This morning I woke up... Feeling slightly better today, however still quite blocked up!!
I had some breakie, making sure I had heaps of orange juice. I need to boost my vitamin c.... Hopefully reducing the length of this cold!!!
It was then time to head off to the Brazilian side of the iguazu falls!!! We were promised that the Brazilian side of the falls were so much better than the Argentinian side. I thought the argentine side was great, so I couldn't wait to see what the Brazilian side had in stall for us.
We arrived at the start of the national park, where we all had to get out of the bus. Wilson got our tickets for us, and we then went through the entrance gates to the park. On the other side of the gate, our bus had been driven round to meet us. We all jumped back on board the coach and were driven another 10 mins down the road to the start of the trail heading towards the falls. Most visitors have to catch the colourful free shuttles from the entrance to the trails, however most tour groups have permission to take their own private buses there. It's a rule that was introduced to try and reduce the number of private vehicles entering the park, in turn reducing emissions and road kill.
Wilson gave us instructions on where we needed to go once we hit the trails, but before we did that we had to stop on the path for the Globus group photo.
Stop the traffic. We literally stopped in the middle of the pathway where everyone wanted to get through to start their adventure. We all line up ready for the photo. The photographer had picked the worst location to stand, as just behind him was the sun. None of us could look at the camera without our burning our retinas. I felt like there was fire in my eyes. The photographer took a couple of photos, and I know that my eyes were shut for at least one of those photos, and crying for the other!! I just know that this photo is going to be hidious. We will just have to wait and see how it turns out!!
Once the photo was taken, we then hit the trail. We slowly wound our way down the trail. Everyone was right, this side is so much better than the Argentinian side. You could get great panoramic views of all of the falls!! Simply put it, it's some of the most amazing views I have ever seen!! I took so many photos.
Around each corner was a new aspect of the falls, and an even more beautiful view than the last.
The trails were coming to an end, and the grand finale was fast approaching.... the devils throat. This was what we were all looking forward to.
It got to the stage where we needed to put our rain jackets on. We were going to get wet, as it was shower time. The trail lead us on to a wooden board walk that started to cross out over the river. As we crossed the board walk to our left was the devils throat. To say that this is a massive water fall would be an understatement. So much water was cascading over the edge, that the velocity of the water hitting the water and rocks below was creating a huge amount of mist to be thrown up high in to the sky. It reminded me of a dragon breathing fire up to the sky. The mist then fell back to earth just like a fine rain, wetting anything or anyone who ended up in it's path. Which, by the very essence of us walking along this board walk was us getting wet. With my jacket on, and hood up over my head I managed to say relatively dry. The same could not be said for those who braved the boardwalk without a jacket or poncho.
The view, and the once in a life time experience at the end of the board walk was just spectacular.
Once we had finished on the board walk, we then continued further along the main path, where we were able to pretty much stand only a few metres away from the falls. It was at this point that your jaw just drops at the sheer volume and velocity of the water spewing over these falls!!! What I couldn't believe was the birds that were flying into the falls, and then a couple of minutes later flying out, what they were doing, and how they could fly in and out of that waterfall will remain a mystery to me!!!
We then caught the elevator to the panoramic deck. This tower is a couple of stories high, and gives you the most awe inspiring view of the entire falls!!! Spectacular!!!
And just like that the sight seeing of iguazu falls was over. But 7 of us had booked an additional something special. We were going on a boat ride into the falls!!!
We were dropped off on the way out of the park, whilst the remainder of the tour group either made their way to the bird park or back to the hotel. We hitched a ride down to the pier on a golf cart pulling a people trailer. We had a family behind us, and it looked like some European backpackers in front of us. Half way down the hill to the pier, the trailer stopped and let a few people out to walk the trail to the pier, whilst the remainder of us changed transportation across to a jeep, which took us down the rest of the hill. Once at the pier, we packed all of our stuff that we didn't want to get wet into a locker. I had brought my water proof camera to take photos on the boat trip, so I just grabbed that and my rain jacket and I was set. We continued our walk down the steps towards the pontoon, and came across a continual stream of people who were soaked. We walked along a rickety ramp out on to the pontoon, and was welcomed by lots of beautiful butterflies. They were just dancing their colourful song across the pathway.
Once we were about to step on to the pontoon, we all collected a life jacket and started to put it on. The guy soon came around to check that our life jackets were put on correctly and then we patiently waited for a boat to return. The first boat arrived, and people started filing on. It was at this point we realised that there was no way that the 7 of us were going to fit on this boat, so the guide allowed other people to go ahead of us, 2 of which were the Hippy's from the cart. These guys had decided to walk the path, and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that one of them had changed into the brightest red pair of budgie smugglers. No one wanted to look, but we had no choice. And once you saw, you could not remove that image from your brain!! So the first boat took off, with the budgie smuggler wielding hippy on board. Again we waited patiently for the next boat to arrive. We were first in the queue, so we knew that we were in for the front row seats. The next boat arrived, with all of the people on board clapping. That's a good sign!!
We allowed all of the people to disembark, and then it was our turn to get on. I jumped right in the front of the boat, whilst the 4 other girls grabbed the front seat, and the 2 boys in the second row back. Once everyone was in, the boat took off. We were going against the rapid, so the driver took it fairly easy. The boat sailed over a couple of waves, creating that dropping feeling in your stomach which was cool. I managed to take quite a few photos along the way. We then approached one section of the falls. The boat driver neared the boat to the falls, and then we entered under the falling water. We all tried to look up, however the water was falling so heavy that we couldn't even open our eyes. I was madly just pointing my camera up where I thought the falls were taking photos. It was so much fun, and we spent the entire time laughing. We were under the water for some time. We were all so soaked, and we couldn't be any happier about it!! Eventually we were driven out of the continual battering of water and started to head back towards the pontoon. We then got to a wider section of the river, and the boat did a donut.... Pretty cool. And then he backed off the power and let the wave the was created by our wake lap right over the front of the boat directly on to me. My rain jacket did nothing, as the water just went straight down the front if it. I was officially soaked to my underwear after the 5 donut and wave combos that came our way!!! It was so amazing, and again something that I would strongly recommend to anyone heading to iguazu.
We arrived back at the pontoon, and had another laugh at the fact that about 4 litres of river water poured out of the sleeve of my water proof jacket once I put my arms down. Everyone was completely soaked to the bone.
We quickly grabbed our stuff from our lockers and went to catch the next jeep back up to the visitor centre. One came quite quickly, and we all piled in. We now know why all of the seats in the transport back to the visitor centres are plastic. We started to dry off to the point where we weren't dripping. Once at the visitor centre we then caught a taxi back to the hotel.
Now this was going to be a fairly quick turn around. I still had to pack my bags for roll out in 1.5hrs. First things first though..... I hit the showers. Clean hair and clean clothes made all the difference. I then madly packed my bags, getting my big bag out just in time for bell boy pickup.
I made the final additions to my carry on, and then met the group in the lobby for a quick early dinner.
Finally on our way to the airport, the trip was a very quick 10mins. We checked in and said goodbye to Wilson our guide, only to find out that our plane had been delayed by 2hrs. LAN did give us refreshment vouchers to use at the airport, but a 2hr wait now turned into a 4hr wait, and didn't the waiting room know exactly how board we were. We were talking animatedly, sang happy birthday to Kevin, were doing party tricks, and laughing like crazy people. Everyone proudly showed off just how much food and beverages that they could get with their vouchers!! We almost cheered once the call went out to board. By this stage it was getting closer to 10pm, and with a 4hr plane trip ahead of us, we knew it was going to be a long night.
The flight took off, and I had an aisle seat. The only frustrating thing being the person behind me obviously had restless legs syndrome, as they kept hitting the back of my seat the entire flight. I looked behind to see that it was a lady from our tour group. She is so sweet, I couldn't bare to ask her to stop, so I just put up with it. Although I don't know how she managed to bump my chair for the entire 4hrs, as I got up to go to the toilet, to find her head resting on the back of my seat and she was asleep, yet bumping I still felt!!! Ooooooo spooky!!
Our plane landed, and I was happy to hear that we had clawed back a couple of hours due to the time difference. So instead of being 2am it was actually midnight in Lima.
We then started the process of immigration, baggage claim and customs. It was around 12.40 by the time we were ready to leave the airport, only to find out that we then had to wait for the porters to get our bags. Seriously, I'm more than happy to wheel mine.... so was the majority of other people, especially if it meant that we could leave earlier and therefore get to bed earlier. But no, we stood around Lima airport for a further 20mins for the porters to arrive, then pack all the bags onto the trolleys. By the time that they had finished packing the trolleys they resembled the leaning tower of pisa.... I felt so sorry for the porters, I just wanted to help them. We walked the 5 min to the bus, but they had to push a huge trolley full of bags there!!
We jumped on the bus and started to head to the hotel. By this stage I could have died a thousand deaths when the guide said that we still had another 40min drive ahead of us. Wow, this has turned into a mammoth day.
Driving through Lima, it is clear to see the American influence coming trough. Lots of retail and food outlets that have been introduced by the US. The other obvious thing is the sheer number of casinos. The streets are lined with the flashing lights inviting everyone to come in and let go of some of their money!!
We arrived at the hotel, checked in and found our rooms. Hello bed!!!