Saturday 10 March 2012

Iguassu Falls


Day  6-9       To Iguassu Falls

We left Sao Paolo to go to a town called Curitiba - Another travel day with a long bus journey on a remarkably comfortable bus. It seems that travelling long distances by bus is common practice here  and they  are all amazingly comfortable with fantastic leg room, and reclining seats.  Again the scenery was beautiful with lush, tree covered hills, banana plantations and meandering rivers.
 
We arrived in Curitiba in the afternoon. It was cooler as it is at an altitude of 900m. Apparently from a quality of living perspective this is considered to be one of the best  places to live in Brazil. It is a pleasant place, but nothing very exciting going on there.


Devil´s Throat from above
From there we had an overnight bus journey to Foz di Iguassu, the town closes to the Brazilian side of the Iguassu falls.  I treated myself to a helicopter trip over the falls which was very exciting.










The falls are really amazing - the longest curtain of water of any falls in the world.  The main part is called the Devil´s Throat as it almost closes into a circle down which the water thunders.

Apparently we saw the falls at relatively low water as there has been a drought in northern Argentina - I cannot imagine what it would be like at full flood!














Before we went to the falls we also a visited a bird park and saw many of the exotic birds that are found in these parts. My favourites are the Toucans!

















Finally we visited the falls and saw them from every angle - fantastic!!



In the evening we went to a show with all the different music and dances from different countries in South America.  It was a bit cheesy, but was also very interesting to see (and hear) the differences.  For example Paraguayan music always involved a small harp!

We crossed the border early the next morning and spent the whole day at the Argentinian side of the falls.  They are even more spectacular from this side.  The highlight of the day was a boat trip under the falls -  so much fun - so wet!


One of the boats under the falls
Some of our group on the boat - before ......














After ...











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