Somewhere over the rainbow

Well another country and stamp in our passports. It turned out to be cheaper to fly and have 2 nights accommodation than catch the 36 hour bus to Iguazu from Mendoza! So on Friday we boarded our TAM flights to Iguazu, Brazil. The airline was very efficient and the staff friendly. They let Ellie and Will sit in the cockpit and wear the pilots hat for photos! Having left a warm 25 degrees in Santiago we were hit by a hot humid heat in Iguazu. Unfortunately we hadn’t realised that in Brazil people speak Portuguese, not Spanish! So our simple phrases and please and thank you’s were all different! Still we managed to get a taxi to our EcoHostal, just outside the park. The children’s little faces lit up when they saw the pool and because we are in the jungle we are sharing our living area with lots of amazing wildlife, including a troop of capuchin monkeys! They are such fun to watch leaping from tree to tree, some carrying babies on their backs and others tumbling together and eating fruit from the tree.
On Saturday we got up early and headed off on several buses to the Argentinian side of the falls. We walked through the rainforest where millions of colourful butterflies danced about like tumbling autumn leaves. As we walked we could hear the roar of these amazing waterfalls. The sight is stunning! Oceans of water pound over the falls creating spray and mist that is peppered with rainbows. We did a couple of walks, one that took us below and up close to the falls, another above with views peering into the thundering water and finally a walkway that went out over a mile and took us right over the area of the falls that is known as Devils Throat! Here you can stand amid the crescent shaped falls and get soaked by the spray while taking in the amazing sight.
We decided to take a couple of boat trips. One took us down the river above the falls where we were able to see turtles and toucans. The other boat trip was an exhilarating ride up close to the falls. We all piled into a huge rib, wearing our life jackets. We were told that we would get wet, I offered the children their raincoats but they said it would be much more fun to get wet…..just as well really because when they say you get wet they really mean completely drenched! The boat drove us up to right below the waterfalls and then warned us to put away cameras before driving the boat into the cascading water. You couldn’t see or breathe as the torrents of water poured over us and into the boat. Everyone was laughing and screaming with delight and we were taken back into the falls several times. It is a good job that the sun was so hot as were soaked through to the skin and wandered, dripping to find a sunny spot for lunch and to gradually dry out. We shared our lunch space with a couple of curious coatimundis whoses sniffy snouts were very interested in our rolls and crisps!

On Sunday we walked from our hostel to the Brazilian side of the falls. We caught a bus through the park where we took a walkway with amazing panoramic views of the falls…. Awesome! From this side of the falls we were able to watch the boats going into the waterfalls as we had done yesterday, and also walk along a walkway that took us very close to Devil’s Throat. The wind whipped up the spray so that it felt like a wet walk in Snowdonia! So glad that we had our waterproofs with us! The amount of water that thunders over the falls is an incredible sight and sound, while below us in the waterfall’s spray were beautiful rainbows.