Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Brazil/Argentina Trip Report, Day 7: Brazil, Iguazu national park


DAY 7: April 2, 2012

IN BRAZIL SIDE OF IGUACU ONCE AGAIN.

We started the day a little late by our usual standards--so had to wait in queue with the general crowd for tickets at 10.30. We are so used to be everywhere bright and early, so it was a bit of an issue wasting time in a queue.

This is the rainbow pool at the entrance of the national park. 



All trails marked here...



READY FOR THE JEEP RIDE--glass top for the jeeps.

on the double decker...

About 23 km or 15 miles before the junction where Iguacu joins Parana river, are the great Iguassu Falls,

Walking the trail on the Brazilian side of Iguassu Falls is easy as said earlier.

There is a main trail, approximately 1,600 meters (one mile) long. This leads us along the river with its many smaller falls to the base of the biggest waterfall GARGANTA DEL DIABLO where a catwalk extends out over the brink.

we did all the trails/several levels and had a great time













This side provides a good general view of the falls.

At the top the trail leads to the end of the tour in front of the Iguassu River above the falls.

Here, there is a souvenir shop, We bought some nice Tshirts with the logo and lovely souvenirs too with macaws and the famous semiprecious stone of Brazil.

. There is a lovely bird park on Brazil side just adjacent to the national park. 28R$ entry; open 8.30—5.30

This is red ibis on tree...and flamingos on the ground...


Flamingos on the ground at the bottom of pic.


These are grey crowned cranes--This species and the closely related black-crowned crane are the only cranes that can roost in trees, because of a long hind toe that can grasp branches.


The grey-crowned crane is about 1 m (3.3 ft) tall and weighs 3.5 kg (7.7 lbs)and a wingspan of 2 m (6.5 ft).  Its body plumage is mainly grey. The wings are also predominantly white, but contain feathers with a range of colours. The head has a crown of stiff golden feathers. The sides of the face are white, and there is a bright red inflatable throat pouch.  The bill is relatively short and grey, and the legs are black. They have long legs for wading through the grasses.



 The grey-crowned crane has a breeding display involving dancing, bowing, and jumping.  It has a booming call which involves inflation of the red gular sac. It also makes a honking sound quite different from the trumpeting of other crane species.  Both sexes dance, and immature birds join the adults. Dancing is an integral part of courtship, but also may be done at any time of the year.
camera shy....

Here's a toucan on the branch--this is a shy guy--there are very naughty ones as well





This is Curassow restricted to tropical South America.


Amazing how all birds are out in the open--there is a net high up in the ceiling though.

Here are green, yellow parakeets.







These colorful macaws are so noisy...

A naughty toucan caught in flight...it was kind of purposely flying low very near us...whooshing past us as if playing... 

 here it is showing off...alighting right near us




the same toucan flying low past us and then turning its back on us.

 The toucan agreed to pose ...


Then we were in the reptiles section—iguana here...



Caiman sunning itself near pond
turtles hardly visible in pic.
Here's the dreaded rattlesnake.

A different colored toucan--they come in 5 shade combinations
Here are some lovely macaws... nice restaurant with live music.


 A guy was helping us hold a macaw. Could have spent a whole day with this sweetie...weighs quite a bit, claws feel like barbed wire.





This is a mature sweet bird as opposed to the naughty ones we saw earlier


Scare at the Airport:


We were in hurry for our flight which was scheduled at 3.45pm. We were both flying back to Rio from where I was to be on my international flight back to Houston while son had to take the domestic flight to Sao Paulo.

We caught a taxi back to our hotel a km away, got their free shuttle ride to the airport another km away. As we won't have adequate time at the Rio airport before taking our separate flights, I spent few minutes repacking our bags.

 We then went to the checkin counter at 5 minutes before 3 PM. The guy there took his time and then told us "CERRADO"... we are too late for checkin and the gates are closed! The flight timing had been changed to 3.20 and they were boarding. It is such a small airport and people were walking to the plane we could see through the window. 

We requested him repeatedly to let us check our one bag and join the boarding line, We showed him our onward flight tickets for international and domestic connection and pleaded.  But he vehemently refused saying checkin closes at 3pm and pointed at the wall clock there which was showing 3 just then. But we had been standing there for 5 minutes when he chose not to attend to us and frankly we had thought the flight was at 3.45; that had been the original schedule! The guy was smirking at our misery and said we can buy new tickets all over!

Our problem was everything should be rescheduled and walkup international flight may not be easy

Son was contemplating buying new flight tickets and asking him for suggestions . I told the guy "I would like to speak to your supervisor please". He called up a young lady and we made a fervent request to her. She was on phone, gestured us to wait, then thankfully called up an employee to take our checked bag after tagging it. She also gave us our boarding passes. Took her just a coiuple of minutes! We thanked her profusely and joined the line of boarding passengers and got on our plane

Whew! From then on we always check our flight's timings on the official site looking out for changes.. mostly we get an email informing of changes, but it doesn't hurt to be careful!

VIDEOS:

Here are videos of the Terrific Iguazu falls on Brazil side, Argentina side as well as the island San Martin, all with music and captions.

brasil iguacu

Argentina Iguazu national park

Isla San Martin

Hang gliding in Rio:

Here are some pics of the tandem flight son took before he returned back home. He had done the canopy, ziplining etc too and had had a great time.  Video link above

I'll post the rest of the videos a little later as this has been so hugely delayed. We would return to AWESOME ARGENTINA for a 17 days holiday which I'll cover soon








I wanted to continue with Awesome Argentina where we had a 17 day holiday but decided I'll start with our recent 18 day vacation in New Zealand...it starts here:
http://adventuretrav.blogspot.com/2017/03/how-to-plan-trip-to-new-zealand.html

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