Day 8: Our overnight bus arrived in Puerto Iguazu, still in Argentina, at midday. We then got mini buses and transferred through the border to Brazil and to our hotel in Foz do Iguazu town, Brazil's gateway to the Iguazu Falls. No time to rest, we went for a group buffet lunch in town then headed to the Brazilian side of Iguazu Falls and Parque Nacional do Iguazu, a UNESCO world heritage site, jointly managed by both Brazil and Argentina. The falls border, Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina and to see the falls properly they need to be viewed from both the Brazilian and Argentinian sides. The falls are formed by the waters of the Iguazu river, Iguazu means 'big water or river' and are actually made up of 275 waterfalls. The Brazilian side of the falls had a 1.2km walkway with great views over the falls and which lead to Garganta do Diabo or 'Devils Throat', 90m high, where the Iguazu river makes its single most dramatic plunge, splitting into dozens of waterfalls. The walkways meant we could get quite close to the falls, it also meant we got wet from the spray! The water was very brown due to the fact they'd just had ten days of constant rain. It was amazing to see and we had perfect weather, a very hot sunny day. We saw lots of Quatis, like racoon's, around the park, apparently they can be a bit of a pest attacking people for food. In the evening we went out for a nice group meal to a nearby bar/restaurant where they served 2.5litre 'tubes' of beer!
Day 9: today we visited the Argentinian side of the falls. We followed walkways again that gave fantastic views of the falls, the weather wasn't so good today though, very overcast. Part of the walkway which took you right out over the top of the falls was washed away in a huge flood last year when the falls had six times the normal amount of water flowing over them, the walkway is currently being rebuilt. After visiting the viewing platforms we went on a speedboat trip to the base of the falls. We were transported in large four wheel drive tourist trucks for about half an hour through the jungle then boarded a speed boat and told to he prepared to get soaked! It had started raining by this time so we were getting wet anyway. The boat trip was fantastic, it took us up close to the base of falls in two different locations, keeping us dry to start with to take photos. People without waterproof cameras had time to put them away safe in dry bags before we went in for a double dunking/soaking under the spray of the falls. It was great fun and the water was surprisingly warm, warmer than the rain. It was a same it wasn't a hot sunny day like the previous day to dry off, we had a change of clothes though.
In the evening we went to a Churrascaria, Latin American Show. A great evening with dance performances from eight countries, Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Chile, Uruguay and Mexico, all countries we've visited on this trip except Mexico and an all you can eat buffet meal included.
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