Foz Do Iguaçu (Brazil)

Hey all, this is James. Mel has been working hard on the blog keeping you all up to date, so I thought it only fair that I should do an update also.
After leaving Ihla Do Mel we jumped on the boat and local bus back to Curitiba in preperation for our 10 hour bus journey to Foz Do Iguaçu, a destination that we were both pretty excited about, as it would give us our first opportunity of seeing the world famous falls.
The bus journey was pretty good, as the seat recline back to the point where you are virtually lying down, so you do get a decent night sleep during the trip.

We arrived at Foz and had to meet a friend of ours called Dean, who we had met during our stay at the Mango Tree Hostel in Rio. Dean had left his walking boots at the hostel and contacted us via the hostel to ask whether we would mind taking his boots to Foz with us and arrange to meet him there so he could get them back. Being the lovely people that we are, we agreed and meet him at the bus station. He was obviously pretty pleased at getting his boots back and as a thank you bought us breakfast.

After that we jumped on a bus into Foz town centre to make our way to our hostel. We had chosen a hostel that was about 13km outside of town, inbetween the town and the falls, but we had no idea how to get there, fortunately it was not that complicated and we managed to figure out which local buses we had to take to get us there. The final bus took us down a tarmac road for about a mile, which eventually turned into just a dirt track. At this point Mel and I looked at each other with the kind of expression that said "Where the hell are we going here". The bus then suddenly stopped, still no hostel in sight, and the bus driver said, in Spanish, "Walk down the track and the hostel is on the right", at least we thought that is what he said. We found ourselves standing on a dirt track in the middle of farming fields as far as the eye could see, with the exception of one farm house, and we started to wonder what we had done.

We followed the drivers insturcions and after about 10 minutes of walking we came across a long driveway, sign posted Hostel Natura, which led to two buildings. It was upon arriving at the bulidngs we realised why we had chosen to stay at the hostel. It was set in about 4 acres of land with two large fishing lakes at one end, around which was plenty of land for us to pitch our tent. The main hostel building had a huge common room in the open air, which had a bar, table football, pool table, huge sofas and a swimming pool. It was pretty much perfect. After pitching our tent and washing up it was time to head to the falls.

The "Cataratas" were only about 10 minutes bus journey from the hostel. When we got there we opted to jump off the National Parks internal bus a little early and take the forest walk, which approached the falls from about a mile back from the main "Devils Throat" section of the falls. During the last week we had been talking to people regarding the falls and everyone had told us that the Argentine side of the falls was better than the Brazillian side, so we didn´t really know how good the views would be.

As we approached the falls, the thunderous crashing of the water was heard before we actually caught a glimpse, and when we did finally get our first sighting, the rush of shear excitement was pretty intense. The falls spread over an area approximately 1km long and consist of approx 275 seperate falls, so they are far too big to catch all in one eye shot, plus there are rock formations and dense forests that split the various sections. The Brazillian government really has made the most of the National Park as a tourist attraction by constructing several walkways that take you over and pretty much into the falls. This, in one way, takes away a little of the natural beauty of what must be one of the most beautiful natural sites in the world, but on the plus side does give the public the opportunity to get very up close and personal with the falls.

The main walkway on the Brazilian side takes you on a somewhat tentative walk over the top and infront of one of the most fierce parts of the falls. The main section of the walkway puts you face to face with a waterfall about 100m long and 30m high. The winds created by the millions of litres of water crashing down completely engulf you, and the spray drenches you from head to toe. It truely is an amazing experience and certainly one that we will never forget. You can view all the photos at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=84335&l=2dce3&id=676112322 (you don´t need a facebook account to view them).

After a couple of hours we were both feeling pretty tired so decided to head back to the hostel for a siesta. That night we decided to stay at the hostel to eat as they were preparing a Brazilian buffet. The food was great and we spent the night getting to know some great people from the U.S., Belgium and the U.K. over a few games of table football and pool. Mel learnt that Josh, the guy from the U.S., was inbetween jobs, so decided to spend the majority of the night giving him Careers Guidance. During the evening we were also treated to an amazing 3 hour electrical storm that completely lit up the night sky.

The following morning we decided that we would have our first lazy day of the trip, and as the hostel was in such a beautiful spot, it seemed like the perfect place to do it. We ended up having a 3 hour long breakfast with everyone we had met the previous night, then chilled out by the pool for the rest of the day. That afternoon we met another lovely couple from Jersey who we ended up spending the rest of the day and night with.