Day 38 - February 10, 2008 - Rio de Janeiro

Rio to Iguazu photos
Ok, so this is being typed on the 13th and memories begin to fade and accumulate and things getting out of order. So, we'll do the best we can as quickly as possible and try to get this posted and the laundry done before things get busy again here.
Sunday morning and we will have an early start on our "Iguassu Falls Spectacular". Not to be a spoiler, but must admit right up front, that while the Falls are indeed spectacular, this 2-night overland excursion was most definitely not spectacular in any way, shape or form. Sorry, but needed to get that out of the way quickly.
We had interrupted sleep, very sadly. At 3:10am, there was a Code Blue on Deck 9 that nearly scared the bejeezus out of us booming out of the speakers over the bed. We learned yesterday that a man had died then and his wife was escorted off the ship after we left that day with his remains. We don't know who it was, or if we had met this couple, but that it is very sad news.
When we got back to sleep it was only for a few hours because we needed to get an early breakfast, finish packing and get our passports before we could leave the ship at 8am. A word about packing, there was nothing anywhere in any of the literature we got from RSSC or the Travel Concierge Desk staff to indicate that bathing suits would be required at any point. A fellow passenger onboard told us about having to wear a bathing suit under clothes for some walking, then a lot of stairs and then onto a boat that would do doughnuts and go up under the falls to drench the passengers. Now this is some people's idea of fun, for others fun would be a calm float with lots of different views of the falls and good photography opportunities.
Unfortunately, the boat portion was exactly as the fellow passenger described it and it is unimaginable why the first time we heard about it was on the bus in Iguazu itself. At that point it is too late to back out or to pack a swimsuit! What are they thinking? So, we packed swimsuits just in case this morning. Picking up passports we learned that only 23 people were going on this trip. 2 of them were taking an earlier nonstop flight, and 21 of us were taking a later, direct with a stopover, no change of plane, flight and we all had to travel on the same bus.
So, we were up and departing a little earlier than had been planned. The reasons for this were never explainedto us. So, we spent a good part of the day sitting at departure gates either in airports or in plane seats without any forward motion as a reward. These are never happy times. All but one of our flights roundtrip were completely full, and one coming back was about 3/4 full. Perhaps earlier we mentioned that Saturday was the parade of Carnaval champions. As our bus went to depart the port, we got stuck in the parade floats heading out of town to be dismantled. That was exciting. We saw all the winning floats without any crowds or noise. But things goes downhill from here except when we are actually insight of the awesome falls.
We dropped off the couple on the direct flight. Still innocent excitement with no idea what is to come. We soon begin to see. We are all lined up in a frenzy of departing Carnaval goers leaving Rio. We are all lined up to get our boarding passes. Though it starts with the luggage not being picked up from the halls the night before. Everyone who wanted it picked up, walked out this morning to find it still in the hall outside their door. OK, everyone brought their own luggage to the Constellation Theater and then off the ship, through the dock, through the terminal building, across the terminal parking lot and on to the bus. We did the reverse when we arrived at the airport. Now we are lined up in a crush of Disneyesque lines at the domestic Gol departures check-in desk. We were in line for over an hour before we got our boarding passes. Good thing we left early to accomodate the couple on the other flight. Then we had to go through security screening and finally to the departure gate. The jet was there. But, we are looking at our boarding passes and the arrival time on them is an hour later than our itinerary states. Is there a time change between these 2 places? We ask. No, there is not. Ummm... Oh, it was not clear to the Tour Desk escort with us, but now she sees it is clear that this flight is not nonstop. She goes around and tells us as we queue to board that we should not get off the first time the plane lands.
So, we get to Iguazu about 1:30pm and it is not a long drive to the Das Cataratas Hotel inside the National Park. Our local guide informs us on the bus that because of our late arrival something will have to be sacrificed. WHAT? We are only one hour late and someone scheduled this flight in the first place and should have known the arrival time. It is decided that if she phones our restaurant orders in tothe hotel that we will eat sooner and not have to sacrifice anything. Our tour escort goes around and writes down grilled chicken, grilled filet mignon or grilled fish for each person. The fish is supposed to be some kind of really big fish that is caught locally in these rivers by the Falls. Clay orders fish. Debbie and Margie order filet mignon. So, now all we are supposed to sacrifice is some of our free time this afternoon, instead of 2 hours we will have only 1 hour. OK, but since we now learn that we are supposed to change into bathing suits, etc. That really leaves no free time.
Lunch was a cold fish salad with lettuce, bread, the main courses we ordered and dessert. We could have water, beer, wine, sodas as beverages. Two drinks per person allowed. Debbie's steak is rare. She sends it back against all her rules and it comes back still rare, so she just doesn't eat it. Clay really likes his fish. We are asked if we want dessert and coffee. We ask what is for dessert. Milk pudding. Sure, we'll give it a try. It was flan, really very good flan. We go and check in and get our keys and identify our luggage. We had booked a triple again as in Machu Picchu. This time we actually got a triple room. This hotel is quite beautiful. It was built with a view of the Falls in 1958. The trees have since grown up too tall to see the falls, but you can hear them and see the spray from Devil's Throat. There is a 3-4 story tower at the front, center of the hotel. As our bellboy walked us past a doorway, he casually mentioned that you could go up the tower to view the Falls. Our room was at the back, near the pool but without any real view even though it had a small balcony. It had a front room with 2 twin beds, table and 2 chairs, and the closet with safe. Then back room had a double bed, 2 tables with lamps, a desk and a refrigerator as well as the door to the bathroom. The bathroom was large with only one sink, but a tub and a separate shower and a toilet and a bidet. We cleaned up a little and then debated what to wear out in this heat and humidity. It should be pointed out that it was pouring rain when our plane landed, it rained all the time we were eating lunch.
As we debated the sun was trying to come out and if it did that would be good, but also steamy! Clay decided that he would get wet and dress and accordingly. Debbie and Margie decided to not take the boat ride and only dress for the walk to Devil's Gorge as well as down to the river where they would just wait and come back. Then we went to climb the tower for the Falls views. It was a lot of stairs but the views were worth it. On our afternoon walk, we were amazed at the Falls and we were to learn that at any point you can never view all of them! We saw over 20 Quati on this trail and a lot of them were babies born in October. Our local guide told us that the females give birth to up to 11 at a time and only one time per year. There appeared to be grain scattered along the sidewalk to attract them. Our guide said they had to have so many babies because they lost a lot to predators. They are pretty big animals, so what is preying on them? Jaguars and pumas! Yikes! We saw tons of big spiders in monster-sized webs. We saw 2 kinds of really ugly, 2 different kinds of scary lizards, big multifooted worms, and some butterflies and birds.
We got a lot of views of Devil's Throat which is the fall with the greatest volume of water flowing over it. We arrived near the base of a cliff and the end of the falls. We rode an elevator up to find the bus. The bus was really nice with a lot of space between seats and built in footrests like a recliner. It was great. We had to ride about 5km to the place with the stairs and the boat. We had passed it on the way from the airport. Macuco Safary. After a quick potty stop, we got into seats on a little wagon and were pulled through some rainforest. The seats were wet. Not good. Then we unloaded in the mud in the middle of a very buggy forest and Clay got stung by 2 bees. Deet repellent meant nothing to these yellow jackets or whatever they were. Not good. 2 four-wheeler pulled up here and unloaded some very wet people, explaining the wet seats. We barely fit in the 2 jeeps by squeezing in the 2 rows running on either side of the back and then the front seats.
One woman had decided to stay on the bus (the local guide had the driver take her back to the hotel instead of letting her sit there). If she had come with us, it would have been impossible to make it in 2 jeeps. We drove some more and we did not really see any animals of interest here. Just more random birds and spiders. Some stinging nettles and a lot of bees. We unloaded and started taking zigzagging stone stairs downhill. More than halfway down, we were met by the jeep that continued on with a couple with a cane. What? If the jeeps had to drive to a place where there were only about 30 steps, why don't they just go there? It's a mystery.
When we arrived at this landing with benches and steps for the jeeps, we founda load of Europeans nearly naked and drying themselves with towels and putting on their dry clothes. Guess our now wet butts, dried their seats for them. It was not a pretty sight. But, it meant that at least some tour companies were fully disclosing what to expect here and these folks were prepared down to the towels! We went down the rest of the steps and our group went out onto a covered, floating dock to take off their clothes and shoes and get plastic bags for their cameras. Apparently, they take you so far down river to let you take photos and then they tell you to put things in the plastic bag and shut it and then they start trying to drown the passengers while they videotape it. This is supposed to be very fun. Results were mixed, but most people got off the boat laughing about the experience.
Debbie and Margie were very glad they did not go when they saw portions of the video later. So we spent about 4 hours out this afternoon and about half of it was to make this 21-minute thrillboat ride available. We they got back they asked Debbie and Margie how long they had waited for them. The answer was about 20 minutes. No, that can't be right, it felt like about 2 hours. (It probably would have felt like a lifetime to some people!) No, Margie had photos of the boat leaving and the boat returning. The difference between the 2 time stamps was exactly 21 minutes. Debbie and Margie sat up front for the ride back because everyone else was soaking wet and their clothes had just about dried out during their wait ashore.
Debbie and Margie spent the time checking out the weird rock formations along the river and watching birds and checking out the small waterfall beside the stairs. At one point, Margie put her hands in the river and was surprised that it was so warm. Debbie reckoned the water must be well oxygenated. The rocks were cool. They looked like they had some kind of hard (maybe iron, lots of red color in the soil, water, etc.) center and the outer portions were eroded away around then in concentric patterns. It was really weird. Margie got a rock. Took photos of Roy and Bob. (Cannot believe we did not get photos of Roy and Bob at Corcovado!!) At some point, about 6 feet from the Iguazu River Debbie, stepped back and bumped into Margie, asking if they had crocodiles or alligators here. Margie said no, why. Nevermind. OK.
So, it was a pretty quick trip back and no one purchased a video because they did not demo it very well and no one gave us a price. We were back to the hotel and had an hour to get ready for dinner. It was an outdoor barbecue buffet. It was a lot like the meal in Rio, but less selection and no walking around with meat. Oh, and it was outdoors. Fortunately, they had really powerful fans blowing and that kept it on the cool side and blew off the flies and mosquitos.
This place was packed and although we had seats reserved, there were not enough. Also, the whole place was smoking. There were a lot of Japanese and Europeans here and so there was smoking at almost all of the adjoining tables to our group. The food was good and abundant and everyone got enough to eat and drink.
We walked a bit in the gardens looking for the night-blooming jasmine. There were bats flying above the swimming pool. There was an amusing sign with directions should you encounter a big cat. Scary, but here they are summarized. Keep calm. (Right! Aiyyeeee!) Do not run. Do not get down. Make noise. Make yourself and big as you can. If you have small children, put them on your shoulders to appear even bigger. If you do not have small children, find some to make yourself appear even bigger and meaner. OK, made up that last one! Haha. Inform management. Really.
The walkways out here were paved with local stones and there were some interesting shapes left in them from the erosion, Debbie and Margie were telling Clay about it and showing him the weird shapes. We found 2 hearts and 1 startlingly realistic human face. As we were studying the face in the stone, someone came up near us and cleared their throat. Debbie jumped and cursed. Debbie has an incredible startle reflex. The man found that very amusing, but he didn't speak English to us, so maybe he didn't know what Debbie said! Then we fell into to bed and crashed. These were not comfortable beds, but there were some extra pillows in the closet and that helped. The temperature was comfortable. We had to get up very early in the dark the next day.
Rio to Iguazu phoos