Every adventure has to start somewhere. An idea, grows into a plan, which upon action, becomes a reality. I had been planning this trip for so long that I honestly did not think that the departure day would ever arrive.

But it did. And despite my months of mental and physical preparation, it still seemed to come out of the blue. Before I knew it, I was off on Saturday night on a red eye flight to Fort Lauderdale. My good friends, Fanny and Jared, met our groggy selves (my parents and I) at the airport early Sunday morning and hospitably put us up into their home. At their home, we also got our first introduction to their kitten-son, Oliver. Oliver initially greeted us with his cute little white paws and his adorably kitten rambunctious ways. Unfortunately, in the evening, he turned into crazy-kitty, thinking my feet were attackable prey and I was continually awakened to little teeth sinking into my feet. Oh what a night…

Don’t let this cute face fool you…

The next morning, I awakened, bleary-eyed, but got a mini-tour of Miami from Fanny and Jared, truly soaking in that Florida humidity. We went to Key Biscayne (I think?), where we saw a cool view of the Miami skyline and lots of yachts.

After, we fought Miami traffic to meet Ro at the airport. Then, it was off to Brazil!

Boo prepares for his long flight

I was a little nervous about flying TAM Airlines, since I had never flown them before, but they were wonderful. Candies at the beginning, wine in the middle, and movies throughout (finally got to see The Avengers for the 2nd time). After an 8 hour plane ride, a 2 hour layover in Sao Paulo and an additional 1.5 hour plane ride, we arrived in the relatively tiny airport of Foz do Iguacu.

Two red-eye flights with a night full of kitty attacks in between made me a very tired person when we arrived yesterday in Foz. Therefore we spent the day wandering aimlessly at a local mall and I actually contemplated having McDonald’s for dinner. Yes, I was THAT tired. Thankfully, I came to my senses just in time and refrained.

Today, well-rested and well-fed by our wonderful host, Luri, we were finally able to view the falls. Iguacu Falls sits on the border of Argentina and Brazil. Although most of the falls are on the Argentine side, Brazil has the better panoramic view. So today, we decided to explore the Brazil side. It was beautiful!

Just one of the panoramic views of some of the 275 waterfalls that make up Iguacu Falls. You can sort of see a rainbow here…

More spectacular waterfalls…

Along our walk/hike, we met the mascot/pest of Iguacu Falls, the quati. It scavenges like a racoon, but is a LOT cuter. We also saw a variety of beautiful butterflies flittering along the way…

The cute scavenging quati

A butterfly that looks like it could be a piece of modern art…

The walk/hike ended at Devil’s Throat, a spot where you could walk right out into the middle of the falls. It was amazing to be so close. But it was wet, very wet.

Walking out into Devil’s Throat

Boo at the Falls

View from up top

After our time at Iguacu Falls. We decided to visit the Parque das Aves (aka Bird Park) right across the street from the entrance. I was a little afraid that this was going to be a tourist-trap-ripoff, but it was super cool. I don’t think I’ve ever seen birds that big before. Or that beautiful. There were ostriches, flamingos, eagles, etc. There were many big caged-in areas where you could actually hang out among the birds. Super cool.

The Fruit Loops mascot in the flesh

A bright red flamingo-type bird

Beautiful macaws – they can be super noisy!!!

The highlight came at the end – being able to up close and personal to a macaw. However, I got a bit uncomfortable as this macaw started climbing up my arm. I think he was trying to pilfer my sunglasses!

Tomorrow… we venture into Argentina to see the Argentine side of the falls…