Rio to Iguazu (Brazil) - 6th Nov

The Iguazu Falls are bidding to become one of the new natural wonders of the world... I am surprised they are not already. They make Niagra look like a leaking tap! Like Niagra they are owned by two countries, in the case of the Iguazu Falls – Brazil and Argentina. Paraguay is nearby and owns part of the far shores of the Iguazu river but is not lucky enough to own any of the waterfalls.

We woke early and left a rainy Rio for the airport. We had a great time in Rio, however the ride to the airport reminded us that we did not get as much done as we would have maybe liked. This is a good lesson for our trip – we can not do everything everywhere we go, just make the most, which I think we did.

We did not get to the district of Lapa, we did not go to a Samba and we did not visit a Favela. The latter was one thing that I wanted to do but we could not find a tour that we felt comfortable with (either due to safety or exploitation of the locals) – it is not something you can do by yourself after all.



Reminder of how close the rich and not so rich live

We were late taking off due to fog at Iguazu, however when we arrived there was not a cloud in the sky. We put our bags in a locker at the airport and made our way straight to the falls on the Brazilian side.

The first thing that strikes you is the noise and the size - they are enormous, no pictures really do it justice and anyway you would be hard pushed to get the whole length in one picture.

After the falls we jumped in a taxi across to the border to Argentina and to our hotel in Puerto Iguazu – a friendly enough place but mainly geared for the tourists. In the evening we went out to eat and for the princly sum of £48 had two amazing large steaks and a bottle of full-bodied Malbec from Saint Felicien (I have no idea where that is in Argentina – but it was lovely), in a place frequented by a fair number of locals and 3 men with guitars.

After the meal we went back to the room and for the first time since leaving England put on the TV... it was spooky but on a Saturday night the Argentinian Film Channel appears to have Evita on loop... 10 points if you can name the famous Geordie in it (and it is not Gazza)!