FOZ DO IGUAÇU: Natural Wonders viewed from a Bus Floor

The latest enterants into the Phil´s Phworld Bizarre Travel Provider Activities Hall of Fame. (1) British Airways. Who, for reasons only beknowst to themselves, will occassionally delete flights from my itinerary. After the latest such occurance (when my Hong Kong / Delhi flight made a dissapearence) I asked why such things happened. The girl on the Round the World desk had no idea. But hoped it wasn´t inconvinent. I asked whether they´d refund my international call costs each time I rung them to sort out such messes. She didn´t get back to me.

And, more appropriatly to this entry, (2) Pluma Buses, Brazil. Who, in the course of a sixteen hour trip from Florianopolis to Foz do Iguaçu, managed to make four stops, change drivers three times and buses twice. Yes, apparently it takes three buses to make a five hundred mile trip. Admittedly, these were *nice* buses with full reclining seat action but each had some slightly disturbing quirks. The first bus had seats which went back. And back. And back... So much so that Nicola almost crushed the poor child sat in the lap of the woman behind her. Which may have contributed to the subsequent puking of said child. The second bus had seats which realised their place in the gravitational way of things, plus the benefits of random film entertainment (Cyranno de Begerac. In French. Without Portuguese subtitles) In fact, that bus would have been fine for the final ten hours. Sadly, though, with three hours to go we were asked to make another random change to a bus which was already half full. Resulting in four of us making the final part of the journey sat on the floor. And jolly uncomfortable it was too. But, as someone who once spent three hours sat on the floor of the Palace of Westminster waiting for a non appearence from a local MP, it was no great trial.


Foz do Iguaça. That`s like a shorthand for `another amazing Brazilian photo oppotunity

The reason for all this discomfort was our trip to the Foz do Iguaçu. An interesting place for purely geographical reasons: being a crossing point between Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, it also has the benefit of being gifted with some of the world´s most stunning waterfalls. 275 of them, to be exact, plunging out of the rainforest in a large arc and attracting all manner of wildlife. Including, of course, large groups of tourists. After a couple of months in small town Brazil there´s something tear jerkingly familliar when a group of Japaneese tourists emerge from the forest with the cameras gleaming in the sunlight. Undoubtedly the waterfall highlight of this trip so far and, like so much in Brazil, with photos well worth the price of national admission in itself. Worth the price of three country´s admissions, actually.


The obligatory ´Fools at the Falls´shot. Jess gladly obliged for this one.

Waterfalls are, of course, extrodinarily pretty. But aside from looking at them, walking around them and getting pleasantly soaked in the sprary there´s not a whole lot else to do but marvel. Not that that´s a *bad* thing. It just doesn´t make for good blogging... Hmm... There was the mad rush to garner the world´s best butterfly picture before the swarm of them around us dissapeared to pastures and sugary things new. That was exciting, and a little disconcerting (who´d have thought it from a swarm of butterflys?)


One of the many beautiful butterflies just waiting to land at your feet in Brazil. Strange, but true. Just make sure you bring your sweetest shoes.

I got so excited with the falls just then that I forgot to mention the Itapiu dam: just up the road from the falls and the world´s biggst hydroeletric dam. It generates enough power to light 95% of Paraguay, 20% of Brazil and is generally very big and turbine filled. It also hosts a curious light show in the evenings, maybe trying to compensate for all the ecological damage in building the thing in the first place, which basically is a front to make tourists watch a video proclaiming the dam to be the greatest of mankind´s achievements and the cure for all known ills. Ever. Someone should just marry it right now.

And tomorrow we´ll be crossing to Argentina where, apparently, the views of the falls are even more spectacular. So no doubt there´ll be some hilarious anecdote of obnoxious customns officials on the tiny bridge between the two countries. If we didn´t have the curiosities of Brazilian organisation to muse over, we´d just get very bored.


Itaipu Dam at the height of its light show spectacular. It is pretty spectacular, but I wouldn´t say it´s world changing. The bass music being pounded under our feet was more impressive. They should rent the place out as a drum and bass venue.

ADDITION: As promised, here is the tremendously exciting and often hilarious Argentinian Border Crossing Story. We went to the border. We presented our passports. They stamped them. We spent a nice day in Argentina. We came back. Here endeth the story.