We had breakfast included in our hotel stay and we wore most of the wet motorcycle gear in order to dry it out while riding. We lubed the chains after riding in the rain the previous day. It was a sunny day and we had 171 km to ride to the Iguassu Eco hostel where we had booked 2 nights. The hostel is located in walking distance of the entry to the Iguaçu waterfalls and opposite the road of the Parque das Aves (a bird sanctuary) which we both planned to see on the following day. We stopped at a large supermarket in Cascavel and I got milk from Tirol 😂 and cereal that had a kangaroo on it and said Australia and yoghurts and fresh bread and bread rolls, prosciutto, cheese, cherry tomatoes and alfalfa sprouts. We decided to take the highway even though it said it was toll roads as it would have otherwise taken more than an hour longer. Turned out that the toll roads were free for motorcycles anyway with a narrow lane on the right side for motorcycles to go through without paying. The maps on my phone sent me some back roads as a short cut to the hostel and the roads became narrower and then it wanted us to turn right onto a dirt road that was very muddy – we continued on the bad paved road and eventually connected to the main road towards the falls where there were massive road constructions and it was difficult to work out where to ride in between locked off areas of the road and where we could turn left to the hostel but we eventually managed to get onto the long driveway to the hostel and arrived in a little oasis. The guy at the reception spoke English and showed us to our room in a shipping container 😂. We found a little gecko as a roommate in our bed 🦎😉. The receptionist also told us about burgers being served at the pool from 6:00pm. We had already made plans to meet with Gerry and asked them to organise a taxi for us into town to arrive at 7:00pm where we met with Gerry at an Italian restaurant. The female taxi driver spoke very good English and did not charge us as she would come back at 10:00pm when the restaurant closed to drive us home – we exchanged WhatsApp numbers so we could contact her if we wanted an earlier or later pick-up. We had another great evening catching up with Gerry and sharing stories from the road – Gerry generously paid for our dinner again – our shout when you visit us in Australia 🤗👍 we realised it was our third meeting and dinner and each meeting had been in a different country – we met in Argentina first, then in Uruguay and now in Brazil 🤗👍. We finally managed to have a picture of the three of us taken 🤗 From here on our journeys will go in different directions for now, but we hope to see you again in the not too distant future down under 😉🤗

While at dinner, I received a message from our taxi driver saying that something had come up but her brother would pick us up and drive us back to the hostel. It was raining quite hard and we were glad we had ordered the taxi. We arrived back at the hostel and heavy tropical rain continued most of the night and it was very audible on our metal container but that did not stop Andrew from sleeping 🤗- I was way too hot and the a/c was not working and I was sweltering and did not get much sleep.

We got up early the next morning and had breakfast at 7:30am and packed our backpacks and walked to the entrance of the National Park where we bought our tickets which specified the time we had to take the bus to the falls. That’s when I noticed that I did not have my phone with me – I actually thought I had lost it or someone had taken it but Andrew wanted to go back to our container to check whether I had left it there – I was already over it seeing the buses full of people arrive and I did not think we could get back to the entrance in time for our allocated entry time – but we marched back to the hostel and checked in the container and sure enough, I had left it on the bed – somewhat relieved but totally annoyed at myself🥹😉. We walked back to the park entrance and got on the bus of our allocated entry time. We got off at the start of the walkway and found a look out where there were not too many people and were quite impressed with the view of the falls in the distance. Then we found the actual start of the walking track and there were queues of people standing still in single file and not moving at all – we stood there for a long time before there was some slow movement forward – I thought this was ridiculous and just about wanted to take the bus back when a few coatis ran threw the legs of people standing around and provided some distraction and entertainment. We slowly got shuffled along the path by the crowds and reached a few more lookouts where you again had to wait to get a spot at the railing for an uninterrupted view for a few seconds before someone shuffled in or pushed us out of the way😡. This continued until the final walkway out to a dead end section where you see up one section of the river and falls are cascading down underneath the platform and on the way back you see the falls above. At the end is a lift in a tall tower that takes you to the top of the falls and the river. We sat at a bench and ate our bread rolls and watched the falls. We walked through the gift shop but they had no stickers and we then took the bus back one stop and took pictures of the pink hotel – the only accommodation within the National Park where one night costs ~$2,200. We then rented two bicycles and rode the 11.1km beautiful trail back to the entrance of the park. It was very warm and humid and even though the track was mostly in the shade, we sweated a lot 😂😉 but we really enjoyed the ride – this was the first time Andrew and I rode bicycles together 🚴🚴 and what a beautiful setting 🥰. We rehydrated at the exit of the park and then walked across the road to the Parque das Aves where we spent just over 2 hours until they closed – we could have spent a lot more time there – such a great place and we saw so many amazing birds and butterflies but the absolute highlight was a pair of Harpy eagles which are my daughter’s favourite birds and they are almost extinct. It was a privilege seeing them and listening to their call – they were building a nest. Andrew liked the pink ibis with their striking dark pink colour. The toucans were also amazing as well as the macaws. After all the people and shuffing and pushing at the falls, it was a wonderful place to finish the day. We walked back to our eco hostel and arrived in time to have dinner by the pool – they had delicious burgers with fries and we were hungry after walking more than 10km and cycling 11.1km. We had an early night after an exhausting day and we worked out how to get the a/c to work after changing batteries in the remote control and we both had a good night sleep.