Following my much anticipated reunification with Brett Young, we started Day 1 of South America, Episode 2, by heading to the legendary Iguazu Falls. I had heard from many people that I should expect one of the most beautiful places in the world. We were not disappointed.

For an overview of the Argentinian side, check out this post.

After getting off the second of two buses, we got excited right away. Look at these waterfalls! I wonder if we get to go close to them. Lo and behold, close we got.

Iguazu Falls are taller than Niagara Falls and over twice as wide. Also, twice the rainbows (if you look closely at the picture above).

The landscape was amazing. The falls went on and on and on in all directions. In the middle of the main falls, there were hundreds of birds flying in circles in intricate patterns. We had no idea of the purpose. Brett suggested they were just having fun. Sounds reasonable to me. It was paradise.

I suppose I should mention one element of peril present at the falls.

These beasts are known as Quatis. I called them niflers (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, read a Harry Potter book). It should be emphasized that Quatis are not squirrel-sized. They actually compare to a small to medium dog. We were quite surprised when we came across our first unusually large specimens.

These crafty buggers are known to poke around for food, open backpacks, and even attack!

Needless to say, our guard was up. Thankfully, we remained unscathed as we deftly darted between niflers.

We eventually made our way up some stairs to see the top of the waterfalls. A lovely view.

All of our nifler-dodging left us with an appetite, so we dined at a restaurant with a fantastic view.

We even accepted a new member to our party, though I’m not sure he understood proper table manners.

After paying our bill in Portuguese (or more accurately, gesticulating wildly while smiling profusely) we forewent the first of the buses back to the hostel and elected to take the two-hour walk instead. On our way, we found yet another friend.

Finally, we reached the most exciting portion of the day: the helicopter ride. We weighed the costs and the benefits and decided it would be life malpractice to let such an opportunity go to waste. We got our tickets and waited with anticipation.

This was a very exciting business. Neither of us had ever been in a helicopter before, let alone in such a gorgeous location. Grinning from ear to ear, we braced ourselves as the chopper lifted into the air.

There was one point where we went rather sideways, much to our surprise. After exchanging looks of concern, it became clear that we were going to make it out alive.

In the excitement, I took videos instead of photos; photos instead of videos; photos of my hands–the excitement got the best of me. Nonetheless, I did get some decent footage.

After a thoroughly exciting day, we took the bus back to the hostel to rest up for the night. Next up: the Argentinian side.