Our South America Adventure - Day 11 Iguaçu National Park

We woke up and ate breakfast at our hotel before walking to the national park. It is ~300 meters from our hotel so it took us about 20 minutes. Alison’s heart is still very heavy today. As we walked we shared stories and memories about CC. We have many great memories from our 10+ years with her. 

We arrived at the park at 9am. They are using a timed-entry system and our tickets were for the first slot of the day. When we arrived we were able to immediately board a shuttle bus. 

There isn’t nearly as much to see or do on the Brazil side of the falls. We took the shuttle bus for about 15 minutes where it dropped us off at the falls loop. We would spend the next 90ish minutes waking this loop. The Brazil side is different than the Argentina side because here you are facing the falls. You get more panoramic views of the falls, but you aren’t as close. Still, the views from the Brazil side are quite nice. 

Calliope Hummingbird

You don’t get that close, at least until you get to the Devil’s Throat area. Here there are walkways and viewing platforms located basically within the falls. When you walk out to these platforms you are in the splash zone. The sound of the falls would literally shake the platform. It was crazy. This area was as cool as anything we saw on the Argentina side and made the Brazil side worth a trip. 

Near Devil’s Throat, there was an elevator to a viewing platform from where you could look out over the falls. This was our last viewpoint. 

When we were done with the loop we took a bus back to the entrance and walked back to our hotel. Back at the hotel, Alison called PetSmart to see if they had any updates. We spoke with the girl who found CC on Sunday morning. She and Alison cried it out while they talked. This girl also loved our little cat and told us about giving her treats and food on Saturday night. She also said they found CC curled up and looking very peaceful when she passed. They took CC to a vet that will perform a necropsy and the vet made imprints of her paws for us. We wish CC could have been home when she passed, but we are grateful that the staff at PetSmart loved her and took good care of her in those final moments. 

We checked out of the hotel and headed to the airport. We have a short flight to Rio for our last stop of the trip. 

View flying into Rio

We arrived in Rio and were met at the airport by Marcelo and Fabiana, with Be Free, the tour company we hired in Rio. They drove us to our hotel. It was about a 40-minute drive with some traffic. We got to see different parts of the city as we drove. It was fairly cloudy, but there were moments we could see Christ the Redeemer in the mountains above the city. 

We are staying at the Hilton on Copacabana. It is a great hotel and is in a great location. Based on Alison’s status they upgraded us to a suite on the top floor. From our room, we had amazing views of the ocean, Copacabana, and sugarloaf. We were excited to spend our last few days in South America at this hotel. 

Chocolates from the hotel

We arrived during happy hour. We headed down to the lounge for some snacks and drinks. Then we headed up to the rooftop to see Christ the Redeemer lit up at night. After taking in that view we were ready to call it a night. We are excited to be in Rio.