It was raining as we exited the airplane at the Iguazu Falls airport. While the portable ramp had a plastic canopy over it to keep us dry, it was a long walk to the terminal. They must have experienced this before as they had a large number of bright red umbrellas at the bottom of the ramp for us to use as we walked to the terminal.

After getting our luggage we spotted our driver. As usual, we had arranged for the hotel to send a driver to pick us up so we wouldn't have to deal with getting to the hotel when we arrived in town. He was very nice and we ended up hiring him several more times to take us around the area.

Our first evening we went to a local night spot, just outside of town, where they had a buffet of local foods and a dance/music show featuring the songs and dances of South America. As we had made our reservations late we were sitting on the side towards the back in a room that held several hundred people. While eating a waiter told us a couple didn't show up for the reservation and asked if we wanted to move. We did and ended up front row - center! The food, the music and the dancing was great, and being in the front row I thought we might end up on stage - but we didn't.

The second day our driver took us first to Itaipu Dam. The dam currently generates more electricity than any dam in the world, twice as much as the largest in the US. They are expanding the capacity to match the Three Gorges Dam in China when it is completed. The dam supplies about 25% of all of the electricity used in Brazil and over 75% used in Paraguay! After seeing a movie about the dam we rode around in busses around and over the dam before returning to the guest center.

Our driver then took us to the Brazilian side of Iguazu Falls.

Upon seeing Iguazu, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt reportedly exclaimed "Poor Niagara!" Vastly larger than North America's Niagara Falls, Iguazu is rivalled only by Southern Africa's Victoria Falls which separates Zambia and Zimbabwe. Victoria's annual peak flow is also greater than Iguazu's annual peak - 9.1 million litres per second versus 6.5 million - though in times of extreme flood the two have recorded very similar maximum water discharge (well in excess of 12 million litres per second.). Niagara's annual peak flow is about 2.8 million litres per second, although a all-time peak of 6.8 million has been recorded.

The falls are amazing. We were there while the overall water levels were low, and the views were still fantistic. We walked along the path overlooking the falls and out on a platform to get a closer view. The mist from the falls gave rainbows everywhere.

Photo Note: A polarizing filter can be great to enhance the blue sky. But when rotating the filter, the angle that brought out the best sky made the rainbows disappear, while the angle that made the rainbows stand out, de-emphasized the blue sky.

Jackie got to be friends with the local Coatimundi who checked her bag for food. They were all over the place, checking everyone out.

We walked back up to the We walked back up to the parking lot and then walked to the local restaurant that overlooks the top of the falls. Had a nice buffet, a good beer, and bees joining us as we ate outdoors.

Next our driver took us back a few miles down the road, past the beautiful, but expensive, Tropical Hotel, to our next adventure: a truck ride through the jungle and down to the river to ride a boat under the falls. On the ride our down our guide pointed out many of the different trees and bushes. When we reached the bottom we were given waterproof bags for our gear as the inflatable boats we were going to ride in went right in under the falls. We were able to take photos of the falls looking up, as we got closer we had to put everything in the waterproof bags as going under the falls is like having a someone stand on top of a building with several firehoses and blast you out. It would be impossible to try to stand up. We didn't go under the largest of the falls, the pressure would have pushed the boat under water, but the driver did go in and out of the falls several times, just to make sure we were totally soaked!

On the way back it seemed like the trip was a little short. When we arrived back at the dock we found out why - Brazil was on TV in the World Cup. We felt lucky that one driver was still working and took us back up to the rim where we caught a bus back to the Tropical to visit and have a beer while watching part of the game.

Our driver met us and took us back to our hotel in town where we enjoyed our dinner after a long, but very enjoyable day.

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