Day 85: Waterfalls and Skyfall

Tues. 6th November 2012

Facemasks were essential last night to get any sleep on the bus, as the lightening lit up the night sky and then the sunrise at 5ish according to our watches but 6ish in Iguassu time.

Soon after 7am we drew up outside our hotel and loaded all our belongings into the only room that was ready for us. This was quickly followed by showers and the  best breakfast we have had to date on this leg of our travels. Fresh fruit, recently cooked scrambled eggs, slices of sausage in onions, tasty coffee and lots of choice of cakes.

There was then time to stretch our legs and get our bearings in this new town. As we needed more cash we headed off to Rua Brazil, were the banks should be, but after 20 minutes walk and rejection of our card in two banks (including Santander, which we thought would be a safe bet) we gave up and headed back to our hotel.

At 10:30 we were off again, this time by minibus to see the Brazilian side of the waterfalls, but first stop was to a different bank where Zaida said we should all be able to get cash – success for most of us. Later there was a Skype session to NatWest by two of our group to unblock debit cards. Just over £1 for the double phone call to the UK to sort the problems – much cheaper than mobiles or hotel phones.  Thank you Skype for saving the day again.

Next it was off to the falls which are actually 22km out of town and part of a National Park declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986. We had expected it would be like Niagara where the town has been built around the falls. Luckily this was not the case as Niagara is far too tacky, this was much more natural surroundings (despite the man made walkways and other tourists!).

As some of our group had booked a helicopter flight they were the first to see the falls during their ten minute flight. Very spectacular was the verdict, but worth £6 a minute – only if you were not counting the pennies or it was on honeymoon!

The rest of us had to wait until we had got back on the minibus for two minutes, got off and walked through the entrance, back on the minibus for 5 minute drive then got off again and start walking along the marked trail!!

It was a case of following the path and the tourists to various viewpoints and wait for a space on the railings for the view and taking photos – and we took lots of photos.That said the views were definitely worth the wait and it is difficult to convey the sheer size and number of waterfalls in photographs. There are between 150 and 270 waterfalls depending on the season and the flow/volume of water.

I remember visiting waterfalls in Wales, as a girl, and my dad trying many different settings on his film SLR camera to trying and make the water look like water and not cotton wool, as he described it! Even with digital cameras that is still a challenge but good daylight and auto setting helped me.

The last viewpoint was up close to the falls called Devils Throat, so named because of the loud roar of the water. The waterfall is nearly 90 metres high and the spray on our faces was quite refreshing on such a hot day. However the ice creams and cakes in the local patisserie were even more welcome once we had finished sightseeing for the day.

It was good to finally return to the hotel, an hour or so later than expected, and find our rooms were ready for us. It only left us 2 1/2 hours before Dave & I were out again to go to the cinema to catch the new James Bond film, Skyfall in English with Portuguese subtitles.

As it was half price Tuesday the entrance ticket was only £2 each but the taxi was £5 each way, still a cheap night out. The cinema was small and the audience totalled 12 including us. The film was well worth it and very enjoyable and even better, it will stop Dave going on about how he is missing Skyfall in the UK. It did leave me pondering, however, as there was some amazing Scottish scenery featured in the film and there we were thousands of miles away, enjoying  it on a cinema screen!