South America, Days 154 to 156 - Stage 30: Iguazu Falls, Argentina to Foz do Iguacu, Brazil

The harpist in the restaurant on our last evening in Argentina

Day 154 Thursday continued 

After both getting square eyed, him doing the blog and me looking at how to do the Brazil side of the Iguazu Falls we decided to go out for our last steak and Argentinian Malbec. I had found a place I quite fancied, it had two cats, and was the place our receptionist recommended, so that was that. It was slightly away from the main street and when we got there looked a bit dark, though was open. Something wrong with the electrics, so few lights, no fan or AC, but strangely TV and WiFi. We stayed, it was easier than making another decision and ice on the pulse points works wonders. Another lady turned up, who we thought was with a man who turned out to be the harpist (I kid you not). After ascertaining she was from Somerset we asked her to join us as our dinner arrived and it was easier than craning round. She is on a 6 month sabbatical from her work at the church, though they seem to have organised a month on a Mission in Brazil and a month in Argentina. She had just finished in Brazil and crossed into Argentina, but was feeling as apprehensive as we were about changing country as she knows a little Portuguese and no Spanish while we are the other way round.

We had a lovely evening before walking her home, just round the corner and on our way back. Arriving at our hotel moments before the heavens opened.

The hotel cat came to say goodbye to us as we left Argentina, much to Jackie's delight!

Day 155 Friday 

Our last border crossing, a very touristy crossing as many people try and see both sides of the falls in a day or maybe two while staying on one side. We'd read that taxis have their own lane and are much quicker than buses so we'd contacted a guy called Guillermo De La Rosa, well recommended from the Argentina Facebook page we are on. He would have taken us to and from the falls which we decided wasn't necessary and we probably didn't really need him to cross the border, but why make life difficult? He picked us up, rang his contact on the Argentina border so we were through in seconds, didn't even get out of the car. Arrived in Brazil, he showed us where to go, passports stamped, he took our picture by the Brazil flag and we were off. We had to get out of the car, but the luggage didn't, how easy was that?

Photo at the Brazilian land border crossing. Another new country for us

We then asked a favour of him, could he take us to an ATM please, our last trip, into the Pantanal wants cash. We've still got quite a lot of dollars, but not enough, so serious withdrawals need to be made. 1000 Real at a time in 50 Real notes, now do that 4 times between us. We didn't really want to be walking the streets... He dropped us at our new hotel an hour after collecting us.

We had options, we could try and get a tour around the dam, or we could actually use the swimming pool. We did the latter. No sun, but very warm so we had a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon, practicing for the cruise home!

An afternoon chilling by the pool at the Dom Pedro I hotel in Foz do Iguacu, Brazil

Day 156 Saturday 

An Uber to the bird park which is just before the entrance to the falls where we can't have been far off first in, though is still felt a bit busy. The bird park was the creation of Dennis Kroukamp and his wife who met in Namibia, moved to the isle of Man and then established this park in 1994, without cutting down any trees, to preserve and protect endangered and trafficked birds. He died 2 years later but the park is a tribute to him. We finished with a snack here before walking to the Falls park, bought tickets and raided the ATM here too. 

Inn the bird park today and this is a Scarlet Ibis. Fabulous looking birds

Although the park is physically bigger than the Argentina one there is only really one walking trail so you get on a bus for 20 minutes to be dropped off for the 1.5km walk. We still got wet and the views were still stunning, but a much shorter day. So I'm writing while lying by the pool again! Guillermo said Foz du Iguacu is not a touristy town, and not very safe. Add to that the location of the hotel and it's easier just to stay put!

They've got very big leaves here!

I will have to move shortly though to try and get us many of my clothes into my hand luggage as possible. Our flight to Cuiaba tomorrow has a connection in Sao Paulo and I'm getting more and more paranoid about the luggage arriving at the same time we do. Hopefully there should be enough time on this trip, it's the one out to Rio, on Friday that is more scary, Azul, a Brazilian budget airline, changed our flights without letting us know and we now have a 1 hr 40 minute connection in Sao Paulo, keep everything crossed!

This toucan looked like he meant business!

In with the Macaws, I took lots of photos but I really wanted one in flight, this was the nearest I got

Caught in the act of stalking a macaw hoping he would fly off and I could get a good photo

We stayed on until feeding time

There were lots of different birds in the park and I took many photos but we moved on to the falls. The Brazilian side gives much more of a panoramic view, but it's not possible to get them all into one photo, this is just a part of them

This is an aerial view of the falls I stole from the internet and it shows just how extensive they are. At the top is the devils throat, the first walk we did on the Argentinian side. Argentina is to the right, Brazil is to the left. We thought about doing a helicopter ride to get this view, the price was £88 per person, quite do-able we thought, but the reviews were very variable. People who got a window seat raved about it, but people in the middle seat, who paid the same amount, gave it one star as they could see very little past other people. We decided one of us would end up in the middle so decided against it. It's only a 10 minute flight anyway 

What did we see down there from our vantage point? The boat ride into the falls. We spoke to some people next to us and told them we'd done it two days ago. They are going to do it tomorrow so we were able to tell them to put their shoes and all electronic cameras into a dry bag, you'll get very wet. However, you're going to love it!

There they go, right into the spray, we remember it well!

This is looking up the falls towards the devils throat

There's a walkway they've built out into the falls, we'll have to go out there despite it looking wet and very busy

It certainly gets you out into the thick of it. Lots of spray around and we got quite wet. I was a bit worried about my camera which isn't waterproof but it seems ok. Forgot about my hearing aids though, one stopped working but a good dry out and it seems OK again

Over the edge into the abyss! These always look so much more dramatic when you're there

At the furthest point looking back, you can see the spray

Dramatic shots

At the top of the falls, looking across to the Argentinian side. Those people are standing where we stood a couple of days ago looking down into the Devils Throat. You can't really see it, but there's a huge void down which the water is cascading

I'll finish with this. I had to take some panorama videos of parts of the falls in various parts of the walk and, in this YouTube I've just stuck them together just to give an idea of the atmosphere. It's only just over a minute and a half long. That's it from Iguazu Falls, signing off from here, see you in the Pantanal with, hopefully, some photos of Jaguar (the wild cats not the cars), which we've been assured is very likely (100% certain our tour organiser said, which is always a bit of a worry - how can anyone give a 100% guarantee?)