Tuesday, February 13, 2018- Cruise Day 21; Iguazu Falls, Brazilian Side

Tuesday, February 13, 2018- Cruise Day 21; Iguazu Falls, Brazilian Side

We got a wake up call and had breakfast in the hotel restaurant, which serves a buffet equivalent to what we would normally find in the Horizon Court.  And unlike the Japanese, Argentinans know how to make bacon, eggs and sausage.  They did have some bizarre looking yellow fruit filled with soft seeds out.  The label said passion fruit. Janet took one and tried it, but said it was like super concentrated vitamin C or raw lemon- extremely tart!  

The weather was looking perfect, with a temperature in the mid 70’s and mostly clear skys with a few puffy clouds.  We boarded our bus and headed back into Brazil.  There was still a moderate delay at the border crossing, about an hour.  Ben had developed a touch of traveler’s diarrhea that morning and was dosing up with Pepto Bismol and Immodium, but was grateful for being able to dash off the bus at the border crossing to use the nasty, but well appreciated toilet.  Fortunately the meds took effect shortly after that episode, and wasn’t a problem for the rest of the day.  

We did a walking tour of the Brazilian side of Iguazu Falls, which is mostly the downstream side.  They have done a great job of creating a national park with a nice paved pathway along the falls, but they could use some strategic pruning and landscape management to preserve views of the falls, because dense subtropical vegetation did obscure about 80% of the path.  The falls extend over nearly 3km, ending with a spectacular horseshoe called the Devil’s Throat.  They built walkways out into the center of the Devil’s Throat for a spectacular mist soaked view, but because it was the Carnaval holidays, the park was jam packed with tourists from Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.  Getting out to the end of the Devil’s Throat walkway was quite a challenge- very uncomfortable with pushing and shoving, sweaty and smelly bodies and it required the patience of a saint to make it to the end, but once you got to the railing and had a chance to see the 270 degrees of pounding water, it was indeed worth the effort.  It would, of course, be infinitely better to visit when it is NOT Carnaval, and all the locals are at work.  

There are a tremendous number of coitimundi, which are racoon like creatures, in this park, and they are not the least bit shy of humans.  They have developed the habit of attacking any bag left on the ground on the assumption that it may contain food.  There were coitimundi of all sizes everywhere.  They were like pigeons with teeth, claws and racoon tails.  We also saw a large egg eating lizard sunning itself in the sun next to the path.  

We noticed that the young english speaking Argentinians who worked as guides referred to us as “Guys”, like “Hey, you guys!”.  They probably picked up a good bit of their english from watching TV shows. 

We had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the top of the falls, which actually doesn’t look like much except a wide river with mist rising on the horizon, but the restaurant had an extensive buffet, was air conditioned, included a free bottle of water and dessert with our tour.  We left very full.

We returned to our bus, where we were given the chance to change into outfits suitable for getting wet because we were on our way to do a river jet-boat ride through the rapids below the falls and take a splash through some of the lesser falls called the 3 Musketeers.  To get to where the boats were, we had to take an electric trolly about 3km through second growth semitropical forest, then a Jeep ride down the steep last half km, and then a funicular rail car down to the river level dock.  The boats are RIB’s with twin outboards, like what are used for whale watching and other river running excursions.  You had a choice of the open top “Wet” boat, or a partially acrylic enclosed new “Dry” boat.  We chose the wet tour, and boy, did we get soaked.  Fortunately, the water temperature was probably in the low 70’s and the air temperature in the mid to upper 80’s with the sun out, so we never really got cold.  When the boat ran up to the edge of the 3 Musketeers falls, we were pummeled with water like you wouldn’t believe.  I can’t imagine how the pilot was able to see to steer the boat.  He must have had a scuba mask or full swim goggles on.  It was a lot of fun.

We made a stop so that 3 couples could take a 7 minute helicopter tour over the falls for $200 each.  They said they really enjoyed it, and thought it was worth the money.  When we took a 6 minute helicopter ride around Auckland Harbor for $58, that seemed like a more reasonable price, but that was a special for Auckland’s birthday celebration.

We got back to the hotel and saw some Tucans flying around in the trees in front of the hotel, as well as a large pack of coitimundi crossing the parking lot and heading into the woods. 

Dinner tonight was not included in the tour package, which was a bit of a disappointment to us, since we were under impression that all meals would be included since our cruise was all inclusive.  We ended up ordering the set menu daily special, which included a glass of Argentinian Malbec wine, appetizer, entree and dessert.  It ended up being a huge meal, which we could barely finish, and it was all quite delicious.  When Janet tried to thank the waiter by saying Obrigada, he corrected her saying in Argentina, it’s Gracias!  Brazilians speak Portuguese, but Argentinians speak Spanish.  That’s good because we know a good bit more Spanish than Portuguese.  

Tomorrow we get another early morning wake up call.  We tour the Argentinian side of the falls tomorrow, which fortunately won’t require any more border crossing or time changes.