We didn't originally plan on going to Brazil on this trip but when we found out it was easy for us to go then we decided, why not? Americans require a Visa to enter Brazil. We tried to get one quickly there but due to the New Years holiday closings we were told it would be impossible in the time we had there. But we learned that EU passport holders don't require a Visa and Lily already has a 10 year Visa from her previous travel to Brazil. We arranged for a driver through our hotel to take us there.

Bird Park

He picked us up early and encouraged us to also visit the Bird Park while we were there as well. Turns out it's pretty much across the street from the entrance to the Falls. The Bird Park was really nice in that most of it was walking through very large enclosures with the birds flying around. We even saw Monkeys which were on the OUTSIDE of the bird enclosures and it looked like they were taunting the birds inside.

Unfortunately the weather was not great. It drizzled most of the time we were in the Bird Park but since it has so many tall trees it rarely made it to us.

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Iguaçu Falls

The taxi driver then dropped us off at the entrance to the park and we agreed on a pickup time and we were off. The park entry on the Brazil side is much easier since they accept many currencies and credit cards as payment. Then you board a double-decker bus for a fairly long ride to the falls. It makes a couple stops along the way, for a nature walk and the boat rides.

Once we left the bus across from the very nice old Hotel on site we were startled to find a couple soldiers with large guns drawn walking anxiously around a closed off path. We heard some loud pops, like fireworks coming from the area there but couldn't tell what was going on.

We then walked along the paths to the various viewing platforms. There are many but far fewer than the Argentina side. What is really nice is that since most of the actual falls are in Argentina that from this angle you get to see them at a very different perspective.

This time Lily had a Coati (spelled Quatis there) incident. Soon after we got there we got some snacks (ordered Empanadas but they were more like Hot Pockets). Right after Lily got hers she pulled out her phone to look at something and wasn't guarding her "Hot Pocket" a Coati jumped on the table and grabbed it right out of her hand. The snack shop has a guy who's sole job appears to be to wave a water bottle filled with corn kernels to scare them away but he was too late, the Coati won.

We got a little wet but we did bring the ponchos from the previous day so the girls were a little drier. On the way back to the bus to go back to the entrance we saw several Macaws in the wild, flying between trees.

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