Day 33 - Iguacu Falls are Truly Awesome

I had a bit of hangover this morning and so stayed in bed for a nice lie in. Eventually, I got up to a lovely breakfast Mariana had made and a nice chat to their little family.

I received a reminder about my flight to Curitiba on Friday and was gutted to realise that the flight is not in the morning (as I had imagined) but in the afternoon - just as Brazil will be playing Columbia! Shit! That's really my first cock up so far. How could I have booked a flight at exactly the same time that there's a World Cup quarter final going on? What an idiot!

I got Fernandinho to run me to the airport to see if I could change my flight. The good news is I could - so I'll get to Curitiba now in time to see Brazil v Columbia. The bad news is I'll now miss the second half of Germany v France. Oh well, it's only an hour's flight so if the game goes to extra time, I should get to see how it all ends.

Then, it was on to Iguacu National Park and what an incredible place that is.

Honestly, people use the word "awesome" too often but it's absolutely appropriate for the biggest set of waterfalls in the world. A bus took me into through a beautiful forest to the falls where I got off and walked the Iguacu trail which was just stunning. The highlight was walking out on a concrete path that takes you right to the edge of "Devil's throat" the most spectacular of hundreds of waterfalls. Incredible. Beyond compare.



Magical Falls

A gargantuan amount of water thundering between Argentina and Brasil

Another very pleasant surprise for me was the fact that there were beautiful, colourful butterflies everywhere.

After that I had a meal with some salad and a cup of tea before getting the bus back to an earlier stop where I got off to do a boat trip to the falls. That was amazing too and I got absolutely soaked through, even though I was wearing a mac. Some guys from Mexico had the right idea: They'd got changed into their bathers and were otherwise naked. I wish I'd have done that but at least it will give me an excuse to finally dump my big old baggy trousers.

Under the falls

I met a lovely Indian father and son - quite a few Indians here for the World Cup. The son plays as a goalkeeper and is doing civil engineering. His dad is more of a cricket fan and seemed to think I looked like Brett Lee!

Anyway, quite knackered and soaked to the bone, I came back here to get out of my dripping clothes, put the ones I need on the line to dry, have a nice cup of tea, and start blogging.

Definitely a no alcohol day today, I'm going to have an early night tonight. Tomorrow, I might see if I can fit Paraguay in before going to the airport as early as possible to watch as much of France v Germany as I can before flying to Curitiba, stop number 17, as the World Cup enters it's most critical stage - the quarter finals.

Algirdo
Foz do Iguacu