David and Julia's Living Book

Rio Buzios Iguassu Falls Brazil

Sightseeing

Monday, April 28 2008

Here is a shot of me on Copacabana beach, yes from the song, which is just up the road from Ipanema beach; yes, the other famous song.

We had a relaxing day at the beach today after the last few days of exhilarating activities; it was a welcome break.

Tuesday, April 29 2008

Julia after she cooled off in the warm waters of the Hibiscus beach in Buzios.

Today it was a five-hour road trip from Rio to Buzios and our hotel at the Hibiscus Beach.

We were very worn out by the time we got to the hotel, mainly from the really bad driving displayed by our bus driver. We have discovered that the most dangerous thing a traveler will do while traveling is to take a ride in a bus, taxi, or car driven by a local. Not even the risk of robbery in South Africa is more dangerous; well, maybe not robbery.

Wednesday, April 30 2008

The beach looked like yesterday.

Rain, rain, go away, come again another day. We have been very lucky with the weather for the entire trip until today.

In England, when we walked in Wales, it rained the week before and the weeks after our walk; in Egypt, it was cool but never rained (which it never does in Egypt); in Japan, the powder snow came down right on cue; in Thailand, the really hot weather stayed away until two days before we left; in South Africa, it was perfect robbery weather all the time; in the Amazon, it rained only at night. But our luck ran out in Buzios. It rained all day at the beach resort, curtailing our plans to go snorkeling and swimming.

Thursday, May 01 2008

Julia as the wind blew her hat off in front of the falls.

The rain continued most of the night last night, which was not all bad as it cooled down, making it more pleasant to sleep.

We were up at 5:00 am to take a taxi ride back to Rio airport so we could catch a 10:40 am flight to Iguassu Falls. The taxi driver was a little better driver than the bus driver who brought us to Buzios, but only a little better. So we were glad to get out of his taxi and to the relative safety of a jet airplane. Three hours later, we were at Iguassu airport where our guide met us and immediately took us to see the falls on the Brazilian side. It was raining hard when we arrived at the falls, but we did not let that stop us from taking in the breathtaking vistas.

Here is one of the dancing girls.

We went to a dinner and show at the recommendation of our guide. The show was based on a Samba show, which is like a Vegas showgirl review; or the other way around, I am not sure.

The twist with this show was they had music and dance examples from all around South America. The food was buffet style and very good, and we drank an Argentine red wine to prepare ourselves for the last part of the trip in Buenos Aires.

Friday, May 02 2008

The Devil's Throat at Iguassu Falls.

What an amazing time we had today. Our guide took us over the border to Argentina so we could walk to the center of the falls. The enormous cataract just about surrounded us on all sides! We were also dazzled by a flock of swifts that nest behind the waterfall; they moved just like starlings would in a murmuration.

From Julia: We are in a subtropical rainforest, but because it's autumn, the air temperature is cold. At least, it is much colder than we've been used to for a while. Even so, we decided to get completely soaked and go out onto the river in a speedboat that went right up to several of the waterfalls. We had to put our stuff into waterproof sacks and take off our shoes and socks. The river was turbulent and splashed in the boat, and our un-waterproofed bottoms and legs got saturated. After the river trip, we drove back through the forest in an open-topped vehicle (under a very large spider hanging from the trees overhead) to a buffet lunch. Good grief, it's disgusting to realize that the last three meals I have eaten have been buffets! It was delicious; just a little embarrassing to get up from the meal and notice we'd left wet patches on the cushions from our wet bottoms.