Day 28 – Iguazu, Brasil side – the Centrepiece Highlight of our trip!
We had some time to kill poolside awaiting our tour – one last chance to tour the gardens and admire the butterflies and enormous bees. I image it would be phenomenal during orchid season! Our pick up wasn’t until about 1:30pm, and we were both feeling less than 100% – the heat is exhausting.
We had been told that the Brasilian side of Iguacu Falls was less impressive – but we did not find that to be true! Manuel picked us up and transported us across the border in to Brasil – he is just starting English speaking tours and we were the only ones on the tour which was fantastic. Our only complaint about the tour has been the extra baggage charges – today was about $40 for our bags to get from Iguacu to Rio.
Today we saw the ’88’ butterfly (see photo and it’s clear where it’s name comes from), ants that live in trees which actually helps the tree; the ants benefit from the extreme acidic fruit that burns even concrete as well as the soil around the tree. The fruit will kill any bird that eats it, so the ants are safe from predators.
The falls on the Brasilian side were a great surprise. As we were alone on the tour, Manuel let us go at our own pace so Monty could take photos at his leisure – our only restriction our evening flight to Rio. All along the trek were more spectacular views of the falls – this time they were mostly across the river rather than walking over and among them as on the Argentinian side. We got very wet at the base of Devils Throat where you walk out on a boardwalk into the base of the falls. Again the human construction efforts are extremely impressive.
While transporting we had lots of conversation with Manuel about the culture around Iguacu where the 3 countries of Brasil, Argentina and Paraguay meet. There are villages on every bank where the 2 rivers merge where the Spanish, Portuguese and original native languages have merged into unique languages in each village. The result is over 10 unique languages in this small area. People around here cross borders regularly – they buy wine and beef in Argentina; groceries, car parts and some clothing in Brasil; and electronics and some brand name clothing in Paraguay. There are no restrictions on travel or the amount of import per person – and they don’t even need a passport if just going for the day.
And our trip to Iguacu wrapped up as we sat in the airport awaiting our flight to Rio – the next round of excitement about to begin!
Looks like you had spectacular weather. I love the panoramic shots.