Monday, June 17, 2013

Brazil Part 2: Foz do Iguacu

Dang. Iguacu Falls is amazing. I'm going to let the photos do the talking - but man oh man were we blown away by the creations of God. Nature is amazing. Imagine being the person that discovered these falls...

After a great couple of days in Registro - we got up early in the morning and caught a bus to Curitiba where we would catch a flight to Foz do Iguacu (btw Brazilian buses are super nice). We drove through the rolling hillsides of banana plantations and little towns here and there. It was beautiful.



We arrived in Foz do Iguacu and hopped in a taxi to our much anticipated splurge of the trip - Hotel Das Cataratas. This was the real deal. It is right in the national park, and you can see the falls from the hotel. We were all pretty excited about the place.


Especially Zara who enjoyed a nice big bed to hang out on for a few minutes after spending the morning on a bus and a plane.




We headed out to see the falls on a beautiful evening. ^^This was the view of some of the falls from right outside the hotel - the falls you can see behind us are in Argentina - we were right on the border. I loved the way that we saw the hotels, as we saw these first and were excited, then as we kept walking on the trail, they just got bigger and bigger.


That is some serious water coming down. I think there are 270 total falls - just everywhere you look.


The constant mist in the air made it crazy green everywhere - providing for some beautiful moss.



Oh ya!


These crazy boats take you up underneath the falls...not the biggest ones, but pretty big falls to say the least. We got excited seeing these boats, so we went on a ride the next day (Julie's parents watched Zara while we went). We were advised to wear our swimsuits and were glad we did as we were soaked to the bone.


Look at these two beauties ^^^Zara  was pretty amazed as you can tell.


It was so much fun to be there with Julie's parents - and to see their love for Zara - even though she is their 25th grandchild - they made Zara feel like she was their first.


We were there at sunset - and here is where another cool perk of our hotel being in the national park came in...once the park closed, everyone had to leave, unless you were staying at our hotel. So we basically had the park to ourselves for an hour or so as the sun set. As you can see, it literally is just waterfalls for as long as you can see. The sound was equally amazing. Similar to the roaring ocean, but just this constant powerful crashing of hundreds of waterfalls.






After walking along the trail for half a mile or so, the water sound started getting louder and louder, until we came around a corner and saw the epicenter of the falls - aka the Devil's Throat. You come in from the left (above) and then follow a bridge out to the vantage point below - looking directly into the Devil's Throat.


As you can see by Zara's expression ^^^ she was a little thrown off by all this mist and water in the air. We were pretty much soaked after 5 minutes or so. Zara loved it for the most part, but come on - enough is enough she says.


It was hard not to take a million photos (I think I got close to that). But it was just so cool to be there, just the five of us with these MASSIVE falls to ourselves since the park had closed. 


It was fun to mess around a bit with the aperture and capture the above photo. We enjoyed the falls until we were soaked, and then headed back to the hotel for an amazing dinner complete with Churrasco (Brazilian BBQ) and every kind of food you could imagine.


Zara was pretty worn out ^^^


Luckily she had her special crib they set up for her complete with her robe, stuffed animal, and flip flops they brought for her. Lucky little girl!


We got up early the next morning to go and enjoy the falls before the park opened. Again, we were taken aback with power and majesty of these creations. This day in the creation of the world was probably pretty exciting.


This shot ^^^ gives you a perspective of the little catwalk/bridge the have built that you can walk out on to. The photo above this one was taken out on the very far right of the catwalk. We walked back up to the hotel and Julie's parents watched Zara while we went on the boat ride up to the falls.


Here is the hotel from the outside^^^


And the pool out by the restaurant. Could have spent a few more days at this place. We were flying out early the next morning so we went and stayed at a not so nice place that night. Though the new hotel wasn't much to talk about (had an interesting dining experience there), it was right next to a really cool bird park full of all kinds of tropical birds that would fly right up to you.





Kathy could make a great bird show person. Look how good she looks with that macau.


The lady in the gift shop there was really excited about Zara and insisted that we all try on their awesome bird hats and take some photos. Zara just liked trying to eat them.

So there you have it. Iguacu Falls. Holy Cow were they ever awesome. I say you must visit to believe it. We woke up early the next morning to catch a flight to Rio. Which is the next stop on our blogocation. Come back soon to see the beauty of Rio.

Let's take one last look at these amazing falls.




8 comments:

Linda said...

Send these pictures to National Geographic! They'll sign you up for your dream job! LOVE these gorgeous shots. We thought we saw everything when we were there but I think we saw more through your pictures. Getting soaked in the boat was one of our favorites! What a spectacular spot on earth.

charity eyre wright said...

holy. sweetness. soooooo jealous. that hotel is def. worth the splurge. so cool that you got to see it just the 5 of you and no one else.

...i'm coming next time.

Jonah and Aja said...

Flippin awesomE!!

bostonshumways said...

wow! beauty shots piglet! you are a master with that camera and wow, I want to go there.

Unknown said...

Eu tive a oportunidade de ir em uma macuco safari los Foz do Iguaçu, foi uma aventura sair e eu não posso esperar para voltar. Basta ver toda a vida selvagem e natureza fez uma excelente férias.

Lisa Maria said...

These photos are amazing! And mostly I kept thinking how Zara has it so good - haha.

Patricia Carter said...

The hats are just too cute. I love them. Really.
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Suzan Baker said...

Rio and parrot hats. The baby looks so cute. Fun times.
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