I had approximately 2 weeks with my parents in Brazil, and realistically, that is not nearly enough to see all of it. I had been doing some research, and I decided to take them to Iguazu falls and Rio de Janeiro. Iguazu falls was first. *****Warning Gratuitous pictures of waterfalls ahead********
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We got into Foz do Iguazu and we found it to be a very quaint little town by a river and we spent the first bit of time just walking around exploring the city. It was an instant and very dramatic change from Salvador. In Salvador, walking the streets at night is virtually unthinkable in certain areas, whereas here, we did it without too much question and less incident beyond finding a very cheap all you can eat place. We stayed at Iguazu Guest house, an awesome, cheap, and rather friendly hostel right by the river. There was a bit of a social scene at the hostel, everyone would gather at the central table, hang out, share traveler stories. I danced some foxo, listened to some music, and relaxed in anticipation of the day to come.
The all you can eat churascarria=stomach overload
We actually managed to wake up decently early (which is an accomplishment for my family), and we were off on a series of buses to the Iguazu falls. We are just a magnet for tourism agencies and everyone and their grandmother was advertising how we should get there and what we should do when we are there. We decided to take the Macuco boat ride to see the falls a slightly different way from normal.
We went on the bus to the macuco station, and it was bitterly bitterly cold. The frigid wind made my dad reconsider his choice of only a shirt.
And you can see him styling his new and fashionably overpriced jacket on our jungle safari truck.
We got out of the trucks and got to hike a little. My dad absolutely abhors guided tours, so we lagged behind the group a bit, and waited until the chatter of the argentinian tourists had faded and all that remained was the chirp of insects and the call of the birds. As we walked further, a slow sound developed into a patter and then a roar as we passed a waterfall. (I love that sound)
There was a lot of different types of plants on our trek
There were also a lot of butterflies, on the order of 100's in a relatively small area. They would veritably flock.
The fams before the boat trip. My dad was mentioning how he didn't really want to get wet. I felt bad, because I knew he would.
The boat trip was definitely worth it to me (a little bit less so for my dad).
The falls gradually came into view
The camera situation was pretty interesting, because I had to balance keeping it dry, and trying to take pictures of an a really beautiful landmark from a bouncy speedboat. This was one of my last photos from the boat, because after this, I wrapped my camera up in plastic, and then tucked it under my poncho, issuing a silent prayer that it remained dry. The french man sitting next to me found that his camera card was full at a very inopportune time, and had to stow his away, but not without a curse. And while it is hard to convey here, going right up to the falls is pretty awesome (in the actual sense of the word). The boat took us so close that just the spray from the falls forced our eyes shut. I tried fervently to keep my eyes open and capture the moment, but the sheer force of these waterfalls is incredible. The boat driver called it showering, and I found that rather accurate, as I am sure did my parents. We took several "showers" that day.
Me cheesin, very wet, and post lots of wind
It was funny after the boat ride to hear my dad describe the boat driver as "sadistic" for continually dipping us under the waterfall, but I think secretly he enjoyed it.
They had this animal called a coati and they were very attracted to my bag for some reason.
Most of the rest of the pictures of the falls can stand for themselves but I will intersperse the occasional comment here and there.
vultures circling is never a good sign
We had the most ridiculous looking ponchos on. This observatory lookout thing was really the bee's knees, because you could have waterfalls on all sides. When you are staring at something from a distance, for some reason it doesn't allways feel real. With the water within touching distance, with driplets spraying from the waterfall basically sideways raining, with rainbows forming before your eyes, it was a bit more real.
This rainbow had been developing all through our path and it just got better as we went further. You can see the faint outline of the double rainbow, and as we walked along the observation path, it turned into a 360 degree rainbow.
Not sure if that worked (but if it did, that is the falls in motion. The crazy thing, and to give this some perspective, this is only a small fraction of the waterfalls that constitute Iguazu falls. It is literally a 2 km hike on just the brazil side full of waterfalls, and apparently the argentinian side has even more.
So I haven't fully described the beauty that is a churrascarria. It is all you can eat, but they bring over delicious meats and ask you if you want any --- the answer is yes. Yes, yes, and yes, until your stomach is close to bursting.
That's a yes
That's a yes too
It was super delicious, and after not eating all day, even more so.
The next day we went to the.....zoo. It was actually pretty fun, and we decided it wasn't worth it to go all the way to argentina, because as US citizens, we would have had to pay 160$ each in addition to transport and entrance. We instead took a very chill day.
Monkey!
We had turtle races, and we did some turtle commentary too, imbuing the turtles with human personalities.
We had one final day at Iguazu falls, and there was a bit of a dilemma on what we should do. We ultimately decided to try to hike in the park, but we didn't realize that the trails came with hefty price tags, that they had to be in groups (my dad didn't like that part) and that the next one left several hours later. My parents were like to heck with this, and we set out walking along the road. I mentioned how I should run at some point that day, and they were like, no time like the present. Off you go. If you insist I replied, and off I went on about an hour run. The coolest aspect of the run by far was the hordes of butterflies. I would run through an area and dozens of butterflies would fly up in my wake.
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