The forests got thicker. The population got a little poorer. There are still tree farms but they look like they are being taken over by other plants.
We stopped in a little town and had lunch. We usually look around and find one that has tables on the street. It is really nice to watch the traffic, especially the women.
Street lunch X
We made it into Iguazu fairly early and found a place to stay with parking for the bikes. It looks like it will be a long day at the falls if what other people are saying is correct.
I stopped at a money exchange place and changed my Chilean money into Brazilian and Jim got out a big wad of bills that he has collected from central America on down. That wad will have to be exchanged tomorrow, as they didn’t know what the exchange rate was on some of them. we will have to hit them after ten thirty as well as hit the Brazilian embassy for visas. Evidently the Paraguay border is where we get the visas for them.
I was at an internet place and just getting up to pay my bill when a lady comes up to me and askes ‘are you Rex the BMW Dog? I was stunned, how could anyone know me down here? it turned out that Jim had met her and told her all about me and where I was. Jim, always looking for a way to jerk my chain….. She was a rather interesting lady. She was a BMW motorcycle rider for years but a few years ago she was in a car accident and can no longer ride. she is from Toronto but comes down for the winter. She has a ranch near Buenos Areis. She said that the ranches used to make lots of money but now lots of the ranches take in guests to try to make ends meet. I guess that money devaluation thing that happened a few years ago changed everything down here. there still is money, but not as much as there was. Traveling is much cheaper here than almost anywhere I have been so far.
2-17-06
We went to the Brazilian consulate this morning and got visas. Mine cost me 120 bucks but Jim got his cheaper. The guy says that they charge what the US charges their citizens to go to the US. After that we went to the money exchange and Jim tried to exchange some of the bills he got in central America. The guy took forever and finally told him that they couldn’t figure out what they were worth but he would give him two buck for them just to put them under glass on the counter. Jim didn’t go for that and will try the exchange at home at his bank or wall paper with them.
We next got on our bikes and headed out to see the falls. They changed us ten bucks to get in. They gave us a map and Jim found out from the info gal that there was a small train that would take us out to see the falls and that it was free. I could hardly believe it, free.
Train X
There were sheep chutes for us to walk through to get out to the falls.
Sheep chutes X
The falls were really spectacular for sure. There is a lot of water falling here and it is all happening at a place where three countries come together, Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina.
Top X
Falls X
Falls2 X
We saw a couple of animals on the trails. One was this monkey.
Monkey X
left out the monkey photo
The other was a really nice lizard that was about two feet long.
Lizard X
On the way back to town and our hotel I snapped this photo of a halftrack outside a military installation along the road. It sure looks like a cool jungle cruzer.
Halftrack X
I am not feeling well tonight. I have a headache probably from too much sun and not enough water intake. They were charging three prices for water out there and I didn’t take water with me like a dumb tourist……