Day 2 of Iguazu - and more

Ilha do Mel

Currently in Brazil on our last full day on an island called Ilha do Mel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paran%C3%A1_%28state%29). It`s been a good place to take it easy, do some sun-bathing, get sun-burnt and watch season one of The Wire.

We arrived after a 10-hour bus from Foz do Iguacu and one of the most beautiful train journeys ever - from Curitiba to a small town called Morretes. The train teeters on the edge of massive canyons and makes its way a through the Atlantic rainforest. As you can imagine the views were spectacular.

Ilha do Mel is fairly remote - we had to get a local bus to the port town of Paranagua and then take a two-hour boat to the island.

The island itself is lovely - long sandy beaches, no cars and very little to do a part from sunbathe and swim against the monumental waves. But the food is over-priced and not particularly great - lots of pizza and fried food. It's great place to stay for a few days but we're happy to be moving on.

Iguazu Falls
Rewind to about 5 days ago - Iguazu managed to completely live up to and exceed expectations. Despite the distance we travelled to get there, the preceding hype of the falls and the huge influx of tourists, the Argentine and Brazilian falls were both spectacular in different ways.

The Argentine falls allowed you to walk all around and over some parts of the falls, witnessing the huge volume of water flowing; whilst the Brazilian falls were more of an up-close experience where you could feel the full power of the water! They were quite different - with the Brazilian side revealing another whole section of the falls that we hadn`t realised were there! We spent quite a bit of time at the Gargenta del diablo (Devil`s throat), which

was intense (and drenching).