Brazil, Part 3 - Iguazu Waterfalls

Heat, swimming, birds...check. The next, and perhaps most exciting thing we did was visit the Iguazu Waterfalls.

This has been on my "long list of places I want to visit (but realize I may never get to most of them)" for quite some time. So I was thrilled to be able to check this off on my list.

We walked across the street from the Bird Park to the entrance of the Waterfalls park. I tried to get my parents the 50% off discount for seniors, only to learn that this is a discount for Brazilian seniors, and the nice ticket man wouldn't make an acception. Even if they "just moved" to Brasilia two weeks ago...nothing was getting past this ticket salesman. Oh well.

We boarded a bus that was going to take us a few km to the start of the waterfalls. While waiting on that bus, I was fixing my hair and my hair binder snapped in half. I had no extras along, and as my thick, long, frizzy hair hung in my face I just about cried.  Honestly. I couldn't imagine spending the whole rest of the day with my hair everywhere, in 100+ degrees and wind. Not to mention how horrible I would look in photos of this once in a lifetime visit. Fortunately, there was a very kind woman sitting behind me that shortly into my mini-tantrum tapped me on my shoulder and handed me a hair binder. Bless her heart. I repeated "Obrigada" (thank you) over and over again for her, tried to ask her if it was an extra one and was she really sure I could have it, and she kept nodding and smiling. I was saved! I later heard her speaking French, so no wonder she didn't say much to my Portuguese. 

The bus dropped us off at a spot that had signs for the "First Viewing" or something like that. We walked down a zig zag ramp and ended up seeing the most beautiful sight.

We were overlooking Argentina, and could see the catwalks over the falls that that side of the falls were known for. I felt a bit jealous that we would miss that experience, but hoped we wouldn't be disappointed staying on the Brazilian side. We weren't.

The Brazilian side of the Iguazu Waterfalls actually allows for amazing panoramic views. Which is exactly what I wanted.

We proceeded down a path (that actually went up and then down) along with several hundred other tourists, stopping along the way to take in the view. There were a few stopping points along the way where we'd find even MORE waterfalls. It was never ending. The entire thing is 1.7 miles long, with anywhere from 150-300 individual waterfalls depending on the water levels. None of us expected that, so to say it took our breath away is an understatement.

You might think I am a rather patient person, but in many situations I am not. Put me with a crowd of tourists and I go crazy with impatience. So this trek down narrow paths with people stopping in their tracks for photos, blocking everyone else, was not so easy for me. Oh the worst were the people stopping to take pictures of the raccoon-type animals that were running around looking for food. Did they really need to stop, crouch, and perform a mini photo shoot with these critters? I don't think so. We had waterfalls to see, people!

I adored having the panoramic function on my iPhone, especially for an expansive place like this.

As we approached the bottom of the trail, we found ourselves at a giant catwalk out over the river. We ventured out a bit, snapped a few quick photos, and then I headed back to land as I was concerned about my camera getting wet from the spray of the waterfalls. My parents stayed back with my camera while Jon and I ventured out farther, this time with my little waterproof camera.  We reached the end of the catwalk, in the middle of the river, and got drenched. There was a U-shaped spread of giant waterfalls at the end here, and the spray from them was incredible. It was refreshing and exhilarating. 

 

We spent at least 30 minutes or more out there, staring in awe of the massive amounts of water rushing over the edge, feeling the cool spray, taking photos, amazed at how nature is so incredible.  It was peaceful and beautiful. My parents headed out to end of the catwalk for their experience of the powerful falls while I hung back on dry land (though now dripping wet) with my camera. They came back soaking wet too but with giant smiles on their faces. Pretty sure my dad couldn't have asked for a better way to spend his birthday.

We had to literally convince Jon to leave. It was so adorable to see him enjoy it so much. He would have stayed out there all day. I don't blame him. We will never see anything quite like that again.

We took an elevator up to the top of the ravene, where we found ourselves level with the river. Woah. 

Afterwards, we headed to the restaurant onsite for some lunch.  It was delicious: rice and beans, beef of many varieties, veggies, fruit. Oh and Guarana...I love this Brazilian soda.  It's sweet and sort of fruity and full of lots of caffeine.

We asked our waiter (which in Brazil were almost always men) if they did anything for birthdays, but got a confused look.  He sent over another waiter, and I asked again, using the Portuguese word for birthday, but we were still lost in translation.  Eventually the dessert man came over with a tray of desserts to purchase, so we realized that they must not follow this common tradition we have here.  Our waiter walked me up to pay our bill at the counter (and stood next to me while we waited, which was weird), and by the time I got back to the table my dad had a big piece of cake!  The dessert man must have finally figured out what we were asking for.  I tell you, I have never realized how much of a blessing it is to be able to communicate with people until this trip.  Probably because our trips have usually been to Spanish-speaking places.

That afternoon we hopped back in the pool to cool off, did some great people watching (Frenchies and Russians galore), and played Phase 10.  We were exhausted from our adventures that day, that's for sure!