The Iguasu Falls (Brazil/Paraguay)

The stunning Iguasu Waterfalls

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We arrived at the touristy town near the Iguasu Falls, or the ´Foz de Iguasu´as the locals called it, after a 13 hour bus journey from Curitiba. We were held up on the way for an hour because people who don´t have permission to build houses on farmland protested on the road for an hour before letting us past. When they eventually started to let traffic through we past them and saw that they were living in makeshift shelters on the sides of the road, as they have no where else to live.

We made it to the Brazilian side of the almighty waterfalls and it was well worth the trip to get there. The Iguasu Falls are the widest waterfalls in the world. September is however one of the driest months, so there was only 15% of the water that there usually is in the rainy season. The advantage of less water however is that there is much less spray, so you can see more, and get much closer to it all.

A market street in Paraguay

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I decided to splash out and take a 15 minute helicopter ride over the falls to see them from above. It was well worth it and the views of the falls were incredible. It was also amazing to see the Amazon forest for above. The forest is protected around the waterfalls and forms a national park. So much of the Amazon has been cut down for farmland, which is very sad and devastating for the environment.

Unfortunately we could not visited the falls from the Argentinean side as the border was closed due to a strike. There are a lot of strikes held in South America I´m beginning to realise!

I also visited a special bird park whilst near the waterfalls. They have many species of birds and a few other animals found in the Amazon rainforest. It was great to see them close up as it´s hard to catch sight of them in the wild. Hopefully we´ll see a few in the Pantanal and when we visited the Amazon rainforest again later on in the trip.

We also went across the border to Paraguay for a few hours to kills some time before getting the bus to Bonito.

Next stop Bonito, Brazil.