In April (on the 17th) Michael and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary! We wanted to do something special to celebrate so we thought it was the perfect excuse to take a little baby-(#2)-moon and cross another thing off our Brazil bucket list: Foz do Iguaçu!

Iguazu Falls are the waterfalls on the Iguazu River which goes through both Brazil and Argentina, and it’s one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the world. Michael had visited Iguazu Falls when he lived in Argentina but he had only gone to the Argentina side and I had never been, so we always wanted to go together to the Brazil side.

It was just a quick flight away and it’s a trip that can easily be done in a weekend so we decided it was a good opportunity to take a trip away from little Colt. The only time that I had ever left Colt for an overnight was when Michael and I went to South Africa and left him with my mom for 2 weeks. Although that was a much longer trip, since I was leaving Colt with my mom, I hardly batted an eye. This time we left Colt with sweet Rosy who I will write about later but for now let me just say that she is someone who Colt ADORES and who we trust completely. Even still, she isn’t my mom and I sobbed like a baby the night before and the morning that we left. That being said, Colt had a blast with her and it was GREAT to get time away with Michael.

For the trip, we stayed at the Belmond Hotel das Cataratas. The Falls are located in a national park and the Belmond is the only hotel that is actually located within the park on the Brazil side. This is a huge benefit for many reasons. One is that, instead of your access to the Falls being limited to the park’s 9-5 hours, you have access to the Falls 24/7. This is awesome anytime but especially on a holiday weekend (which it was while we were there) as the number of visitors passing through the park each day triples. Therefore, instead of trying to weave in and out of thousands of tourists, Michael and I only visited the park before and after hours – basically sunrise and sunset each day. In this setting, the only other people in the park were a few other guests from our hotel but we basically had the Falls all to ourselves. It was incredible. Furthermore, the hotel is beautiful and was a great place to relax, dine, etc. Finally, as you can see from the picture above, the hotel is located just steps from the Falls whereas all visitors staying elsewhere have to be bussed in from all over the town.

The afternoon that we arrived, the sun was shining so we decided to head straight for the pool. It was the perfect place to grab a coconut water and relax.

That evening we went for a sunset walk around the Falls.

The next day we had a great itinerary: morning “sunrise” walk through the park, big breakfast, pool, lunch, naps, drinks, sunset walk around the Falls, dinner, then bed! I was so thankful that we had the special access to the Falls as we had beautiful weather and beautiful rainbows all morning and then it rained during our afternoon nap time. 🙂

It was misty for our evening walk but we still stepped out to admire the Falls before dinner. 

Our last morning was a little drizzly but we still went out for a guided tour before the park opened. 

It was a very low-key, beautiful and relaxing weekend away — perfect for Michael and me to just enjoy some quality time together. Overall, an incredible anniversary trip / baby-moon!!