Bird's view of Iguazu Falls

Our walk was over. Brazilian side is shorter than Argentinian. We did not want to have another boat ride so we got into bus and returned to entrance.

We were in hurry, because clouds were cumulating and we wanted helicopter ride. After many of cancelled flights in New Zealand we did not want to risk to have one cancelled also here. Helipad was outside of park, about 200-300m from its gate.

When we arrived there we were told they are not flying at this moment, but they probably will in 1 or 2 hours. We used that time for lunch. We were slowly finishing when we heard approaching helicopter. We did not think about that twice. We quickly finished and went to office to pay. They were flying, but they did not have electricity at that moment so people wanting to pay with card were out of luck. We had enough of USD we wanted to get rid off, so we were allowed in. It was $100 per 10-15 min flight. It seems a lot, but they have also private tour for $1000 (I think it is 30min) :-)

Iguazu Falls from helicopter

We waited about 4 rounds until our heli arrived. We put earplugs in and boarded the yellow beast. It was faster than one we used in NZ, but uglier.

We flew over river, then over Devil's Throat where it turned. At one moment people sitting on the right could take photos, shortly after we on left got to better position.

We circled over falls twice and then headed back. It gave us missing perspective and I think it was worth of it.

Detail of Devil's Throat. Notice walkway at Argentinian side.

Detail of middle part of falls.

Better angle for the hotel I've shown at the first photo on previous page.

Captured birds

I've mentioned birds in name of this page. Till now it could look like a metaphor for helicopter. But that's not complete truth. The last place we visited in the region was aviary (Parque de Aves) just across the helicopter company.

It started with nicely coloured parrots, but also different kinds. Problem was the cages with dense fencing. Not a big deal for point&shoot cameras, but there was no way 72mm lens would not capture some blurry rectangles. So I was not happy and even got bored while Zuzka happily took one photo after other. Regarding photo opportunities I looked more at vegetation.

It was not all that bad, fortunately. There were also open areas with birds and some volaries. They allowed me to make satisfying photos of any bird I wanted to. Plus many unsatisfying, but that is typical for me :-)

I liked the most one with toucans. There were more kinds, till then I did not know they can be so different. They were sitting on trees quite close, but some of them were waiting for visitors on hand rails, just to take a photos with them. Really nice!

This was my favourite bird there. It was slightly shy, but it agreed to take our photos with itself. And I wanted to adopt it :-) Luckily they did not have nice plush toy toucans in gift shop, because I would probably buy one :-D

Taking photos of colibri is really hard. At least for me. They have special butterfly & colibri "green house".

Our final volary was dedicated to parrots. Big ones - Macaws. We spent there quite a long time, because Zuzka did not want to leave. At first they were slightly scary. Really noisy and flying around you without any warning. But one employee was always in, she argued loudly with them and repelled them from walking path. It did not took us long time to start enjoying them. But I would not take such a beast home :-)

These were sitting near gift shop, not restrained in any visible way. We have seen some before with description saying poachers cut their wings so they cannot fly. These probably shared the same fate.

To Rio de Janeiro

Next day we flew to Rio de Janeiro. While we were waiting in Foz de Iguaçu for bus (it is the same going to National Park) terrible storm started. Bus did not come for long time so we could observe how the street changes into river. Every couple of minutes it was stronger. The street went down the hill and the speed of flowing water was amazing. I was not sure whether a big lake is forming somewhere down there. It was still raining when the bus came. To my surprise no big lake happened anywhere along the way and rest of day was uneventful.