Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
We left Asuncion in the rain which sort of cooled things off and had a grey sky for the rest of the day as we crossed the border into Brazil. The truck stopped in the town of Foz do Iguazu for 30mins so we could take care of any internet or money needs before heading out to the campsite. After checking out the rooms a few of us decided to pay the extra for the upgrade for the 3 nights. Some may call it cheating, I call it putting money to good use for a good night sleep!! Then it was time for our group to cook, always fun in the hot cooking tent.
Thursday morning we were hitting Iguazu Falls from the Brazil side. We were taken to the Bird Park and given our entry tickets and then we were on our own. Since it was quite foggy, wasn´t able to do the helicopter ride first thing so visited the bird park which was lovely. Spent much more time in there than I thought I would. Lots of parrots, toucans, macaws, flamingos and many other species of birds, butterflies and lovely plants. Very well set out.
From here, headed over to the entrance to the national park. You have to get a bus which takes you to the beginning of the path for the grand overview of the falls and what a site. Takes your breath away. There are 275 falls over about 2.5kms in length. Devils Throat is at one end and is the most impressive, it´s hard to describe the sheer amount of water that is going over it. The path on the Brazil side is probably over 1km long, but gives great views all the way along. Lots of butterflies flying around and condors in the sky. At the Devils Throat, there was a walkway out towards it, but on the Brazil side it is lower.
Once finished here, I headed back to the helicopter and put myself on a flight over the falls. It was only 12mins long, for a whopping $100 but something I have wanted to do all along. I must say though, if anyone was considering doing it, do it first, before going to the falls because although it gives a great overview of the falls, it doesn´t have the same impact as if you haven´t already seen the falls. Still glad I did it though. Bus into town and used the internet before returning to the campsite for a lovely swim. The campsite cooked a BBQ for us for dinner which was a treat.
Friday morning, we had an early start and headed to the Argentina side of the falls, which meant another border crossing of course. Have about 8 Argentina stamps in my passport now (entry & exit). This side of the falls gives you the up close and personal view of different falls. Michaela, Mark and I headed out to the lower circuit walk where we caught the ferry over to San Martin Island which gave some great views of the falls, while cooling us down with the mist.
Walking thru the park, we came across South American racoons (Coati) which inhibit the park and love to come out especially where there is food. At one of the cafes, one had jumped onto a table, knocked over a can of coke and then sat there and lapped it all up. Wonder what sort of sugar high he will have!! We also saw monkeys and lots of mums with babies.
We caught the train out to the Devils Throat and from the train, there was a 1km of trail out over the rivers towards the throat which extended to the edge so apart from getting soaked you got a real sense of the power of the water going over the edge. It was fantastic.
Caught the train back and then did the upper walkway which is about 650m long across some of the other waterfalls. It´s hard to imagine that you could spend 2 days just looking at falls but the time just flew. They really are majestic.
Back to camp for another swim and then we met to go to the Refain Cultural show. This included a buffet dinner which was quite good, followed by a show which was meant to showcase dances from around the Americas. I´m not sure how to describe the show. It started off corny and seemed to only get worse. It really only started to improve at the end when it was Brazil´s turn to be celebrated. Maybe it was because they couldn´t care less about all the other countries.
Yesterday we had a long drive and had a couple of options for camping. We passed the first about 3pm and kept going and then they decided to bypass the next town and look for a bush camp. We pulled up at a service station on the highway as there was a green patch just behind it. Ross went in to ask if we could camp there (sort of hoping the answer was no as my belly wasn´t the best yesterday arvo) but Ross came out and said we had 3 options
1. There was actually hotel rooms above the service station and we could stay there and Tucan would pay but it would mean that some people would have to share double beds as there was exactly 31 spaces. Everyone said yes before we heard the next 2 options. They were to camp there or keep going to find somewhere else. We all chose the 1st option and it was very comfy. Better than camping.
We have now arrived at Bertioga for the afternoon and night. Not much here. Again, I have paid for a bed instead of camping and tomorrow we head to Paraty where we are going to run into about 10 other overland trucks, all heading to Rio for Carnival. The party is about to begin.
- comments