Iguazu Falls part 1

Trip Start Nov 08, 2009
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Trip End Dec 22, 2009


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Where I stayed
Hostel Natura
(Foz de Iguacu hotels)

Flag of Brazil  , Paraná,
Monday, November 23, 2009

Iguazu Falls was phenomenal - just the sheer mass of it. We saw all kinds of animals which sparked us to want to come back some day to do a full Amazon tour. The animals they had ranged from a toucan, which was a real treat, to large monitors, monkeys, huge warrior ants, and hundreds of different species of butterflies. Iguazu Falls are twice the size of Niagara Falls and separates Brazil and Argentina. We were on the Brazilian side, which had the more panoramic views and horizontal perspectives. The falls pumped out so much water, so fast, and so strong that it was a rush just to be in its presence. They also warned that you may get a "nature" high because the falls would discharge a ton of negative ions that would get men giddy. Sure enough, there were some Greek dudes that were doing a chant and dance in the middle of the walkway. Couldn't figure out if it was the negative ions or if they were just happy to have come out of the closet - it's dark in there. More power to them. We continued to stroll through the forest just absorbing the magnitude of the falls
Toucan
Toucan
.

Coming back we decided to take the bus. Little did we know that the bus stopped 2 miles away from our hostel and the next connecting bus wouldn't arrive for over an hour. We started hiking it to our hostel. I thought it may be a good idea to add a hitch to our hike and threw out my thumb to see if we could get a sucker to pick us up. A couple of cars going our direction came and went completely ignoring us. Then I tried to signal cars going the opposite direction to take us in the other direction - you never know they may have forgotten their grocery list or just want to turn around to waste gas and time for a hitchhiker. Finally, I tried a guy on a moped who looked at me like I was a bumbling idiot trying to hitch a ride on a one-seater - hey we saw a family of six in Vietnam riding on a small motorcycle so us 3 would be a spacious fit. Last ditch effort was a guy on a bicycle that thought I was just giving him a thumbs up thinking we're just extremely friendly tourists and so continued to pedal by with an ear-to-ear wide smile giving me two  thumbs up believing he was returning the friendly salute while passing us by in our much needed transportation to the hostel. We laughed our butts off the whole time while doing this. We finally took a pitstop at a small beer store that called itself a grocery store but when the grocery consists of expired tuna cans and a couple of loafs of bread and then wall-to-wall beers and liquor I think it's safe to consider it a liquor store, although these rural Brazilians may consider beer a food. Now it all makes sense since most of them would drink their dinner. I stand corrected, it was a grocery store.
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