February 15, 2000
Day 116 Iguazu Falls: bus tour and briefly in Brazil
At 8:30am we are picked up at the hotel for our tour. Sometimes it is nice to do tours like this, so you don't have to worry about transportation to out of the way places.
The bus picks up a few more people then head towards the bridge over the Iguazu River to Brazil. Since we are on a tour and plan to return to Argentina tonight the border formalities are minimal. They do check Rachel's visa, as an American she needs one. Patrick is still travelling with his Dutch passport. We had picked up the visa in Buenos Aires.
First stop in Brazil is at a tourist store, where we wait about 30 minutes for another small group to arrive. Then we all get into a larger bus for a short ride to the Falls. A one-kilometer walk shows all that you need to see from this side. It's nice. Being across the canyon from most of the Falls gives us nice views. The tropical vegetation creates many scenic framed views. Along the way we meet several cat-sized mammals that look like ant eaters that are quite tame and obviously used to be fed. They stand up against peoples bags and check out the trash bins and get chased by children trying to pet them. At the end of the walk the path descends to the river level having the major falls of Gargarta del Dialbo high above. A walk bridge leads out over the river amidst the spray of this Horeshoe of falling water.
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We spend about an hour and a half on this walk. Of course, it ends at a tourist shop where we both buy t-shirts. The bus picks us up for the next attraction a private nature park where tropical birds, reptiles and butterflies are kept and bred. It's a great way to see many of the colorful macaws and parrots and other birds. The displays are very well done, all in dense jungle setting.
After about an hour here we drive to our lunch stop, a buffet in Foz do Iguazu, good food and lots of it!
Just north of Foz is the Itaipu Dam, the world's largest hydroelectric project. It's an interesting place to have been, but the 200+ meter high concrete dam is less impressive than for instance the Hoover dam. The tour and film are all part of the PR scheme trying to make you feel good about the project.
Before we go back to Argentina, we are given an hour to shop in Foz. We take a little stroll, then find a bar and have a beer. We get back to our hotel at about 5:30pm. Time for a swim in the pool and some more movies on the TV. We have two movie channels and pick up a couple of good ones during our stay here.
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