A Little Background
After more than 28 years of life and despite already having visited more than 40 countries around the world, last month Valerie and I arrived in South America for our first time ever. Now the only continent Griffin has yet to see is Antarctica and Valerie will be the same once we visit Africa in about five months’ time! Needless to say we are pretty excited to finally make it down here.
We arrived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil after flying to the States from New Zealand and spending about two weeks with each of our families in Alabama and Georgia. We are planning to share in a future post how we were able to get our flight via Delta from Auckland, New Zealand to Atlanta, Georgia and then, one month later, to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for only 40,000 sky miles each (all of which we earned without flying) and $27.50 per person in taxes! Let us know in the comments if that sounds like something you would be interested in hearing about;-)
About The Photograph
After spending some time in Rio mostly working on a few Graphic Design projects for clients sprinkled with a little sightseeing, we took a 24 hour bus ride over to Foz de Iguaçu, which is the town on the Brazilian side of one of the seven natural wonders of the world and one of the most awe-inspiring sights we have seen in our lives – Iguazu Falls.
The ride was much more comfortable than a 24 hour bus ride might sound as the busses in South America so far have been really nice and some of them even look like first class airplane cabins with fully reclining seats, complementary champagne on arrival, hot meals and more. (We can’t afford the nicest ones on our budget, but it’s nice to dream;-) We slept decently well, but still needed some additional rest upon arriving.
We stayed at, and would highly recommend, the Bambu Jungle Lodge Hostel. It was literally in middle of a jungle type forrest and we saw some wild toucans as well as a weird animal that looked like giant mouse with no tail. The place was nice and secluded, had a pool, awesome paid dinner options, amazing included breakfast and, most of all, a great hostess named Jo, with over 8 years of experience leading tours in South America and the knowledge, hospitality and friendliness that goes along with that.
We had only planned to see the falls, but were told by some of the other hostelers about the amazing Bird Park literally at the end of the road and across the street from the hostel so we decided to check it out. Entry was 26 Brazilian Reais (About $13.50 USD) with a 2 Reais discount provided by the hostel booking vouchers and we thought it was well worth the price. We saw so many different species of birds: flamingos, parrots, and even some hummingbirds. We really enjoyed seeing a small but unbelievable sampling of the amazing creativity and beauty our God has created.
In a few sections of the bird park, we were able to go into a large aviary with the birds, which would allow you to get very close as they seemed to be used to humans from their daily interactions. We took advantage of this to get some pictures of the local birds that would otherwise have not been possible. This one of the Tucan is one of my favorites as it really shows their somewhat curious nature as he checked out me and my camera. Hope you enjoy!
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Photos taken using a Tamron AF 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD LD Aspherical IF Macro Zoom Lens
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