We only had a short stop over in Curitiba, arriving 5.30pm one day after a 7 hour bus ride from Sao Paulo, and leaving on the overnight bus to Foz Do Igassu the next night.

Our tour group caught taxis from the bus station to the hotel.  

My driver hands me his card before exiting the cab and looks into my eyes when handing me the bag and says, 'You are beautiful!'.

My god I love Brasil!  Ok not that I want my Indian cab driver back home doing this, but it is all very flattering!

Our next local contact courtesy of Luci is Tatiane (Taty).

We do a walking tour of Curitiba with our group, and then Taty meets me and Zoe at our hotel to take us out for dinner.

Taty reminds me so much of Luci and is so bubbly and friendly as all the Brazillians we have met are!

We go to a Charrasco Rodizio with the best selection and quality of food we've eaten yet!

This buffet is on par with what you'd get at a fancy hotel with choices of sushi, salads, hot seafood and other delicious dishes. 

In addition to this, eager wait staff circulate the tables offering pastas and churrasco meat, and it wasnt uncommon to have three at your table at once offering their food!  So many, 'Noa obrigadas!' flying out of my mouth, you almost don't get a chance to put food in it!

Our free day in Curitiba was spent dodging the rain, therefore we skipped the parks that came recommended by Taty (thanks for the suggestions though!).

We did another tour around the old section to take photos, went to the Mercado Publico and then wasted a few hours on the internet catching up on the Facebook gossip and uploading photos ...

Overnight bus to Igassu had us arrive at 5.30am!

Fortunately the hotel let us in early and we slept a couple of hours before leaving for the bird park at 10am.

I'd arranged to meet a friend, Andrew, there at 10.15, as this was the only point in his 3 month trip & my 6 month trip that out paths would cross.  

We arrive at the bird park at 11.30am ... Hmm so much for our 10am departure for the bird park ... My tour leader missed mentioning we'll also stop to drop off laundry and to visit the supermarket first ... A time consuming exercise when 20 people are on your tour!

So not suprisingly Andrew is no where in sight!  

I know he had to be in Paraguay for a flight that afternoon so assume he's been and gone!  (Andrew we'll catch up in Aus in July to swap photos & stories!)

The bird park is amazing!  So many birds and best of all Macaws and Toucans! I have photos with each but chickened out on a photo with the boa constrictor, convinced it will smell the fear on me and eat me!  Ok maybe constrict me ... Either way I didn't want to find out!

We next went to the national park to view the falls from the Brazillian side, and spent 2 hours walking along the viewing platforms.  The falls are really spectacular and the first sight of them was breathtaking.

The next day we visited the Argentinian side which personally I thought was more beautiful.  

From the Brazillian side you walk along elevated platforms to view the falls from a distance. 

On the Argentinian side you walk above the falls at the same height as the falls, and below them. 

We also took the option of a jet boat to the falls (and No South Australian Tony this STILL doesn't beat the exhilaration of cruising down the Murray in your boat!), but think it did one up Queenstown's Shotover Jet, as not only do you do a couple of spins, they take you UNDER the falls!

We ended up soaking wet with big smiles, and then had to practically run back to meet our tour group as were late for our transfer back to Brazil!

That was the last night Zoe was with our trip, so we all had dinner together at a nearby hostel.

Afterwards our wonderful tour leader organised him and the boys to go buy cachaca, vodka, lime and sugar and we spent the remainder of the evening making caiprihinas by the pool on the rooftop!

It was sad to see Zoe go in the morning, and will miss having a friend of my own to hang out with!

Poor Zoe!  If you're reading this from a freezing cold & raining Manchester ... Remember ... we'll always have Lapa :-D

We all waved her goodbye and headed for Paraguay.