Foz do Iguacu, Brazil, February 1, 2018

Soy beans are a big crop in this area and a neighbouring field has been desicated.  They get 3 crops/year-

From the hostel, Wiebke and I walked about 400 meters to catch the free bus that took us to the main road.  There, we took another bus to Iguazu Falls.  The place is swarming with coati- rat like, raccoon like, yuck like varmits, looking for food because stupid tourists have obviously fed them.  They come in all sizes and absolutely gross me out.  Their noses, their tails.... Yuck-

I'm glad we came as early as we did.  It was still cool and there weren't many people.  We did the 1.2 km walk along the shore of the Iguacu River.  There are 275 individual falls that are more than 3 km wide and 80m high.  They're wider than Victoria Falls and higher than Niagara-

We even saw some condor-

You get wet from the viewpoint at Devil's Throat-

They just go on forever-

After, we went for lunch and a coati jumped up on to our table and attacked Weibke's burger and fries!  It flipped the tray so all the food was on the ground and the gang had a hey day eating!  That freaked us out but apparently it's normal.  A man walks around with a metal can attached to the end of a broom handle, scraping it on the tile floor.  It makes a horrible noise but scares them away.  Sometimes he can't keep up and they get the meal they're after.  Weibke got her meal replaced for free.

After lunch, I went to Parque das Aves, which is a bird sanctuary.  50% of the birds come from rescues and 43% were born in the park.  There are 1901 species of birds in Brazil.

Scarlet Ibis live for 30 years, lay 1-3 eggs and eat crustaceans.  They are a very bright color of orange-

I also saw a Southern Cassowary.  There are only 3 species of cassowary and they're related to ostriches, rheas, emus and the little kiwi.  They all have the same feature- they can't fly.  Their strong feet and wings are their main form of defence.  They are capable of killing a man but are only agressive when cornered or defending their chicks.  They have the lowest frequency sound amongst all birds.  They live alone and only find another when it's time to mate.  The male hatches the eggs and takes care of the chicks-

Hummingbirds-

Butterflies-

Macaws:  their colors are so vibrant.  It was feeding time in the cage so they were flying wildly all over the place, swooping low towards us.  People were screaming and jumping out of the way-

They are monogamous and mate with their own kind-

Parrots of all colors-

Ana is a red fan parrot-

Rico is a blue winged macaw.  They live 50-60 years, eat fruit and their population is declining due to a loss of habitat and trafficking-

Gray Crowned Crane live for 25 years, lay 2 eggs and eat insects, leaves, seeds, rodents, amphibians and reptiles  I love its head-

The Southern Lapwing lives 30 years, lays 3-4 eggs and eats insects and fish-

The Greater Flamingo live 33-44 years, lay 1-2 eggs and eat crustaceans and algae-

The Black Fronted Piping Guan lives 14 years, lays 2-4 eggs and eats fruit, insects and seeds-

The Razor Billed Curassow lives 22 years-

The Toco Toucan lives 16 years, lays 2-3 eggs and eats fruit, insects, rodents, reptiles, amphibians and eggs-

There are also numerous plants and flowers, such as the lobster claw which I saw in Africa but I didn't know what it was called-

Other beautiful flowers-

Afterwards, I caught buses back to the hostel and enjoyed the air conditionning in my room until it was time to go for supper.  We went to a meat buffet and afterwards there was a South American music and dancing show.  The costumes were great as was the athleticism of the dancers but it's hard to sit for so long when you've eaten too much-

Two women balanced 6 wine bottles on their heads.  This is a Paraguay tradition-

Lots of feathers-

I'm hoping the party in the bar doesn't go on until after 2 like last night.  Our 'window' is part of the bar wall so it's noisy!  We've got an 8:15 departure to go across to Argentina to see the waterfall from that side.  It's supposed to be spectacular!

Asuncion, Paraguay to Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, January 31, 2018

Paraguay is a lovely country: so green, so agriculturally developed.  I enjoyed my time here because of the countryside.  It reminds me of home-

I like the contrasting 3 colors.  This is honestly the color of the soil - I've not touched this up.  They are dividing the highway for probably 100 kms-

We only had 332 km to go to Brazil--

Shops along the highway sell weird things like wooden toys and there are always quite a few shops, side by side, all selling the same thing-

People drive like idiots, passing when it's not safe etc.  We came across an accident where there were a couple of cars involved but luckily no bodies lying around-

We stopped at a buffet restaurant for lunch, not my favorite, but I had what's apparently called a Scotch egg.  It's a boiled egg wrapped in ground meat.  It was delicious-

I also tried a chipas- cheese stuffed bread.  It was muy rico-

The borders were super fast and in no time we were at the campsite.  I was on cook group and so we made black bean burgers.  Believe it or not, they are great!  Luckily we had a lot of help chopping and preparing so we were eating in record time.  I'm looking forward to visiting Iguacu Falls, on the Brazilian side tomorrow!

P.S.  Somebody is pretty excited to be sleeping in a bed!