Brazilian Iguassu

We left an overcast Rio for our 2 hour flight to Iguassu where the sun was shining on a small airport in the middle of the rain forest. The pilot did a full turn over the falls so we could see them from the air, which was amazing and not a bad manoeuvre for a 737. We were met by our guide Edir who took us into the national park. We were very lucky as our hotel, Las Cataratas, was actually in the park itself, right next to the falls, so no daily bus trip in for us. The rain forest was spectacular and so incredibly dense you couldn’t have walked through it except on the trails. The hotel itself was very luxurious in the old colonial style and recently renovated. We had dinner on the terrace watching the sun set over the ‘smoke’ from the waterfalls which was magical.
The next morning we set off walking through the forest to the setting off point for the river boat trip, a couple of miles up the road. The trees and flowers were beautiful and the sound of the insects and birds was very loud. The boat trip started off with a 2km ride in an electric tram through the forest, the sides of the path festooned with webs with a huge spider in the middle of each one – we discovered later they were ‘golden thread’ spiders because of the colour of their webs and not poisonous, though they looked pretty evil! We then took a board walk down the steep sides to the river itself where we put on lifejackets, waterproofs and left shoes and bags in lockers to avoid them getting wet. The inflatable boat went upriver to the falls where they took us right under one of the smaller ones where we got completely soaked, despite the waterproofs and enjoyed a spectacular view of the falls. Despite the soaking it was great fun and the ride downriver, through the rapids, with forest on both sides was exhilarating. We didn’t see any alligators, just a small furry creature wandering around on the opposite beach. On the trip back John acquired a butterfly which rode all the way to the road on his hat, much to the delight of a Brazilian family of 3 small girls who clearly thought he had some mystical powers.
Back at the hotel we enjoyed a swim in the huge pool whilst we waited for the crowds to go back on their buses. Huge butterflies and brightly coloured birds were also enjoying the cool water at the pool’s edge and at one stage a huge iguana wandered across the lawn. Once the day visitors had gone we took the fall side walk with numerous view points and had the whole trail to ourselves, apart from the small, brightly coloured lizards who each seemed to own a particular section of the path and the huge iguanas, some of which were over 2 feet long. The falls are incredible, with 2300 cubic metres of water passing over them every second and huge drops. A walkway took us right under the largest falls, the Devil’s Throat so we got pretty wet once again and our luxury hotel room started to resemble the drying room at school.
We had another delicious dinner on the terrace and a final Caipirinha to mark our last night in Brazil.