Foz du Iguacu, Brazil

Well we are not on QV anymore. Although they are not actually uncomfortable, the mattress and pillows at this hotel leave a lot to be desired, after 4 weeks of a luxurious mattress and pillows and blissful sleep. I look forward to returning to our cabin again!

It was great to wake up and see the falls outside our window. We went down to the breakfast buffet – it was actually very similar to the Lido breakfast buffet, and even had the same toaster. However, there was no toaster rage, just a nice young man watching your toast for you. The big difference was that next to the orange juice was an ice bucket containing sparkling wine, and champagne glasses. I like to start my day with a mimosa.

Paulo came by and picked us up at 7:45 to take us to see the falls on the Argentinean side. Armed with hats, cameras, sunscreen, water bottles, and our passports we headed off for the one-hour drive to the Argentinean park. We stopped off at a large souvenir store (Tres Fronteiras Artesanato e Chocolate) to change some money into Argentinean pesos which we needed to be able to pay for the park entrance fee, and soft drinks. There is an ATM at the park, but we didn’t want to risk it not working. As it turned out it was not working.

Crossing the border was quick and easy, but not so for the passengers in the car in front of us who seemed to have everything from their car out on the road, with several customs officials pulling it all apart.

Argentina is one hour ahead of Brazil, so we arrived in the park just before it opened at 8:00, and thus avoided the crowds. Paulo then steered us to the train station to catch the “Ecological Jungle Train”. The first 2 trains in the morning go directly to the Devil’s Throat Falls, with later trains you have to change trains at the Cataratas station. It was a beautiful ride through the rain forest to the Devil’s Throat station; the ride in itself would have been worth the trip. It is then about a 2000 yard walk to the viewing platform. The walk itself is very interesting as you are walking over the river, and there is plenty of wild life to see, including caimans, rather nasty raccoon like creatures called coatis, butterflies, turtles, and enormous cat fish. There are also many giant insects – next time I will bring bug spray. The weirdest creature we saw was a long black slithering object looking like a large slug, but on closer inspection it was actually not one animal, but made up of hundreds of small caterpillars. They group themselves together so that they look like a large fierce animal, rather than the very small insignificant creatures that they are. I was certainly convinced, and made sure I got away from it as soon as possible. Paulo was very good at pointing out most of the flora and fauna to us, but not so good with birds. I would point to a bird and ask what it was, and he would reply “a bird”. Not very helpful.

Finally after a long walk you get to the Devil’s Throat falls, and they are amazing. You can feel the power of the water going over the edge, and the noise is very loud. Getting there early was a good plan; apparently later in the day it is hard to get a space to see the falls from the platform.

We then retraced our steps to the station, and took the train to the Cataratas station where after a bathroom break we set off on the lower circuit trail, followed by the upper circuit trail. Both are spectacular. Whether you are seeing the falls from below or above, they are stunning. There are also so many of them – 275 according to Paulo, with the highest being 270 feet. Each waterfall we saw was more spectacular than the one before. I would drive and hike miles just to see any one of them, and here they all are within 1.7 miles of each other. It feels like the earth has sprung a leak, and her contents are pouring out all over the place in a playful manner. You can feel the power of the water all around you. It truly is one of the most beautiful places I have been.

Not only are the falls magnificent, so are the paths connecting the viewing platforms. There are a huge variety of plants, all of which seem bigger and brighter than their relatives back home. The orchids and bromeliads are especially wonderful, as are the palm trees and bamboo.

There were also some very large, scary looking spiders. When I asked Paulo about them, he calmly told me that the park was full of very, very poisonous spiders, and just as I was going a bit green he added, “oh, and a lot of very poisonous snakes, we should look out for them”. No anacondas luckily. However there are several jaguars, and Paul had seen one last month in the park near to our hotel. More at my comfort level we came across a family of capuchin monkeys on our walk back to the exit. I had felt bad that we didn’t have time to do a jungle walk while we were in the Amazon, and here we were totally immersed in the jungle again, getting to see everything the forest had to offer, so we really didn’t miss out.

It was lunchtime by the time we got to the exit, and we opted to partake of the lunchtime buffet at the park’s restaurant. The buffet was quite expensive, and there was a lot of food, but not great quality or variety. I would have preferred to go somewhere for an empanada.

After lunch we headed back to Brazil, and did a 10-minute helicopter ride over the falls. It is very short, but does give you enough time to get a really good look at the falls and the surrounding jungle. The helicopter seats 7 passengers – 4 in the back and 3 in the front. The way embarkation works is that the first 4 people were directed to enter through the left hand door and to sit in the back, and the other 3 were directed to the right hand door, and to sit in the front. I did have a good view from my seat at the back, but it does look like the view from the front seats is superior. Your place in the queue is something to think about before you get onto the helicopter.

Once back to earth we went across the road to visit the Bird Park. On entering the park there are flamingoes and scarlet ibis in a large cage. The scarlet ibis is of a bright red color that I would not have believed to exist in nature. They totally look like someone has dyed them that color. I was disappointed that they were in cages, and thought that the whole park was going to be like that. I was wrong. Although there are some birds in cages, many are out in the open, and there are huge aviaries where you can walk through and meet the birds up close and personal. They also have a reptile area where they have hungry looking caimans and contented looking turtles coexisting in one large enclosure. I love turtles, so I was very happy to see them. The anaconda was nowhere to be seen in his enclosure, but I was informed by a very worried looking park worker that he was hiding, and had not escaped. I was further concerned that the boa constrictor was nowhere to be seen in his enclosure. Then I saw him happily winding his way around a tree out in the open next to the enclosure, being supervised by another worker. Brian then made the inevitable remark that here we had been searching the continents for a boa for me to wear on the Roaring 20s nights, and I did not seem to be at all interested in taking this one home with me. Silly Brian, I need a black one to go with my outfit, and this one was all mottled and wouldn’t look right at all.

All this bird and reptile watching on a hot, steamy afternoon was making us thirsty, and soon we rounded a corner, and there was the refreshment stand. Not a Coke in sight – they were selling coconuts, and you just put your straw in it, and drink the juice. Healthier than a Coke, but sometimes I just need my caffeine.

Next we went to meet the eagles. The first ones we saw looked like a very disgruntled bunch. I checked their names, and it said they were Happy eagles. Now here is a misnomer if there ever was one. I was discussing this with Brian, whi pointed out that they were really Harpy eagles, Myopia strikes again, I really do need to get new gasses, this keeps on happening.

My two favourite aviaries were the Toucan and Macaw enclosures. There are 7 species of toucans in Brazil and all of them can be found in the park. Paulo later told me that he frequently sees them at the hotel, but they are not very polite. There are a lot of birds’ nests in the trees at the hotel, and the toucans like to raid the nests for eggs, and even eat the young chicks. It did seem to sound a bit unsociable, but toucans are not vegetarians, and do need to eat. After all, it’s a jungle out there.

The macaw aviary is absolutely huge, and there are many birds there of all colors and sizes. Most are so brightly colored that again I though that these are not colors that should occur in nature, but I’m sure no one has been by to spray paint them those shades of blue, red, and purple. We spent quite a while there as Brian wanted to take a photo of one in flight. Although they were flying all over the place, trying to capture this with his camera was proving to be a challenge. It was magical in there, and I was reminded of being in the Enchanted Tiki Room at Disneyland.

By then we realized that we had been in the park for nearly 2 hours, and felt sorry for Paulo waiting for us in the car, so we headed to the exit. I enjoyed the bird park far more than I thought I would, and could have happily spent even more time there.

Back at the hotel we headed straight for the pool to cool off. When we had agreed on which loungers we wanted (shade vs. sun), the pool assistant placed our towels on the chairs and gave us extra towels – it was all very civilized. We swam for ages, and then dried off drinking the complimentary watermelon and lime caipirinhas. When the sun was starting to go down we headed back to our room and changed for dinner (Cunard traditions die hard), and headed out on to the balcony in front of the bar to watch the sunset. I decided not to have another caipirinha, and switched to a Pina Colada. You cannot see the falls from the bar, but we could watch the sun disappear behind the trees. A very pretty sight it was too.

We opted for the dinner buffet again, and had a lovely evening sitting outside near to the pool, and then headed back to the bar again before finally returning to our room, and not so comfortable bed.