The Land of Waterfalls! Brazil: Foz do Iquaçu.

As we neared the Foz do Iguaçu Airport, we flew over miles and miles of trees. I thought that we would be staying in the jungle as I tried to do as little research as possible, so that I could be surprised.

Then, a river came into sight with what seemed like a large hole in the Earth. It was the waterfalls. From above, I had no idea how we were going to get there, not knowing all the roads were hidden by the tall trees.






Walking out the doors of the airport, I could feel the thick cloud of mist as I inhaled the fresh rainforest's air. We took a highway surrounded by miles of trees until we reached a small town. It was quaint and pleasant with many shops and restaurants.

We stayed at Hotel Carimã on Av. das Cataratas, in between the town and the Falls. This hotel was the largest hotel I have ever stayed in, and was also the largest in the state of Paraná, with a surface area of 720,000m². This was booked by an agent and was a bad choice because the location was inconvenient. I would have much rather enjoyed staying in the town so that we could walk around any time we pleased. The Hotel had very bad service. As we arrived, we had to carry our heavy luggage inside and were greeted with frowns at the reception. The front desk ladies were the most unpleasant people I have ever met. They would reply to any question with, "WAIT". Although the service was bad, the hotel was interesting, with many facilities and designed uniquely with old objects.

We unpacked our things and headed for the falls and to meet my father at his grand hotel, Belmond Hotel das Cataratas, right in front of the falls. Lucky guy. We heard that to get to the falls, you must first fall in line, buy tickets, fall in line again and then take a 10 minute bus ride down to the falls. We decided the best thing to do was to hail a cab and ask the driver what the procedure was. He told us that he could buy the tickets for us. We got lucky! When we arrived there was a long line but the taxi driver went to another ticket stand that was empty and saved us a lot of time. When in doubt, always ask a local. We lined up for the bus, got in and headed to the falls. 

 As I first laid eyes on those spectacular waterfalls I was mesmerised. I've never seen so much flowing water.

We made our way down the loopy stairs stopping to take in the different sites.

Finally, making our way down to the bridge that crosses right over the waterfalls. Everyone was laughing from getting drenched by the heavy mist. The end of the bridge came over the edge of one of the falls where you could look over as the water plunged down into the river. I really loved being on that bridge. Somehow, exploring a new place, seeing everyone happy, and getting soaking wet feels like how it did on hot summer days when we were children, playing in the backyard with the sprinkler. This was a place that could never be forgotten in a lifetime.

The next day was spent exploring the different activities that can be done at the Foz do Iguaçu. We took an open tour bus through a small forest road. There were many butterflies; my Dad had his feet up like usual and one landed on his shoe and wouldn't move for the entire ride. The tour guide explained about the palm trees around that actually consisted of this dish I enjoyed eating, "Heart of Palm"; it is tasty and reminded me of artichoke. Then, we walked the rest of the way on a wooden path being surrounded by nothing but trees. The feeling of being in nature with the freshest air takes you back to being a human exploring the earth, nothing else. Although i was trying to feel one with nature, my father and brother had to be those childish pranksters they are; scaring us by tickling our ear from behind with a long leaf and throwing large bugs at us. Men, they never grow up.

We arrived to a small reception area where we got life jackets, lining up to take a high powered speed boat through the river. As we waited, the boat that we were going to use arrived with passengers that were smiling, laughing and completely wet. This gave us an idea of what we were in for. We got in and sped up riding up the strong rapids. We reached the bottom of the waterfalls directly below where we were the previous day. The boat driver manoeuvred the boat in close proximity to the impact of the falls where everyone was drenched screaming and laughing. They did not bring us close enough to be hit by the actual water because I bet it would hurt a lot or the boat would fill up and sink.

This was a great experience and completely different from Rio de Janeiro. I got to practice a lot of Português and learned so much about the culture, Obrigada Brasil! 

Then, we set off for our final destination, I think you can guess where we went.

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