Woke up to brilliant blue skies yesterday - perfect for sitting on a bus all day. Said goodbye to pretty Paraty and arrived in Sao Paolo five hours later with four hours to spare before my overnight connection to Foz do Iguacu.
Sao Paolo is ugly at first sight, a vast sprawling metropolis with hundreds of grey skyscrapers. I can´t imagine 23 million people living in one city. London seems busy enough. Due to arrive in Foz do Iguacu at 8am tomorrow morning.
Wow. I have never been on a bus like this before. Overnight travel has transformed since my 18-hour bus journey in Colombia in 1994! The seats are called ´poltronas´ - ´armchairs´ literally in Spanish, and they recline a good way back. Semi-cama I´m told is the correct expression. You can tell I haven´t taken many sleeper buses before as I was genuinely excited about sleeping on a bus.
The bus left Sao Paolo at 6pm and by 7pm all the lights were out and my 20 or so fellow passengers looked fast asleep. I tried to read my book in the dim light but it made me tired so I relented and hunkered down under my blanket with my ipod which made me think of home.
Slept fairly well but woke up to grey skies again. Not great for the first major highlight of my trip, the Iguassu Falls. I have imagined it with clear blue skies, glittering cascades and rainbows (ok maybe that last bit is slightly cheesy).
Arrive in Foz at 10ish, an uninspiring place at first glimpse that´s about 28km from the falls but the main base for Iguassu visitors.
The Iguassu Falls straddle the Brazilian and Argentinian borders. The Argentinian side is much larger and is generally deemed to be more spectacular than the Brazilian so I start off here.
On entering the trail after a bus ride through the forest, I start photographing the first bit of waterfall I see, but it only gets better and before I know it I´ve take hundreds of photos.
The final walkway in front of the Devil´s Throat (La Garganta del Diablo) takes my breath away. Words don´t do justice to its stunning beauty and power so I´m not even going to try. Photos don´t come close either.
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