Foz do Iguacu

On Monday (6/10/08) i left for Foz do Iguacu (said "Iguazu") on a approx 10 hour bus trip (the buses are a lot nicer than in new Zealand). When i got to the Pousada (inn) that I was staying at the owners had already gone to bed but I woke them up by ringing the doorbell and then gave me a nice welcome (they speak English) and then i went to bed. The next morning after breakfast Evalina the nice owner of the pousada went through my options for the day and also just generally chatted away have fantastic the weather was and how good the falls are. The Iguacu falls are the main attraction and are world famous (and rightly so as you'll see later). The river is also the border between Brazil and Argentina (and the parauguan border is not right next door as well) so I decided to go over to the Argentinian side. So me and a french couple and evelina and the driver set off. Evelina knows everyone at the border crossings so we crossed over quickly. The falls are also part of two national parks on both sides of the border and so here you have to pay to get in. Anyway after having to say no to a few expensive adventure experience thingies I wondered off along the walkway to the falls taking photos of lizards and little hamster like things on the way. As you will be able to see from the photos the falls are very big and there are various walkways so that you can look at different parts of the falls and from the top and from the bottom. At some lookouts you can end up getting pretty wet. The river also had a lot more water than usually which means that they were even more impressive then usual. Unfortunately this also meant that there were no trips to the island in the middle of the falls because the ferry didn't have anywhere to land on the island with that much water. As a major tourist attraction there were lots of people there, but this also meant that they obviously get enough money so that they can run the wee train that takes you to different parts of the falls. While i don't mind walking I did find the train fun. While i was there I also saw a coati and group of about 20 monkeys (see videos), but if you want to see butterflies then come to the Iguacu Falls. There are millions of them and hundreds of different species. On the train we would sometimes drive through butterfly clouds. And then I also saw quite a lot of vultures who seem to like hanging around the falls. There are also a lot of suicidal birds (or at least seem to be) that like to fly through the waterfalls in order to hang out with their mates on the cliff behind the waterfalls.
Later in the day I went on a small trek to see another smaller waterfall nearby along the track I saw more butterflies and also some sort of small bush pig or something like that. Unfortunately I couldn't get any good photos of them. The waterfall had a swimming hole at the bottom but I decided not to go for a swim. Firstly because I don't really know what lives in those sort of holes and secondly because I didn't realise that the walk was that long and need to get back quickly to catch the last bus. When I arrived back in town (I think Foz do Iguacu has about 300,000 inhabitants) I missed my bus stop, so after walking around for a good while I got a taxi not knowing that if I had just walked a few hundred metres further I would have know where I was. oh, well.


The next day I visited the Brazilian side of the falls, but first I went for a visit to the bird park. This was absolutely awesome with so many awesome tame birds. One of the walk-in enclosure even had hummingbirds and butterflies in it. This was fantastic watching the hummingbirds sucking nectar and "humming" (hehe) past your ear so that you get a fright. I had a good time seeing the falls and got myself a bit wet again although a bit tough on my poor camera, but seems to be alright, a lot of the videos seem to be overexposed but hopefully you get the general idea, although still not as good as being there. After that I bused back into town (getting off at the right place this time) and went to the supermarket and got some food and then had a swim in the pool at the pousada. I then walked to the bus stop where I just about got on the wrong bus. the bus I went back to Curitiba with was really, really nice. It had basically cinema seats that tilted back and had foot rests. We also got given some chocolate and other goodies. We left about 9:30 in the evening so I tried to sleep as much as possible on the long trip back. Although they were easier to sleep in then in a plane I only slept on and off (a bed is still better). When we arrived Patrik and Kilian picked me up and we drove back home.