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Iguassu Falls by CoolTravel

We land at the airport of Foz do Iguassu in the south of Brazil. The border of Brazil and Argentina is formed by the Iguassu river, which throws itself off the rocks with a great sense of drama, forming the Iguassu falls. It’s one of the widest waterfalls in the world and consists of 275 falls pouring its water down over a width of 2.7 kilometers.

We’re picked up by Jandira from the tourism board. “Bem vindo ao Foz do Iguaçu” she says, while we’re walking to the parking lot where a car plus driver is waiting for us. “Do you want to go to the hotel to rest or have a drink in town?” she continues. “You must be joking” we say with a smile “we did not fly all the way down here to relax, let’s hit the falls!”  From the airport we turn to the east, away from town. The road is straight and cuts through the landscape like a knife. The scenery slowly changes from farmland into forest and before we know it, we’re surrounded by the Atlantic Rainforest. A few kilometres later we stop at the side of the road and Jandira jumps out of the car. “From here we continue by foot” she says “the driver will take care of your luggage.” We grab our cameras and follow our guide for the day to a small track into the woods. We make our way down the track until we reach the river, which looks amazingly calm for its reputation. We follow the river upstream and after a few kilometres we see the first falls. I get out my camera and take a nice shot of the liquid wall and the rainforest environment. “You ain’t seen nothing yet” Jandira says, as she leads the way.

Iguassu Falls by CoolTravel

“Are you expecting stormy weather” I ask, “I hear thunder in the distance.” Jandira laughs secretly and says “No, that’s the Devil.” We look at her and wonder if she’s been walking in the sun for too long. “Ha, ha, ha” she laughs out loud. “The center part of the falls have a circular form where the water falls into a huge pipe which is called the Devil’s Throat.” “The roaring sound you hear is not the thunder, but the millions of litres of water falling into this oversized organ pipe.”
As we progress our hike the thunder gets louder and we see a tremendous white cloud of mist rising towards the sky. The river makes another turn and all of a sudden we’re standing eye in eye with the beast. The waterfall is several hundred meters wide and in the middle there’s a cavity with the size of a cathedral. The river is thrown into the deep and hits the surface violently.

We follow a boardwalk that approaches the centre of the falls till 50 meters. The roaring sound is overwhelming and the mist produced by the impact of the falling water resembles a gentle summer rain in Amsterdam. We don’t mind the rain and stand at the end of the boardwalk staring at this impressive demonstration of power. All of a sudden I feel very small. “Respect dude” I whisper softly to the waterfall.

Maarten Schäfer for CoolTravel at the Iguassu Falls

The Katharina de Boreas

We are sailing in the Gulf of Aden towards Djibouti. Our captain, Maurizio, who  is a barista in his spare time, is standing behind his espresso machine preparing a caffè latte macchiato. Suddenly the calm is disturbed by one of the crew: “Whaleshark!” Leaning over the rail of the 38-metre schooner, we scan the water’s surfacebut can see nothing but waves.

“Whale shark!” the sailor calls out again and gestures towards the waves. Suddenly we see part of a tail fin emerging above the surface, slowly cutting through the water.
We abandon our coffee and upon Maurizio’s directions Marco, an Italian photographer, and I get into the Zodiac with our underwater cameras and our snorkelling gear. The sailor takes us to the place where we spotted the whale shark last.

“There he is!” the sailor exclaims and we see a shadow disappear under the boat. I put on my diving mask, bite on the snorkel and spend a few seconds considering whether it is a good idea to get into the water with a beast that weighs the equivalent of several mid-class passenger cars. I decide that a real man isn’t afraid of a couple of mid-class passenger cars and let myself fall backwards into the water.

As soon as the air bubbles have dissolved and I have oriented myself I start looking for the Big One. The sailor has spotted him from the Zodiac and points: “He’s coming!” he calls out. Is that excitement or worry I detect in his voice? Marco and I start swimming, but I soon stop and just peer ahead in awe. An undefined shape is moving toward me and getting bigger by the second. Oh help, I am on a collision course! I distinguish a one-metre-wide mouth with two small eyes on either side.

Whale sharks are the largest fish on earth, measuring more than 12 metres in length and weighing up to 21 tonnes. There are only a few spots in the world where these animals gather to mate and this area off the Djibouti coast is one of them. The colossus is swimming right at me and is only a few metres away. “Easy boy!” I think with all my might. I know these fish are plankton eaters, but I have no doubt that I would easily fit into this mouth that is the size of a garbage container. A metre and a half before impact the whale shark appears to notice me and dives down to pass underneath me. I walk my hands over his back, which feels surprisingly smooth. After about eight metres of fish I see an enormous tail fin coming at me – it looks more like the sail of a wind surf. As though he knows where I am, he steers his tail clear of me as well.

WhaleShark

Strangely enough, when I come up to the surface the world hasn’t changed… I just had a close encounter with a whale shark! “Wow!” I try to scream, but because I have a snorkel in my mouth it comes out a bit differently. I pull myself up onto the boat, fall onto the floor of the Zodiac and realise that I can cross one item off my Bucket List – one down, nine to go!

Fight with a Toucan in the Mata Atlantica

The Iguassu river meanders through a rainforest called the Mata Atlantica before reaching its apotheosis in the Iguassu falls. In the 16th century, when the Spanish explorers reached the current Brazilian coast, the Atlantic Rainforest covered the complete coastline from North to South, much further than the eyes could see. ‘Civilisation’ replaced forest with cities and agriculture leaving only 7% of the primary forest. “Who needs trees, if you can have cities and cars?” I think out loud, while we’re following a track through the wilderness towards the river. “But then again, what will we breath when there are no more trees left? Carbon dioxide?”

We decide to follow a trail towards the river to absorb the serene beauty of the wilderness. In my free time I’m an amateur tree hugger and enjoy sitting with my back against a centuries old tree and become ‘one with nature’. “This is a tree hugger’s paradise” I say to myself while closing my eyes and I listen to the sounds of the rainforest.
We hear a group of monkeys up in the trees. The noise approaches slowly and seems to come from different directions. Then we see them, crossing the track one by one, two levels up. They jump from tree to tree, stop and stare at us just as we are staring at them. “Is this the way to the river?” I ask them, while pointing in a random direction. They look at me as if I’m speaking Chinese, and then continue their route without answering. “Let’s assume this is the right direction” I say and lead the way following the trail.

Toucan Attack - Atlantic Rainforest

Suddenly I have the feeling that we’re being watched. I look backwards on the track, but see nothing. I scan the forest, but all I see is trees. Probably there are hundreds of animals watching us, but we do not see a single one. Then I see a black, orange bird high up in the trees. It’s a toucan, observing each and every move we make. We continue walking, but the bird is following us from the tree tops. He moves down a level and starts shouting at us in toucan language. It’s as if he is yelling: “What do you think you’re doing in my forest!” I look up and reply: “Sorry, but I thought this was a public area and we’re just taking some pictures.” The toucan moves down a branch and continues shouting: “Well, take you pictures somewhere else, this is my forest!” I look at the bird, amazed by its arrogance and reply: “Who do you think you are, Elvis or something?”

The bird comes down to ground level, takes place on a bench of the boardwalk crossing a small stream. He sits there in silence and looks me up and down with a touch of arrogance in its eyes. “You may have a big mouth, but I’m at least ten times bigger than you are” I say with confidence, “so no funny jokes, you hear.” I approach the bird slowly, but he doesn’t fly away. I take another step closer, and just when I’m taking my camera to make a close-up of this phenomenon, the toucan hops forward, takes the strep of my camera and starts pulling ”I will teach you strangers, stepping into my world without my permission!” Surprised but not afraid I hold on to my camera and press the button, shooting some random pictures as prove of this assault. “I must say you have a big mouth for a small bird like yourself” I reply. Then the bird lets go of my camera, flies away and positions itself in a tree top and shouts down in toucan language: “And you humans have really small brains, cutting trees and destroying the forest!” he turns his back at us as he finishes his monologue: “Now go forth… and stop multiplying!”

Toucan Attack - Atlantic Rainforest

As we continue our way towards the river, I start wondering if this really happened. Was this just imagination, a divine vision, urging us to save the Atlantic Rainforest?