I left Sao Paulo at 9pm at night, and got into Foz do Iguaccu at 12pm the next day. It was a long (obviously) ride through pretty, rolling green countryside, the rich farmland of Parana state. Little flocks of birds flew in the air, and brown rivers ran through the green fields. We passed through the city of Maringa with its famous modernist cathedral:
And then finally, we arrived. My guidebook had led me to expect that Foz do Iguacu was a slightly dodgy, or seedy place. (The city´s large Arab community was rumoured to support terrorist bases across the border in Paraguay, and a few years ago Osama Bin Laden had been sighted there. The quick-witted Brazilian tourism authorities responded with a print campaign claiming he had come for the great shopping).
But I found Foz do Iguacu a pleasant, modern little city full of leafy streets to protect it against the always (while I was there) searingly sunny skies. It was lively too, with more restaurants, bars and shops than you would expect in a city of that size, no doubt due to the constant influx of tourists to the Falls, and (I noticed) a bilingual English-Portuguese international school.
It also had an excellent birdpark, just across from the entrance to the Iguassu Falls National Park, where I was bitten by a toucan.
I like how this bird has curly “hair”
But this was my favorite, the plucky “Southern Screamer”, which looks kind of like a duck but has a piercing cry that can be heard 3 km away and bony hooks on each wing for fighting off predators!
