Friday,
18 January 2013
My wake-up call was for 7:00 am and I was in the
breakfast room by 8:00 am. They had a
very nice selection particularly of fruit.
I was not aware but I could have had an omelet made for me. Instead I had fruit and cheese on a roll
instead.
After a leisurely breakfast, we got moving. First we stopped at a tourist shop that sold
just about everything the I might want to buy.
They also changed money. They
took my left-over Argentinean pesos as well as dollars. I saw an amethyst bracelet that I might have
wanted to buy, BUT it was almost a thousand dollars and the stones were cloudy. I was also tempted to buy a wind chime for
Marla, but Ian talked me out of it. In
all probability, while I liked it, Marla wouldn’t. The result was that the only thing that I
bought there was a bottle of water.
We next headed for the Brazilian National Park
involving the Iguassu Falls. The views
were spectacular. We walked along a
path. At one point, we had the option of
going out roughly into the middle of the river.
The result was that I got quite wet, but the heat of the day made it
feel good. Then there was an elevator up
to the top where there was a panoramic view of all 275 falls. I wonder how they counted them. While many were significant in size, some
were quite narrow. I had lunch at the
top. There was a gift shop, but there
was nothing there that I wanted to buy.
There were some cute things that I might have wanted to buy for my
twins, but the prices were excessive.
In the tourist shop
Description of viewing route
Description of viewing route
View of the falls
Me in front of the falls
View of the falls
View of the falls
Buzzards flying overhead
View of the falls with buzzards flying overhead
View of the falls
Bird in tree
View of the falls
View of the falls
View of the falls
View of the falls
View of the falls
View of the falls
View of the falls
Me with the falls in the background
me with the falls in the background
Viewing the falls is very popular
Buzzards flying overhead
View of the falls
View of the falls
View of the falls with people heading out on the walkway
View of the falls with walkway
Me with falls in the background
The elevator which takes you up
Flying buzzards
Note rainbow
Looking in other direction with rainbow
view with rainbow
In the middle of the river
On the walkway
On the walkway
From the Highest Point
The next “adventure” was the boat ride under the
falls. For this to happen, there were
supposed to be six, but they agreed to run it for five. It was more than the boat ride. First we were taken on a “car” ride along
paths that had been created and given some information about the native flora
and fauna. The guide (not our guide) had
to speak in Portugese and English, which she did well. Then we walked down a
path, which lead to the river. Once we
got there Muxa, our guide, wouldn’t let us take clothes off until we were at
the pier next to the zodiacs. I had my
bathing suit on under my clothes; so I take off blouse, pants, shoes and socks.
As we started going, I started to question why I had
elected to do this. I immediately found
a rope to hang on to. I later remembered
that I had brought goggles with my bathing suit. I really could have used them on the boat
ride. Heading to the falls was fairly
quiet with only some slight bumping.
There was a photographer on board who was shooting away. He asked everyone to stand up so he could get
a good shot of you. I got the impression
that the pilot of the boat was trying to make the trip more exciting by
bouncing around. When we finally approached
the falls, we went under and out several times.
While under the falls, I couldn’t really see anything because of the
water pouring over me. The water felt a
bit cold, but not freezing. Then we
headed back and he really got things going.
He managed to go through some waves that went over the zodiac. The first time, I was in trouble, because I
wasn’t expecting it and the water went up my nose, but I was able to exercise
self control. We bounced our way back to
the pier where Muxa was waiting for us.
Larry had left his camera with her and she took a picture of us coming
in. After we got off the zodiac, I asked
her if it was acceptable for me to travel in my bathing suit since I didn’t
want to soak my clothes. I wound up
putting my shoes on and carried my blouse and pants.
After we got back to the hotel, I left my shoes in
my room and went to the pool area. I
sprawled out in the shade with my book.
I spoke with Jeff and Kathy a bit and then went in for a swim. I finally headed back to my room using the
public internet on the way.
I joined a group for dinner in the same place as
last night, but we were able to get just the salads and desert which was more
than enough for me. At about 9:15 I
headed to my room to take care of my things.
We have to have luggage out by 6:45 and be on the bus by 7:30.
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