A big day on Tuesday, our first real visit to the falls, and including three different countries in the span of one afternoon! Of course, we started at the hotel in the morning, in Argentina, and were driven for about an hour, maybe a bit more, by a guide we’ve hired for the three days we’re here, over to the Brazilian side of the falls, where we spent most of the day. First stop after border control was getting into the Brazilian National Park, was the “Macuco Safari,” which involved taking a sort of little tram on a tiny dirt track through the jungle, then walking down an elevated pathway, up and down some stone stairs, and finally down to a platform at the top of a funicular that finally took us down to the river and a pontoon boat. Before getting into the boat, we left everything with the driver, including shoes and socks, which was an obvious sign of how wet we were about to get.
The whole experience, which was GREAT fun by the way, was really just an excuse to see the falls from the level of the river, do a bunch of circles and sharp turns and stunts in a fast boat, get pounded by tons of falling water, and end up totally drenched!
After that, we drove farther into the park, eventually ending up in front of the beautiful pink and white hotel that we can see across the river in Brazil, from our hotel. Across the road from the hotel was the first of numerous overlooks, and the beginning of a walk of about 1.5 km down to a boardwalk built right out over the Brazilian side of the falls.
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| We were working our way down to that boardwalk. |
After trying to absorb this awe-inspiring spectacle, we ended up in a kind of tower structure from which we took an elevator up to the top of the falls, walked a short distance had lunch overlooking the river. A really GOOD Brazilian buffet lunch.
When we had seen everything there was to see on the Brazil side, Jim asked if we had time to make a quick foray into Paraguay, just to say that we had been there. Our guide, Francis, was very accommodating, and so off we went towards Ciudad del Este, which he explained was actually the 2nd biggest city in Paraguay. We encountered a lot of traffic on the Brazil side in Foz do Iguaçu, but eventually made it over a narrow bridge across the Paraná River and into Paraguay. We were not stopped at border control, and ended up in just about the most chaotic urban maelstrom that I’ve ever seen. The photos don’t convey the sense of uncontrolled bedlam and chaos at every turn.
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The tangle of wires on this utility pole, which was the same
on every pole, seemed like a good metaphor for the tiny
slice that we saw of Ciudad del Este. |
After about 30 minutes, I was ready to get out; this was easier said than done, as we got caught in a massive traffic jam of cars and motorcycles coming from every direction and trying to funnel into a single lane across the bridge back to Brazil. It took nearly an hour to go the last 4 blocks before the bridge! But, we finally made it back to the hotel at 7:00 pm, more than 9 hours after leaving that morning.
A lot more falls tomorrow, all on the Argentina side, which is massively bigger than the Brazilian side!
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