Well this really was the highlight of our trip to far!!

We arrived rather sleepy and jaded after a 16 hour night bus journey from São Paolo into Foz dos Iguazu on Wednesday morning and made our way to our guesthouse. The guesthouse was really more like a B&B where we shared the living spaces with the owners and you couldn't come in the front door without walking through their living room where they were often there with their 2 month old son Lucas and Marley their sweet little dog. So it was quite close and personal but the room was really nicely decorated and we were only there one night. They were also extremely welcoming.

Foz is a city divided by three countries, Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. The borders run along two rivers that meet in the centre of the city. The Brazilian and Argentinian sides of the city are famous for the Iguazu Waterfalls which can be seen from different perspectives in both countries. The towns themselves are nothing special.

Once we'd dropped our bags off we headed straight for the Iguazu Waterfalls on the local bus. We paid the entrance fee and took another bus inside the park to reach the trail that took you to multiple viewing points along the Brazilian side of the Waterfalls. This was a truly amazing experience, the falls span a huge distance and fall with such power because of the volume of water. It was amazing fun taking pictures (I will add as many as possible to the blog page), standing in the spray created by the falls and making our way up the viewing point ... With a see through floor!! Once we'd finished the trail we had a drink by the river at the top and headed back to the guesthouse for a much needed 2 hour nap :-)!

In the evening we headed to a Italian restaurant 'La Mafia' for a bowl of pasta before heading back to bed.

The following morning we got up early and after a great breakfast we made our way to the bus stop to catch the bus to cross the boarder to Argentina. I have never crossed a land broader before that wasn't in the EU so I was quite excited. It was fairly pain free and we made it to our hotel in Argentina at about 10am. We headed straight to the bank to get some Pesos only to find that there was a huge queue and as the hotel and waterfalls didn't take card we ended up queuing for about an hour to get money out .... It's starting to feel like perhaps South America wasn't the most efficient place in the world.

After this small blip we rushed to jump on the bus to the falls as there was rain predicted which we wanted to do our best to avoid. The park was really quiet as it is out of season at the moment which was great as it meant the viewpoints were quiet and there was no queue for the train that took you up the mountain. This was my favourite side of the falls, the sun shone and the views were spectacular. At the top of the viewing trail the viewpoint took you in a walk across the river at the top of the falls before reaching the end which was so close to where the falls we're crashing down it was slightly terrifying. A truly amazing sight and experience, we both loved it. The fact you could get so close was spectacular.

After spending a few hours at the park we called it a day and headed back to chill out before going out for dinner. We had booked a recommended steak restaurant called Aqva as we felt that if you are in Argentinian you have to try a steak! The food was delicious and we polished off another bottle of great red Malbec before heading back and going to bed.

On the Friday we were both a bit tired and it was pouring with rain so we decided to take it easy. We walked the short walk to see the point in the river where the three borders meet then relaxed for the rest of the day and ate in in the evening.

The next day we flew to Campo Grande to visit the Pantanal.

I will blog again soon.

Alice
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