Foztastic Nature in Iguaçu

Last post we idolised the waterfalls of Foz do Iguaçu and I declared it to be the most breathtaking place I have seen. But in reality I was only telling half the story (okay, maybe two thirds). The trip wasn’t just about the waterfalls, it was also about the wildlife and in particular the birds and butterflies.

However before we tell you about with these wonderful creatures, we realised we forgot to show you a video of the falls. So here are a couple to whet your appetite and hopefully inspire you to visit this wonderland.





Okay, is your mind blown yet? The never-ending micro-explosions of water are something to behold in person. My only gripe with the devil’s throat was how busy it was. I would love to work there and go after-hours to just sit and take it all in on my own. That would be life changing.

Anyway, enough talking as this is once again going to be more of a visual treat than a verbal one. So sit back, scroll down, and enjoy some of the beautiful animals we saw whilst visiting the national park and nearby bird park.

Headless Flamengo

The first toucan of the trip

Look honey, it's a macaw!

Grey crowned crane - I love their funky feather hair!





This little fella was fast asleep




This is a horned screamer, a bird we briefly saw but didn't manage to snap in the Amazon!



Harpy eagle, bloody huge!





It's like they are all standing at a bird urinal!



I'm really going to miss hummingbirds

This tucan was out in the wild!


Supermoon Blood Moon




I bet you'd forgotten how much of a butterphile David is! 





This cheeky fella was shedding his skin right in front of us!





This catfish was about a metre long and swimming just upstream from the huge falls
Bananas!


Foz do Iguaçu


Since coming home we have been very busy and struggling to put together the blog posts that will finish off our time in Brazil. Sometimes capturing the moments can be tiring rather than exciting when you are physically very distant from the place which you want to write about. Although it has only been about a month, the memories are already fading and soon they will be nothing but a collection of good times gone old.

However this post is about a place that will stay with us for a very time (unless I get amnesia)... Iguassu Falls. This beautiful place captured our imagination whilst simultaneously making us realise our own insignificance. A place this stunning, this mindblowingly beautiful surpasses the need for one of our view-grabbing blog names that usually exaggerates the mundane into the fundane.  This would sully the memory of the experience and I like my memories unsullied thank you very much. Even putting into words the world we glimpsed somehow cheapens it. I have travelled a lot and I think this is the most breathtaking place I have ever visited.

The micro-explosions of never ending water are truly magical and it's impossible to imagine the scale of the falls even whilst you are there. As a chemical engineer, the flowrate was astonishing to me and as a human being, the grandness was overwhelming. This beautiful place is really a once in a lifetime thing to see. We have seen many waterfalls but these falls were something else.

I cannot even imagine the wonder of the first Europeans who laid eyes on this. Their hearts must have been shaking even more than mine was. I almost felt a spiritual connection when staring at the water. I don’t say this lightly… It is phenomenal.

We saw the falls from far away, from up close on the platforms and walkways, from Argentina and from Brazil, from the river itself by taking a boat that even went into the falls, and last but by no means least, from the air. A helicopter took us around the falls and we got to see this landscape from the sky. What an incredible experience.

I don't think any more words are necessary, instead I intend to bombard you with the top photos from the falls. It was difficult to cut them down to this many, believe me!

From the Brazilian side we got some incredible panoramic views of the falls.


Not only were the falls spectacular, but the forest surrounding them was so lush and beautiful





The weather wasn't so great on this first day but it made the whole place seem quite surreal, as the spray from the falls blended into the grey sky and roaring, foamy river



It was hard to get David to pose for this photo because he didn't want to turn his back on the awesomeness!

At the end of the walkway we got a great view of The Devil's Throat, which threw up so much spray it was almost impossible to actually see at times




Watching the water endlessly tumble down and crash off the rocks was hypnotic




On the Argentinian side we were able to walk where we had been looking across to from Brazil, and we got a whole new perspective of the falls with a much more up-close-and-personal experience



It seems impossible that this calm, almost mirror-like water has so recently gone through all the violence and trauma of the falls, but we were really only a few minutes downstream at this point.






I know...just perfect.

From this point on it was nothing but rainbows!





Looking down into The Devil's Throat - there was so much spray we couldn't even see the walkway we had been on the day before!






And finally, we flew over it and it started to make a bit more sense. It's so hard to put something so huge and so incredible into context but the helicopter ride really opened our eyes to what the falls really are








After all that water, it seemed fitting to have a boat of sushi for dinner

The next post is going to be about the wildlife we saw during our trip. It's well worth a look!