Day112

Foz Du Iguazu, Brazil

I must admit...just one day into Brazil and we are in a bit of culture shock.

First and foremost the language....we had just gotten to the point when we could really get by in Spanish.....and now its Portuguese. I honestly thought most people in tourism here would speak Spanish and at least a bit of English. I was wrong. They speak Portuguese, only Portuguese, and dont want to listen to anything else. I speak one work of Portuguese......Abrigado....which means thank you. But I have not gotten far enough to thank many people yet!

The second shell shock was the prices. I know its probably still less than the USA....but after months od spending no more than $20 bucks on dinner and thinking a $1 beer was high end.....being back to $7 dollar sandwiches and $4 drinks is sad!

Anyhow....they do charge you quite a bit here....but you do seem to get back for your money.

In Argentina, our full day at the Falls cost us $30....but we were kind of "on our own".

Here, our day at the Falls would cost $300.....but it was first class all the way. Private driver, private guide, picnic lunch. I definately felt much better about spending the cash as the day went on.

Since we did the "adventure" stuff on the Argentina side, we decided to make today more of a learning day.

We first had a biologist who took us on a 9K walk through the Jungle. Brazil has 185,000 hecactres of protected rain forest surrounding the Falls and they are a spectacular part of this area that I sadly do not think many people take the time to explore.
Richs favorite part was the spiders.

Bryce liked playing Tarzan on the huge jungle vines.

After our walk we took a fun speedboat ride up the Rio Parana through the rapids.

Then we Kayaked back down! It was beautiful. Dont worry...they pull you out a good 3K from going over the edge of the Falls. Bryce, of course, loved the rapids.....but during the quite sections we saw some great stuff.

I have searched the jungles of Belize and Costa Rica...but this was the first time I ever got to see Tucans in the wild. They were all skipping and jumping around this huge tree. Spectacular colors. What magnificent birds!

I also had my best Capaberra siting ever. I have seen them before, in Equador, but only at a distance. For those of you unfamiliar with the animal...it is the worlds largest species of rodent.

Yes.....essentially....that is one BIG RAT!