Iguassu

Words cannot adequately describe the magnificence of the Iguassu Falls. These pictures do not do it justice. The falls are one of the world's greatest natural phenomena. This spectacular site consists of a waterfall system of 275 falls which border Brasil and Argentina. This is a must see because I was just so awestruck and amazed at the site and honestly cannot provide the words to describe its stunning beauty and wonder.

We chose to do an eco-tour at Iguassu National Park. The day started off with a 9.6km walk through the sub-tropical forest. It was a pleasant walk and I got to see my first monkey in the wild. Actually along the way, we managed to see quite a few monkeys. It's quite spectacular how these animals swing through the trees with such quick speed. Our guide told us that the park is about 185,000 hectares and is now only about 7% of the original size; truly unfortunate. In the forest, there are many different animals including 41 different types of snakes; thankfully we didn't get to see a single one. We saw many species of spiders, again not my favourite. We also saw a wild rabbit, multitudes of extremely colourful butterflies and some coati, which are cousins to the racoon. The forest is also home to jaguars and pumas, both of which are nocturnal animals. After this lovely walk, we got into a boat and went for a boat ride. Here I got to see my first live alligator sunbathing on the banks. This boat ride also included an opportunity to kayak part of the river. I originally had planned to do the kayak part, but then chickened out when I discovered that the river housed alligators and snakes so I stayed on the boat. The next part of this day tour was a safari, which included a ride through the forest down to the riverbank. Our guide at one point mentioned that the temperature can reach up to 47 degrees Celsius. Thankfully we're travelling during the "low season" as I cannot imagine what 47C would feel like. It's a different type of heat here because of the humidity. This next part of the tour was an up close and personal visit with the falls. We boarded a motorized raft and cruised out to the falls for some great photo ops. What happened next was the best part of the entire tour.....we were taken right into one of the many falls and got a great drenching. It was so cool. We were warned about getting soaked during this part, and getting soaked is an understatement of what exactly happens. Thankfully the sun was still warm and shining so I could dry off because I didn't bring a complete change of clothes with me.

We stayed at Charm Suites in Foz do Iguassu. Our host here was Marcio. This is a great hostel; very clean, with friendly and helpful staff. It was a great find and I highly recommended as a place to stay. The rate included breakfast, which was basic, but really good. We've discovered that the Brasilians like to serve little cakes at breakfast time along with the rest of your breakfast options which usually consists of a selection of breads, cereal, fruit and sometimes hot foods. I'm not sure if the little cakes is a Brasilian thing or catering to some other culture. Either way it's kinda neat that I can now justify eating cake for breakfast. Marcio arranged an airport pickup for us. Our driver was Evandro. Marcio also helped arrange our day tour at Iguassu Falls and drop off service to Argentina. Evandro was our driver for both these trips. He was really good and loved to drive really fast. It felt like we had our own personal chauffeur. He didn't speak English and with our limited Portuguese sometimes things got lost in translation, but we managed. The Argentina drop off service was great because it brought us to the hotel in Argentina so we could drop off our back packs and then took us to the Argentina side of Iguassu Falls where we got to spend a good 5 hours exploring this side. Evandro then picked us up from the falls and delivered us back to our hotel. What great service.