Day 3 - FOZ!

No airplanes - first official day of vacation!  Today we drove to the Brazilian side of Iguazu Falls.  Driving in Brazil (near Iguazu) is surprisingly non-stressful - roads are empty, they drive on the same side as us, so other than the occasional police/military random pullovers and an unusual number of speed bumps - nothing to worry about.  

We had also bought tickets to a tropical bird park across the street from the Iguazu entrance and decided to visit there first.

Side note:  I consider myself a reasonably intelligent person, but there are some things that slip by me – like the fact that Brazilian’s speak Portuguese, and that Portuguese is not really all that similar to Spanish.  I can butcher my way through Spanish to get a general idea across; Damon, however, is more skilled in the art of lingual confusion with an air of unwarranted confidence.  When Damon communicates in another language, he will move his arms around, say words that may have some similarity to an actual word, and assume the other person knows what he is talking about.  Throw in Portuguese and it is a sight to behold.

We entered the bird park parking lot where we are able to figure out that it is 20 Reals to park but we are not sure if the parking covers us going to both the bird park and the falls.  Damon has a “conversation” with the parking attendant (who only speaks Portuguese) pointing and gesturing and saying “estacion” repeatedly (it means station) instead of “estacionamento”, which means parking lot.  Close enough.  There was a lot of nodding and pointing and “uh huhs” and we just sort of assumed we were good to go.  I on the other hand was busy calling everyone a lawyer in Spanish (abogado) instead of thanking them in Portuguese (obrigado).  Took me two days to get that one straight.

The bird park was interesting – supposedly about 1,500 birds, the majority of which ended up there following injuries caused by humans or were confiscated from animal traffickers – and the facilities were impressive, clean and well kept.  In addition to a large array of very colorful and some strange looking extinct (in the wild) birds, they had a butterfly pavilion with the most beautiful fruit displays to attract the butterflies.  Exhibits also included snakes, caimans and spiders – although the spiders were not part of the official display, we did see one on a door that scared a mom and daughter so badly that they refused to go into the butterfly exhibit.  I saw the spider and it was HUGE.   

The only downside to the morning was the oppressive heat.  At one point, Damon checked the temperature and it was 96 but “felt like” 116.  With 100% humidity.  What idiots go to a Brazilian jungle to see birds outside in the middle of summer?  These idiots.  We were dripping from head to toe and this exhibit was primarily in the shade!  Made us a bit nervous to head out to the falls which seemed to be much more exposed.

(We are still trying to recover lost pictures from Damon's phone and will post when we can).

After the bird park, we walked across the street to the National Park that housed the Brazilian side of the Iguazu Falls.  From the entrance, everyone is shuttled in an air-conditioned bus (yes!) about 9km and then everyone gets out to walk the 1.5km path to view the falls.  We’ve seen Niagara Falls from both sides.  We’ve seen spectacular waterfalls in Iceland, in Hawaii, in the Fjords of New Zealand and we’ve seen Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.  I can tell you that none of them even come close to the size and splendor of Iguazu.  The falls are jaw-dropping – especially with the surrounding jungles, blue skies and puffy clouds.  It is impossible to describe without seeing it – but the falls just go on and on and on – each waterfall on its own is impressive, but there are hundreds of all shapes and sizes.  It is near impossible to take a bad picture from Iguazu and the amazing views made us almost forgot about how hot it was!  Almost…

At the end of the viewing path, there is an elevator that takes you up the 20 meters or so to the restaurant and bus pick-up.  The line was long and the elevators small, so we geniuses decided to hike it.  Uphill.  450 meters.  In “feels like” 116 degree heat.  Not one of our brighter moves, but we were rewarded at the top with a wonderful lunch at the top of the falls, air conditioning, and free wifi!  After lunch, we took the bus back to our car and made the drive back to Argentina so we could see the falls from the Argentina side.

On our way back, we passed by a building with a bunch of Hollywood stuff outside - everywhere we go, we noticed US influence - they called it Dreamland.  I liked the sign, but Damon wanted to capture Bumblebee in the background.

Damon’s international lingual skills are second only to his ability to “effortlessly” cross over a border with style and grace.  For some reason, the always confident husband of mine seems to lose all ability to articulate &/or speak coherently when he gets super nervous, which always happens when we cross a border.  Damon has been slightly paranoid about the fact that we never got checked entering Brazil, so I was forced to carry “our papers” whenever we got out of the car.  As we approach the Brazil border and again, no one is there, he is especially nervous about re-entering Argentina.  As if the 10,000 other people entering right before and after us are not doing the same thing. 

We approached the Argentine border and Damon has our passports.  The immigration officer asks one simple question – where are you going – as he glances at our passports.  Damon (who is going to be so mad at me for writing about this but I have not stopped laughing for two days), just points in front of us and yells “FOZ!” and then starts randomly saying the handful of words and locations he picked up in Portuguese, none of which actually have any bearing on the situation, in some attempt to communicate either where we were or where we are going.  All while his arms are waving to further communicate with the agent.  The agent, stupefied, looks at me for some help.  I let him know, by pointing behind us, that we were in Foz do Iguacu and then pointed in front of us to say the hotel name we were staying at in Puerto Iguazu (city on the Argentine side).  It pays to be the one making the reservations.  He waived us through and I proceeded to laugh until crying for possibly the next 20 minutes.  Damon’s new phrase in response to this encounter (because I bring it up non-stop) is “FOZ YOU”.  Damon – I love you, but I am so never smuggling drugs across a border with you.

We arrived at our hotel and for the first time in three days, we experienced disappointment.  Hard to believe, but the hotel I reserved on-line with the beautiful pictures, sadly, was not what we found.  The outside and the lobby were beautiful, but our room was small and dark and while it was clean, it was just kind of icky with a cheap motel creep feel.  To top it off, the room was muggy and the AC was pre-set and unchangeable at about 78 degrees.  We tried to switch rooms, but as it was New Year’s Eve, we had no luck so had to suck it up.  We hung out by the pool for a few hours, but the 8 guest chairs were already taken so we sat by the bar or in the pool trying to cool down.  

With no real plans for dinner, we opted for the NYE dinner offered by the hotel.  Since the lobby and the restaurant area seemed decent, we figured it couldn't be too bad.  For a total of about $18 each, we gad a nice buffet, including a bottle of wine, plus live music.  We didn't know if there was anything else going on since no one spoke English, so we spent the final hour of 2018 watching another episode of Supernatural.  I think that when the clock struck midnight (based on the yelling outside), Damon was brushing his teeth.  Yes, a far cry from dancing on the deck of a cruise ship last year waving glow sticks around while dancing our asses off.  But us party animals - maybe we only do that every other year. 

Feliz Ano Nuevo!