Birds: I snapped a shot of this cheerful little (ie about the size of a starling) guy at breakfast this morning before he hopped away. There were also some birds soaring above the falls that Duck thinks were vultures – they were amazing to watch, huge wingspans and really just riding the thermals, not flapping much at all but soaring up in vast swirling columns.
Bugs: the bees (“abelhas”) here are very aggressive. We have moved inside more than once from the otherwise-lovely veranda and poolside when they came after our snacks. (Turns out they love olives as much as we do!) There are also giant flying ant-wasp things, in addition to your run-of-the-mill flies and butterflies, and we saw something the size of a June bug that a staff member told us the name of and I promptly forgot. In general there is much running away and flapping on everybody’s part, including the bugs’.
Food: I’ve taken the buffets as an opportunity to sample different foods we may be offered in the future and not have the luxury of an English translation, and try to commit their names to memory and whether or not I liked them. So far I’ve enjoyed feijoada, Tiger bread (a sweet sliced bread marbled yellow and brown that looks like tiger stripes), hash browns (unlabeled; took me a surprisingly long time to identify them), and papaya and other fruits. I did not like pão integral (whole wheat bread), their waffles and pancakes, and I still don’t like steak and filet mignon. Yesterday we tried a soda (“refrigerante” or “refri” for short) called Guaraná, which tastes sort of like cream soda with cherry (guaraná is a fruit) and which we liked a lot and have had three times already!
And now, as we prepare to leave Iguaçu Falls, your trivia for the day:
Which one is NOT a national animal of Brazil?
a. Jaguar
b. Macaw
c. Rufous-Bellied Thrush
d. Coati
Horntoes in Brazil 