into, or even birds out in the wild. In one aviary, a toucan decided it liked the
lid of the water bottle I was carrying and so it decided to jump on me. With their big beaks it is a bit
unnerving. It is a definite case of be
careful what you wish for, because for a week I’d been wanting a close up
picture of a toucan, and now I had some.
After a bus back to the town, we went out for dinner. This time we found an all you can eat place
that was less than half the price of the one we went to the first night
(although to be fair there was less on offer).
Because the price was better we didn’t feel the need to abuse the system
and we ended up feeling less full than the first night. Still it was an early night because tomorrow
is our first long distance bus journey in Brazil.
After our day away from the waterfalls, the lure of Iguacu
called us back again, this time to the national park on the Brazilian side of
the border. This involves a slightly
lengthy journey out of town, with a side trip to the airport, before you get to
the park gate. After paying it is onto
another bus to actually take you the 10km to the falls. Meaning that although we left our hostel at
08:30 it is nearly 10:00 when we get to see the falls. 
As before they are spectacular. The vast majority of the falls are on the
Argentine side, but the Brazilian side gives you a good view of most of them,
and it also does have one or two up close encounters. But because it is smaller, it does feel more
crowded than the Argentine side. And it
is also faster to get around. We lunch
at a café overlooking the top of Gargantua Del Diablo, which is pretty good
except for one thing, coatis. These are
racoon like creatures which keep running in and nicking food. There are signs everywhere telling people not
to feed the rat creatures (as we called them, they are nothing more than big
rats scavenging garbage) but they do.
However I think the parks have themselves to blame because they have a
whole load of cuddly rat creatures on sale in all the merchandise shops.
Because of the smaller size of the Brazilian side you are
finished by early afternoon. However
they do have an added attraction, a bird park across the road from the
waterfall park entrance. But before we
could get to it the heavens opened and a tropical rain shower ensued. So we sheltered in a bus shelter for half an
hour before seeing the birds. Most of
the bird park was like a zoo with animals (not always birds) in cages. But a few places had birds in open aviaries
that we could walk into, or even birds out in the wild. In one aviary, a toucan decided it liked the
lid of the water bottle I was carrying and so it decided to jump on me. With their big beaks it is a bit
unnerving. It is a definite case of be
careful what you wish for, because for a week I’d been wanting a close up
picture of a toucan, and now I had some.
After a bus back to the town, we went out for dinner. This time we found an all you can eat place
that was less than half the price of the one we went to the first night
(although to be fair there was less on offer).
Because the price was better we didn’t feel the need to abuse the system
and we ended up feeling less full than the first night. Still it was an early night because tomorrow
is our first long distance bus journey in Brazil.
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