Well, a lot has happened since the 16th. We have been on the move! 

Departing Bocas Del Toro was reasonably easy, Tammy, the owner of Lula’s gave us a ride to the airport. We had to juggle some stuff to get the bag weights right so we each had a regulator in our cabin luggage.

A quick flight to Panama City. Then a 30 minute cab ride to the other airport, no not that one, the other one (they have three). A nice hotel near the airport (you can hear the planes outside). Schlepping all these bags can be tiresome.

Up to the shuttle and off to PTY. Next stop, Rio de Janeiro! Two nights there. The hotels is three short blocks from the beach on a reasonably quiet street. The traffic is a schmozzle. Cars everywhere, motorcycles flying down the middle of the lanes, winding twisting lanes, WOW!

A walk on the beach in the morning, sunny and hot. They have sprinkler hoses from the street to near the water to keep a cool path through the blazing white, soft, silky sand. You can’t stand on it for more than a few seconds. Lots of activity on the beach, we’ve never seen anything like it, bars, volleyball, football, beach tennis, all sorts of stuff going on. We aren’t getting wet today, to much to do. The pictures of Copacabana beach that you sometimes see do not do it justice. It’s really busy, and we saw something we haven’t seen in years, airplanes towing huge advertising banners flying past the beach every few minutes.

We decided to go to Christ the Redeemer first, then the Selano Steps and possibly other spots if there is time. The statue is very impressive, but the scene is very reminiscent of going to the Eiffel Tower. Super crowded, long lines, impatient people. It took forever to get up the train and the platforms and lookouts were packed. This is where you watch your wallet, and your watch! It took so long that we didn’t have time for anything else, so we chose the Roxy show for the evening.

Wow what a show. I haven’t been this entertained in ages. Very slick and I think, high tech. The back stage is a giant screen with places for the dancers/actors to pop out or drop in,rising platforms from below, people seemingly standing in mid air, amazing.

Next day, on to Foz de Iguazu. Iguazu falls from the Brazilian side. Apparently you can see the Argentine side better from Brazil and the Brazilian side better from Argentina. We got to see the falls as we flew in, pretty impressive! We had transfers arranged and I got to see my name lit up on the drivers phone, how exciting! He took us to the next hotel, the Bugari, and would pick us up at 8:30 to go to the falls. Which he did.

The falls are amazing, much bigger than I had thought. Bigger in appearance than Victoria Falls and you get much closer to the bottom of the first drop. Really wet air, mist and moisture everywhere. And the roar! There was an elevator that takes you down to the first viewing level. It drops you right at the foot of the falls, literally!

There are several steps in some of the cascades and they are really spread out, about 2.7 km of falls with around 900 meters of ‘islands’ dividing the separate cascades. A lot of water going over, I expect that this is because they are having rain later than usual. Pretty cool!

They have a bird sanctuary up the road. They take in rescue birds and keep some endangered species to try to increase their numbers and reintroduce them to the wild. There is only 12% of the Atlantic rain forests left and many indigenous singular species are at high risk. One specific species had only 5 known individuals left, they took them in and are reintroducing them back to the forest in increased numbers. The people who started it actually did a similar thing in Africa.

From here, our driver took us to Argentina. He got us through the Brazilian side then dropped us at the Argentine side, showed us our Argentine drive then sent us off. As a side note, carrying scuba regulators can be a bit of a pain when you are not near the ocean. We get checked at every customs station. They recognize them when you pull them out, usually, but opening bags etc is a pain. They also have trouble with the water flosser, many of them have no idea what it is.

Don’t cry for me Argentina. I’m here!