The Falls - Iguassu/Iguaco

Today was an amazing day! We woke up a little bit later after 9am and then rushed to have breakfast and use our bathroom (yet another one with no door) before Leo arrived at 10am. I went out to greet him with a big hug – we hadn’t seen each other in five years, since we lived together in a hostel in Poland. He was wearing winter thermals and I was in a singlet! He hadn’t changed much and he told me I was exactly the same. He still had his crazy laugh that broke his solemn exterior at random and we got along well. Susie joined us, we got in his Chevvy and he drove us to the falls.

It was so good having a Portuguese speaker there. All the little things you take for granted, like ordering a ticket, knowing the correct line, being able to ask questions were no problem at all. We bought our tickets and hopped on the bus to the start of the park. The jungle wasn’t as lush as I was expecting, it was a bit drier but cool inside. First up was a spectacular view of the falls in front of a pink hotel.

Then we descended down a walk, ended up one of the tiers of river level. It was spectacular and there were so many rainbows in different directions, plus a cloud of water vapour rising into the sky. We walked along the platform, the ground dropping beneath us down at least 20 meters, with tonnes of water rushing below our feet. It was awesome in the truest sense of that word.

We were mildly soaked and walked back up the path. Leo hadn’t joined us out on the platform. At the top we had some lunch at a buffet. It was kind of random but they had feijoada and other traditional Brazilian food that Leo was able to explain to us. My favourite was fried rice with chorizo and herbs in it. And also banana and mayonnaise salad – it sounds bizarre but it’s actually quite tasty. There was a guitarist playing traditional Brazilian music.

Leo dropped us off at the bird sanctuary where they rescued rainforest birds. There were flamingos, all sorts of strange tropical parrots, these black birds with square orange beaks the size of swans, cassowaries, TUCANS, macaws, owls... it was amazing. There was also an iguana, anaconda and a boa constrictor. My favourite cage was the hummingbirds and oversized butterflies, it smelt so sweet from all the fruit out for the butterflies to eat. You could see their tongues sticking out. And the hummingbirds were incredible to see in real life – so tiny but so fast. We spent a good two hours here and felt really calm afterwards.

The bus ride back to town was packed and super bumpy if you were standing, like we were. Ten minutes later we were back in our hostel for some relaxing time. Leo unfortunately had to cross the border to Paraguay with his father, but he told us a good acai place for dinner, near our hostel.

We had really fresh burgers and a big bowl of acai with strawberry and banana on top. Delicious! To top it off, our hostel was giving out free caipirinhas when we returned, so we had one by the pool. It felt like the first day we had a cultural experience delivered to us in a way we could understand. Of course the last two weeks have been packed full of different cultural aspects, but normally we can’t understand what anyone is saying, let alone what is going on, and then which foods to try or music to hear etc. It was so nice being part of the tourism trail and having Leo there to explain everything further for us.

Journey to the Devil’s throat – day two in Iguacu

Today we got up slightly earlier in preparation for our trip to Argentina! We left the hostel around 9.30am and got a bus quickly. (this was very lucky considering that most of the buses were on strike). It stopped at the border and we got our passports stamped, it even waited for us to get back on, which apparently most don’t. On the other side we weren’t sure where to get off, where the town was or what it looked like. We chose a random stop by a petrol station that actually turned out to be the right one, but we didn’t know until later. Going back to a Spanish-speaking country after 3 days of Portuguese was like being embraced with a warm hug. Suddenly we weren't so isolated, if we needed something we knew how to ask.

Three woman in hiking boots were at the stop talking in Spanish. I asked them if this was the right place to catch the bus, they said yes and we could follow them. Then they realised we could share a taxi for the same price, which made us think, we don’t have any Argentian money! We asked how much the bus was – 80 pesos each. I only had 120 spare change. They told us where to find an ATM.

Down the road at the bank there was a huge queue, so we continued on to a tourist desk with a cambio – money changer. Luckily we both bought $20 USD, so we converted that to pesos. The lady told us to wait at the bus stop in front of the fire station. We waited there for ages. Like 45 minutes, which is a long time to wait if you’re not sure if you’re in the right place. A bus to Cataratas (the falls) turned up a one-way street. So we hiked back up the hill to the other stop.

It was another 30 minute wait, but eventually a bus came. We got to the falls around midday. The entry fee was 600 pesos – more than we had! We had to pay with our tarjetas (credit cards). Then we began walking through the quiet complex in the jungle, it felt like a scene out of Jurassic park. It was a little too quiet. There are jaguars and pumas in this jungle, lots of signs told you to lift your children up if you saw one.

There were several different trails each about 3km, the longest requiring a train ride. A man who had learned ‘New Zealand’ from ‘the boys in Christchurch’ told us in left on the hour in English. The first walk was along the tops of the waterfalls, looking down the huge drops below. All the paths were on these metal boardwalks with handrails.

For the second walk, we got the train to the ‘devil’s throat’. The walk was long over serene wide rivers. Suddenly the ground dropped and it was like the edge of the earth. More water than I could ever imagine was pouring over the edge, somehow from this almost unmoving river.

It was in a U shape so all the water poured in together, you couldn’t even see halfway down past the waterfall from all the spray. Looking at it I got instant vertigo. Words cannot describe how huge and powerful it was – falling off the rail would be certain death.

On the walk back from that one I got stung by an unknown insect. Then we order subway, which was bizarrely in this place in the middle of the jungle, only to be swarmed by those possum creatures. We hid the sandwiches in our bags and sat on the little train, stomping our feet every time one got close, which was at least every 10 seconds. It was like being in Jurassic park when the dinosaurs were attacking from every direction, if the dinosaurs were actually possums after your lunch. It was quite stressful! A little boy behind us helped stomp them away and I asked his mother the time, because we were hungry and couldn't eat until the train started.

The third walk was below the falls, we didn’t complete it because there were so many Spanish speaking tours of slow old people to walk around. We marched back to the front gate around 4.30pm, not wanting to miss the border crossing that closed at 7pm.

The bus back was much easier this time, except Susie bought postcards forgetting she’d need the pesos for the bus on this side! Luckily the second one accepted Real.

We had a little relax at the hostel and got another acai bowl at 7pm. Leo came over at 8pm after being in Paraguay again, he took us to the best coxinha place in town. They are like chicken pies with herbs and mayonnaise, deep-fried, shaped in a tear drop. It was so delicious. We also had brigadeiro, a truffle type dessert Leo had made at Christmas in Poland.

Then he went to a petrol station and bought me a SIM card. He explained there was a fuel strike in Brazil because prices got too high, we had noticed all the stations were cordoned off! That’s why the buses weren’t running. He came back to the hostel and set it up for me. We had a caipirinha outside by the pool and talked about old times, his job and living in Foz. It was really nice. Now we are ready to go to Ilha Grande – another epic journey begins