Like the dam yesterday, the falls trip today was a very well organized tourist operation with well maintained and clean facilities.

At the national park entrance we joined a long, but rapidly moving line, to buy tickets and once inside climbed on board one of the parks double decker buses to get from the entrance gates to the falls.

Once off the bus we followed a generally down hill paved walking trail that takes visitors like us from a distant view of segments of the falls down into the heart of the Brazilian side. At the end of this trail there is a catwalk out into the falls at Garganta Do Diablo. From this catwalk there are very intimate views of the first tier above and second tier below - not to mention an opportunity to get wet from the spray.

The most striking thing about Iguazu is the scale. This is not so much a water fall as a complex of water falls 3 km wide and 80 meters high. Indeed there are (according to the guide book) 275 individual waterfalls. The name Iguazu is a Guarani (local Indians) word meaning "great waters".

After leaving the National Park we visited a nearby bird park. I had low expectations for this particular excursion as generally bird parks have not impressed me, but this one turned out to be great. Set in a patch of jungle there were a series of large aviaries that visitors could enter to get un-interrupted view of the birds. the highlight of the visit were the houses of the Tucan's and the Macaw's. We also got a very up close view of a Casawar (Casawary)- an emu type bird that I have not seen before, even though I believe we have them in Australia.

Spelling

We are having a little trouble with the spelling of some of the words as they are spelled differently in the different languages. For example Iguazu-Iguacu (Iguaçu), Brazil-Brasil. So forgive us for switching between the various alternatives.