Natural Beauty

We are Writing from Manaus, Brasil. And if you think Corpus Christi Texas is hot and humid in the summer I encourage you to come here to compare!!

Since the last e-mail we spent three days visiting the Argentinian and Brasilian sides of the Iquazu Falls. The falls are wider than Niagara Falls and higher than Victoria Falls (or vice versa). The Argentinian side has a huge natural park with walkways which enable you to be on top of some of the falls looking down, then at the bottom looking up and if you take a short boat ride to an island you feel like you are surrounded by the falls. The main attraction is the Garganta del Diablo (Devil´s Throat) which is amazing. On Argentina´s side, you stand right over them and across from them. It took my breath away and we were soaking wet! The Brasilian side has a better panoramic view of the falls and gives more reference to just how large they are. Other sights at the parks included coatis, monkeys, toucans and lots of other birds. They warn all the tourists not to feed or eat around the coatis b/c they can become aggressive. We were famished while walking around in Brasil and I started to unwrap a sandwich we had brought with us when out of nowhere a coati came toward us. Kristy yelled, threw the sandwich in the backpack and bolted; Nate was fumbling with his pills and reacted much calmly. The coatis did continue to follow us for a few steps but by that time we were way ahead of it. There were other spotting of the nasty animal and were not brave enough to eat again until we were back on the bus.

We crossed from Argentina to Brasil in a bus and the most interesiting thing about the border was not that cars were not searched or stopped, but the fact that everyopne stopped at the border to wipe their feet on a mat, then returned to their car and on their way. We never did get an explaination for that one.