Iguazu Falls, Brazil: A room with a view

After 30 hours of travel — including flights from Dallas to Houston, Houston to Buenos Aires, a 45-minute taxi ride across town from Buenos Aires’ international airport to its domestic airport, and finally another flight from Buenos Aires to Iguazu Falls — we finally arrived at the beautiful Belmond Hotel das Cataratas just a few minutes before the sun dropped below the horizon.

The hotel is reminiscent of Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite. They’re both old and stately and the only hotels in the middle of vast national parks. But the Hotel das Cataratas sits right on the edge (and I mean right at the edge) of a precipice overlooking the amazing Iguazu Falls.

Leonardo and Richard, the two young Brazilian front desk agents, were great. Leonardo did the requisite pitch to get us to upgrade to a room with a view of the waterfalls, then said in a quiet aside, “We have you booked in a room with a partial view of the falls, so the upgrade really isn’t necessary.”

Here’s the view. Not bad, huh?

But it gets better. Just wait until you see tomorrow’s photos.