Jan. 30 Iguazu Falls

Our guide Flavio told us yesterday that we were going to be joined by a lady travelling on her own. When we went down to breakfast, I set my water thermos on the table and went to the buffet. I came back with my orange juice and Lawrie had put his food and on the table and gone to get a coffee. While I went back to get my food, I could hear Lawrie talking to someone. A lady was accusing him of taking her table. She had put her orange juice there. He invited her to join us, but she just scowled and walked away. Guess who joined us on the tour? She scowled a lot but at times was very pleasant. 
Today we visited the falls from the Brazilian side. The Iguazu falls National Park is on both the Argentinian side (67720 hectares) and on the Brazilian side (185262 hectares). We arrived at around 8:30 am to walk through the rainforest along the river. The views of the falls on the Argentinian side just kept getting better and better. There are 275 waterfalls covering a length of 2700 metres. The highest drop is 82 metres. Compare that to Niagara Falls with 4 waterfalls, a width of 945 metres and a height of 54 metres. 

After about 2 hours of walking and stopping to take photos, we arrived at the Devil’s Throat. A raised walkway led us out over the water through the mist to the viewing platform. The thundering of the water was amazing and should be with 1750 cubic metres per second going over the falls. We were thoroughly soaked when we returned to the path. This photo is the Devil’s Throat from a distance. 

We had all decided to take the helicopter ride over the falls. It was a quick 10 minute ride, but it gave us a wonderful panoramic view and helped us orient what we had seen. It also showed us the magnitude of the falls. 


We decided we needed some lunch, so we returned to the city to another Churrasscaria. The meat at this one was better than the night before, but as it was a restaurant set up to accommodate tourists buses, they did not come around to the tables to serve the meat.
After lunch, we went to the Bird Park, the best we have ever been to. It was the most natural and the enclosures were very high and roomy. The birds and butterflies were so colourful. 


When we returned to the hotel, we were on a mission to find an adapter that would fit the unusual Brazilian outlets. The hotel did not have any to lend and directed us to the gas station, who directed us to the pharmacy, who directed us to the computer store, who directed us to the hardware store. Success!
We were so full from lunch that we need some wine and some snacks for supper. 

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