driving through Central and South America in a Tiger motorhome

Friday 09th Apr 2010

Day: 392

The Falls

Foz Do Iguaçu Brasil

Miles: 40417

S 25.55944°

W 54.57625°

Like the dam yesterday, the falls trip today was a very well organized tourist operation with well maintained and clean facilities.

At the national park entrance we joined a long, but rapidly moving line, to buy tickets and once inside climbed on board one of the parks double decker buses to get from the entrance gates to the falls.

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Once off the bus we followed a generally down hill paved walking trail that takes visitors like us from a distant view of segments of the falls down into the heart of the Brazilian side. At the end of this trail there is a catwalk out into the falls at Garganta Do Diablo. From this catwalk there are very intimate views of the first tier above and second tier below - not to mention an opportunity to get wet from the spray.

The most striking thing about Iguazu is the scale. This is not so much a water fall as a complex of water falls 3 km wide and 80 meters high. Indeed there are (according to the guide book) 275 individual waterfalls. The name Iguazu is a Guarani (local Indians) word meaning "great waters".

After leaving the National Park we visited a nearby bird park. I had low expectations for this particular excursion as generally bird parks have not impressed me, but this one turned out to be great. Set in a patch of jungle there were a series of large aviaries that visitors could enter to get un-interrupted view of the birds. the highlight of the visit were the houses of the Tucan's and the Macaw's. We also got a very up close view of a Casawar (Casawary)- an emu type bird that I have not seen before, even though I believe we have them in Australia.

Spelling

We are having a little trouble with the spelling of some of the words as they are spelled differently in the different languages. For example Iguazu-Iguacu (Iguaçu), Brazil-Brasil. So forgive us for switching between the various alternatives.

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