Bus That Waited!
We decided to leave Rio a day earlier than we originally planned having done everything we wanted to do and also because, beautiful as Rio is, we just aren´t big city people and couldn´t wait to get to Foz.
With the exception of availability of non meat sandwiches, Rio hasn´t changed at all in the 7 years since I was last here - big contrast to our last trip to Delhi when we noticed big changes in the space of 2 years! It has a bit of Miami about it and a bit of Monaco, but with the favelas dotting the hillside. Always hard to see such poverty so close to such wealth.
So we headed up to Corcovado in the morning planning to catch the lunch time bus to Foz. The statue is just as serene as I remember, and just as swarming with people. But he does look like he is trying to protect his city as best he can. Our plan was to get back to the bus station to catch the 1.30pm bus to Foz and it will come as no surprise to those who know us to hear that we didn´t leave nearly enough time and ended up running into the bus station 15 minutes late, suncream pouring down Steve´s bag due to breakage number 1, waving and shouting at the bus company people as we saw our bus pulling away and finally managing to reach it, Steve banging on the door as he ran along side, when fortunately the very nice mr. bus driver stopped for us. The driver and staff seemed to think the "inglés loco" amusing at least and we accepted whatever jovial abuse we received gracefully, seeing as we couldn´t understand any of it!
Couldn´t wait to get to a country where we stand a chance with the language - Portuguese and Spanish may be similar if you are fluent in one of them - not for us! We´ve noticed all too often in our own country that many people have a habit of assuming people who can´t speak English are less intelligent - it is only fair if people here assume the same of us until we can speak Spanish - just hope they take pity in the meantime!
The bus journey was nearly 24 hours but a very comfortable bus and plenty of stops. We arrived in Foz and found a hotel pretty quickly and after some general faffing to sort money out we headed straight to the helicopter pad to get a flight over the falls, thinking the late afternoon light would be the best time to see it.
Again the helicopter itself was brilliant - would love to fly one! We had a more adventurous pilot than in Rio too, who enjoyed demonstrating the manoeuvrability of his machine! Added excitement due to the ´spatially challenged´gentleman who was told he couldn´t sit in the front due to seat belt girth and weight distribution (which meant Steve got in the front with the video again yey!) so had to sit in the middle next to me. But this meant they struggled to shut the door properly and when the pilot banked over completely onto the side, I was praying my seat belt was a good one!
The falls are amazing from any angle but the flight was something special. Having seen Niagra I am still at a loss as to why Iguacu falls are less well known - they are more impressive, more beautiful, and the surrounding area doesn´t even compare. Today we walked along the Brazilian side of the falls, but as that is all new to Steve I´ll leave it to him to describe!
Mandi
With the exception of availability of non meat sandwiches, Rio hasn´t changed at all in the 7 years since I was last here - big contrast to our last trip to Delhi when we noticed big changes in the space of 2 years! It has a bit of Miami about it and a bit of Monaco, but with the favelas dotting the hillside. Always hard to see such poverty so close to such wealth.
So we headed up to Corcovado in the morning planning to catch the lunch time bus to Foz. The statue is just as serene as I remember, and just as swarming with people. But he does look like he is trying to protect his city as best he can. Our plan was to get back to the bus station to catch the 1.30pm bus to Foz and it will come as no surprise to those who know us to hear that we didn´t leave nearly enough time and ended up running into the bus station 15 minutes late, suncream pouring down Steve´s bag due to breakage number 1, waving and shouting at the bus company people as we saw our bus pulling away and finally managing to reach it, Steve banging on the door as he ran along side, when fortunately the very nice mr. bus driver stopped for us. The driver and staff seemed to think the "inglés loco" amusing at least and we accepted whatever jovial abuse we received gracefully, seeing as we couldn´t understand any of it!
Couldn´t wait to get to a country where we stand a chance with the language - Portuguese and Spanish may be similar if you are fluent in one of them - not for us! We´ve noticed all too often in our own country that many people have a habit of assuming people who can´t speak English are less intelligent - it is only fair if people here assume the same of us until we can speak Spanish - just hope they take pity in the meantime!
The bus journey was nearly 24 hours but a very comfortable bus and plenty of stops. We arrived in Foz and found a hotel pretty quickly and after some general faffing to sort money out we headed straight to the helicopter pad to get a flight over the falls, thinking the late afternoon light would be the best time to see it.
Again the helicopter itself was brilliant - would love to fly one! We had a more adventurous pilot than in Rio too, who enjoyed demonstrating the manoeuvrability of his machine! Added excitement due to the ´spatially challenged´gentleman who was told he couldn´t sit in the front due to seat belt girth and weight distribution (which meant Steve got in the front with the video again yey!) so had to sit in the middle next to me. But this meant they struggled to shut the door properly and when the pilot banked over completely onto the side, I was praying my seat belt was a good one!
The falls are amazing from any angle but the flight was something special. Having seen Niagra I am still at a loss as to why Iguacu falls are less well known - they are more impressive, more beautiful, and the surrounding area doesn´t even compare. Today we walked along the Brazilian side of the falls, but as that is all new to Steve I´ll leave it to him to describe!
Mandi
Labels: brazil, cataratas, foz do iguacu, iguacu, iguacu falls, Rio de Janeiro, travel
posted by MandiB at
12:32
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