Day 5 -- Foz do Iguacu

We got up at 4:30 am and went straight to the airport for our flight to Iguazu Falls. I thought this check-in would be a breeze; after all it’s only a 1.5 hour domestic flight. Well, it took almost an hour to check in at the kiosk. We had to fill out pages of stuff, almost a life history. The flight itself was great. Thumbs up for TAM airlines – they even fed us. When we arrived at the Foz do Iguacu airport, we went to tourist information to ask how to get to our hotel (Las Cataratas), which is the only hotel located inside the national park. There we found out that there is a strike of national park workers and the park is closed to visitors. The only people who can enter are Cataratas guests. Supposedly the park receives 7000 visitors per day, and all of them were out of luck today. We got in the taxi to get to the gate of the national park where the hotel shuttle was to pick us up, but before we could get there the road was blocked by the protesters. The cab driver told us he couldn’t go any further and that we had to walk the rest of the way. Luckily it was only 1 km to the gate and a very nice striker helped us carry the luggage. The location of the hotel is spectacular – right on the edge facing the falls. We took a scenic trail along the falls -- the size of these falls is amazing, they go on and on in changing formations. The trails ends with a long platform into the falls so you feel like you are right in the middle of them. Of course, we got completely soaked, but the view was worth it. And the trail was completely empty, which probably never happens. On the way we saw a bunch of animals that look like small anteaters. They are called kwa’ti (quati). We also saw eagles and a lot of butterflies. One sat on my hand for a long time. In the afternoon when we were sitting by the pool, a kwa’ti came to our table looking for food, then another one joined him. They are almost domesticated here.