Highlight: Helicopter Ride over the Iguazu Falls in Brazil
We had a good breakfast at the hotel and Francis and a new driver picked us up at 8:30 to begin our day of touring on the Brazilian side. The city inside Brazil has over 300,000 people and Francis lives there.
After changing money into Brazilian reals, we went directly to the helicopter ride. After a very short wait, we were loaded onto the helicopter with a couple from Munich and off we went. It was magnificent. Tim was in front with the pilot for a birds eye view. It was so spectacular that words don't describe it. The flight over the Devil's Throat was the best. The enormity, beauty and energy of the falls from the air was spectacular.
Then we went to the Brazilian Iguasu Falls Park. We took a path down the mountain on the Brazil side to view the Argentinian falls we had seen yesterday from above and to the side. This was probably the most magnificent view. There were lots of lookout points - each more beautiful than the last. We went out on one metal grated walkway way out over the falls and it had the most beautiful view of the Devil's Throat. I took a movie of the falls from here and can't wait to watch it again on the computer. The water crashing below us was mesmorizing.
We went to the restaurant and had a great buffet lunch - Francis joined us and we enjoyed talking to him. We sat by the river as it led to the falls and we could see the mist where the water was crashing over the falls. Lots of birds and butterflies joined us at our table. The buffet had quite a variety of foods - Brazilian style.
We then drove to a large souvenir shop where Tim got his Brazilian flip flops with the Brazilian flag (popular in the US but less than half the cost here), and I got a Brazil T-shirt, flip flops for the pool, and 3 stone obelisks to add to the collection on the coffee table in the den in Florida. One is made out of a pink stone that is the national stone of Argentina.
Back in the van, our driver and Francis took us through Boz do Iguasu - the Brazilian city near the falls. Somewhat typical but clean. We passed up on walking through the city since it was quite hot and humid. We got to the airport at 3:15 for our 5 pm flight back to Buenos Aires. But our flight was quite late so we didn't leave Puerto Iguazu until 6:20 pm. We could see the mist from the falls as the plane took off. And as we landed we could see the enormity of Buenos Aires as we landed at the city airport.
We bought a bottle of Terrazas Malbec Reserva - our new favorite wine - to enjoy once back at the hotel. We went through security but no one was there to meet us even though our plane was 1 1/2 hours late. We waited a while and still no one. I decided to see if they were waiting outside - no one. So we decided to take a taxi and went to the taxi stand. Tim insisted that I have the name and address on a piece of paper for the taxi driver so I started digging in my bag to find that. Finally found that and we were about to get back into the taxi line when I suggested we look inside one more time. Still no one. As we turned to leave, up walks Lucelia saying 'Where have you been? I've been here the entire time!'. Well, I knew that wasn't so but I didn't say anything but we were both pissed!
Anyway, we loaded on the van for the short ride back to the Park Hyatt Hotel. Check in was confusing as they had duplicate reservations for us! This shouldn't happen on a trip like this. We finally got checked in and had our bottle of wine to unwind. We then walked to Recoleta for dinner. Tim wanted pasta (instead of another steak) so we stopped at a sidewalk restaurant across the park from the Recoleta Cemetary. It was a good authentic Italian dinner.
We walked the long way back to the hotel. We must have walked through the red light district as we were approached by at least 6 people asking if we wanted pretty women or nightclubs.
To bed for a restful night's sleep to get ready for another day of adventure in Argentina.
Larry and Tim
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