After what we were anticipating to be a 15 hour bus ride, turns out was actually 17 and a half, we finally arrived in Foz de Iguazu.

Brazilian buses are interesting things:
1. They stop in the middle of nowhere at strange times so people can get food. Not just once or twice but a number of times.
2. The drivers are insane. Either they speed or go very slow. There is no pattern to this either.
3. You need to show photographic ID to get on the bus. Not a bad idea that one.
4. The seats recline to about 120-140 degrees. Not so bad except when there is no warning and your head is waay to close. . . . 
5. Not so much the buses but Brazilian people - they are just rude. They have no sense of personal space or simply don´t care, never apologise when they knock into you and will not move out of the way or either over on a footpath or such to let you through.

Anyway after arriving 2 hours+ late to Iguazu we headed to the hotel to find they hadn´t got our reservation (seems to be a very common thing in Brazil) but luckily they had a private room with shared bath and for this we paid $70R a night, about $50AUS. Not bad but expensive for South America and our ´double bed´ was 2 singles pushed together. Oh well at least we had a bed.

Quiet day for the rest of the day apart from organising a tour to the Argentinian side of Iguazu Falls (and proud to say negotiated a discount).

Headed to Bella Pizza for tea. An all you can eat place. Pizza was great and then they bought out the dessert pizza. Oh my god is the only way to describe them. The chocolate pizza and the californian fruit pizza (banana or tropical fruit with cinnamon and sugar syrup) were to die for. We could have just eaten them for tea. Luckily we had enough room though I suspect we would have made room. Unfortunately they only give you a piece at a time. We are definitely going to try to make these when we get home. 

For the first time here I forgot to look both ways when crossing the road. I'd realised early on that it would be better to look both ways (not that I don't normally. . . ) as they drive on the opposite side of the road to us and I didn't really want to get hit. Well. . . stupid me for some reason looked to my left and then stepped off. Right in front of an oncoming car! Luckily for me they had only just taken off from the traffic lights and weren't going very fast (still heard their brakes though) and I managed to get back onto the median strip before I got hit. Felt like a right idiot but I learn't my lesson there!

Back to the hotel and Laurent and Marie had left us a message. We met up with them and Olly and Itay at Tropicana for a drink as we had already had tea. I worked out very quickly that Brazilian wine is s**t. It literally tasted like grape juice with alcohol mixed in. Truely horrible and I couldn't deal with much more than a mouthful.

They are all heading off tomorrow so we said our goodbye's and we hope to visit them one day in France and Israel.

Up early for the bus to Argentina only to find they work on Brazil time and were 45 minutes late. After getting through immigration - vaguely concerning to hand over our passports and wait in a mini van- we headed to the falls.

The rest of our tour group decided to do the boat trip under the falls. We had already decided not to and at $160R each (for 1hr) it was a lot of money basically as it turns out to get soaking wet.

Strange thing:
This was the only tour we have done where we never learnt the name of anyone. Everyone on the tour were tourists from other countries and no one hardly spoke to anyone.

Anyway we walked with our guide, don´t remember his name, down the green trail or the lower loop, while everyone else waited for their boat. Beautiful walk through the jungle and the falls were spectacular. The first fall we came across was the ´twin sisters´. This was only an indication of how big Iguazu Falls are and the devil´s throat was still to come.

From here we left our guide to wait for the others and wandered by ourselves. He hadn't provided much comment on the falls or the surrounds on our walk other than telling us that the butterflies we could see plenty of were called figure 8 butterflies after the distinctive markings on their wings.

Making our way up the path, the walk was cool and quite relaxing and then we got our first view of Iguazu Falls. Spectacular is the only way to describe them. The noise is incredible and the mist from the flowing water is huge. Here we were pleasantly surprised to find that most people are happy to take photos for you. We could see the boats close to the falls and were glad we had decided not to do it, not because we didn't want to get wet but rather the view would have just been a wall of water and the mist was really heavy surrounding it.

Our guide had told us on the bus trip that approximately 2.5 million gallons of water a second, yep a second, fall over the falls!!

After a really lovely walk around the lower trail we made our way to the food area and to get onto the train to go to Devil´s Throat. On our way there we encountered the Quarti. Yes I want one. Well at least one. They were so cute.

They are kind of like a small raccoon and they were everywhere once we started getting close to the food areas. Guess they are like the Quokka on Rottnest Island. Way too tame now that humans feed them. Happy to admit we didn´t.

We also came across a strange blue bird. Don't know what they are called but they make the strangest noise. Really distinctive and not like any bird call I had heard before. I think they also knew when I wanted to get a photo as they would 'jump' out of the way. Maybe they are camera shy, but they seemed to like the attention from us.

After a quick lunch, wow the food is expensive, it was on par literally with theme parks in Australia, we caught the train to the path leading to Devil´s Throat. After about 15-20 minutes on the train we were there and the 1.5km trail over the river and streams started. The concrete and steel path's were well built and am happy to say that they suited the falls. I think mainly because they were so open. In one part the steel moves a bit. Not sure Phil was so happy about that! As we got closer to Devil's Throat the roar got louder. Amazing.

And yep we got wet. There is no way you can get to the lookout and not get wet. The sheer amount of mist that is produced as the water comes over the top is tremendous. Again people were really happy to take photos for you which was so nice.

We made our way back to the train and saw our tour group on the way back. This gave us enough time to walk the upper trail knowing they were going to be a while. The Upper Circuit gives views of the top of the falls. Not as spectacular as the other circuits but still interesting. Kind of more relaxing watching the water from up the top.

Back to the visitor centre where we shared a beer and waited for the others to finish. Tried the Senbeck beer, not impressed, Phil even less so. Left the park at about 5:30p.m for our ride back to Brazil arriving back at about 7p.m.

Out to tea at the LP recommended Bufallo Branco. Tip here would be to look at the price before we ordered. It is one of those all you can eat places. Really flash looking which should have given us an idea. Meal was lovely and the meat was great with it all coming out on skewers which they carved in front of you. I passed on the chicken hearts. . . For 2 beers, 2 meals and a 10% service charge all up $117R. Had much better for less in South America but it was still good.

Be interesting to see if the Brazil side of the falls is as good tomorrow.