Back to Rio, then home

On Tuesday 24th July I flew back to Rio, with my flight back to NZ departing the following day. I was staying the night in a hostel in Santa Teresa, a hill-top district often described as charming and/or bohemian. The area had lovely views out over the city.

Top of the remaining things to see before I left Rio was a visit to the Selaron Steps. This was the life-work of the artist Jorge Selaron, covered in more than 2000 pieces of tiles, mirrors and ceramics. Tragically, it really did end up being his life's work, as he was found dead on the steps in 2013, having possibly taken his own life.

The steps are actually in the Lapa district, which is generally acknowledged to be a rather dodgy part of town. I felt safe enough walking there in broad daylight, following the usual common-sense rules of not wearing anything of value and not wandering down quiet deserted streets. By all accounts it's not the type of place to wander around in the dark, and robberies have been known to take place on the steps themselves at night.

I had no such problems, and there were plenty of tourists enjoying the brightly coloured spectacle. I enjoyed looking at all the different tiles, sent to the artist from over 60 different countries.

After taking photos to my heart's content, I headed along the cute cobbled streets back up the hill to Santa Teresa.

Next up I spent some time exploring the Parque das Ruinas, which was only a few doors down from my accommodation.

This was a cool old restored ruin, which had been turned into a public space. There was a stage and amphitheatre for live performances, as well as a coffee shop on site. The park had fabulous views out over the city which I enjoyed as dusk fell.

I made my way back to my accommodation to find a random wedding shoot in full swing on the rooftop terrace!

Once they had cleared out, I had the terrace to myself. It was a very cool place to chill out and enjoy the lights over the city.

Wednesday was my last day in Brazil. My flight back to NZ departed at 6:50pm, so I still had a bit of time to make the most of Rio. It was a stunning day so I headed back to Copacabana Beach.

I had arranged to meet up with Luiz, the local that I met on my Amazon tour, and he was keen that I get the full Brazilian churrascaria experience before I leave. We had lunch at a very posh churrascaria near Copacabana beach. The food was amazing. There was loads of seafood, as well as plenty of salads and vegetable dishes on the buffet. Waiters then came around with big skewers of delicious barbecued meat, from which they would carve slices onto your plate. I was very impressed that this was the place that Luiz wanted us to go to, considering he is vegetarian!

As it turns out, the restaurant experience didn't actually end well, but that is a story for my next post! After lunch I took an Uber back to my accommodation and packed up the last of my things before heading to the airport in the afternoon. It had been an absolutely brilliant trip, but I was ready for home.

Iguaçu Falls, Brazil (and Argentina)

I left Manaus on a 3:20am flight, and two flights later, I arrived in Foz do Iguaçu in the early afternoon of Saturday 21st July. I had booked a private room at the Che Lagarto hostel, which was excellent. It was more like a hotel with a superb buffet breakfast, plus free caipirinhas in the evening. I spent the afternoon wandering around and getting my bearings, before turning in for an early night to try and make up for getting pretty much no sleep due to travel the previous evening.

On Sunday, after a hearty breakfast, I took a bus to the Parque Das Aves, which happened to be right next door to the Iguaçu National Park. I'm a sucker for any type of zoo or bird park, so had a very enjoyable couple of hours wandering around and taking photos.

I was disappointed that I didn't see any toucan in the wild while I was in the Amazon, so it was cool to see some here. They are just the strangest looking birds, I can't believe they are able to fly with those huge beaks.

The butterfly enclosure also had loads of hummingbirds in it. I'm fascinated by these birds, although they are next to impossible to photograph when they are in motion, they move that fast.

Owls are pretty much my all-time favourite birds (maybe equal with the NZ fantail).

Once I was done at the bird park, I caught a bus from right outside to take me a bit further down the road to the Iguaçu National Park. I was super excited to be visiting the Iguaçu Falls (also known as the Iguazu Falls, particularly on the Argentinian side). The falls are the largest waterfall system in the world, being both taller than the Niagara Falls and approximately four times as wide. They can be visited from both Brazil and Argentina.

First up was a boat trip, which got us rather wet! The volume of water barrelling down was incredible, and you didn't have to get too close for the spray to saturate everything.

Next up was a walk along the trails and boardwalks. The photos really don't do this place justice, it was one of the coolest places I've visited. Here are loads of pics!

At some of the viewpoints you got pretty drenched from the spray!

The vista lended itself well to panoramic shots.

And a couple more to finish

After my huge day of exploring I was pretty tired, so I grabbed a few supplies at the supermarket that was close to the bus station, and had a nice relaxed picnic dinner in, washed down with free caipirinhas. An early night followed.

The next day I was up bright and early, ready for another huge day. Today I was heading off to view the falls from the Argentinian side. I decided to do it as a 1-day tour, booked through the hostel. It just made the logistics of transport and the border crossing that much easier.

Monday was a stunning day, so it was nice to get some pics of the falls with blue sky in the background, as the previous day had been a lot more overcast.

There is a lot of debate about whether the falls are best viewed from the Brazilian, or the Argentinian side. In my opinion, one side isn't necessarily better than the other, they are just different. If you are going to go to all the trouble of making it to that part of the world, you really should see the falls from both sides. The Brazilian park is much smaller, and there is really only one walking trail. However, you get a really good sense of the scale and majesty of the waterfall system as a whole.

The Argentinian national park is much more vast, and requires taking a train to access the several different walking circuits. This was a little bit frustrating at times, as the queues to get on the trains could be quite long.

The undisputed highlight of the Argentinian side was the boardwalk loop taking you to the devil's throat (or la garganta del diablo as it is rather poetically called in Spanish). This was incredible! You are right above the falls, looking down into the abyss. Apparently, during the rainy season there can be as much as 450 000 cubic feet of water going over the falls per second. That is pretty mind-blowing!

I took some video footage of the falls, but videos taken on my iphone don't tend to play on this blogger platform. There is an awesome video here that is worth a look (and way more professional than what mine looked like anyway!). Here is another one which focuses on the Devil's Throat.

In terms of wildlife, the parks in both countries were full of coati, a member of the raccoon family. These were a real pest, especially near the crowded train stations on the Argentinian side, where there were usually also food outlets. I got a huge fright when I was sitting at a picnic table enjoying some lunch, and one brushed against my legs under the table.

By the time we crossed the border back into Brazil, and arrived back at the hostel, it had been a very long day. I grabbed a takeaway pizza from a place a few doors down from the hostel (ordered with the help of google translate -my Portuguese hadn't got any better!) and had another quiet night in. It was another early night since the next morning I had a flight back to Rio.