New Years Eve in Iguazu

We arrived in Iguazu on New Year's Eve. As you can probably imagine, the days had blurred together and I didn't even really know it was NYE, but when we checked in, there was a sign for reservations for the NYE dinner that they were serving. Iguazu is a very small town and totally for the tourists, so we figured we better make a reservation or we might be out of luck.

After checking in, we got settled in the room and then jumped in the pool and hung out. The day was almost over, so the weather was perfect...just warm enough to a lay out with a book forever and not get hot. We lounged until it was time to get ready for the party.

The dinner was fantastic. I have never seen a spread quite like it. Salads, cheese (did I tell you we ate A LOT of cheese on this trip? It's everywhere!), salami and other sandwich meat, breads and rolls, potatoes, rice, pork loin, smoked turkey, raviolis, stuffed chicken, etc, etc, the list goes on and on. And of course there was dessert, too...mousses, creme brulee, candied nuts, cheesecake, etc. Unfortunately the camera battery died shortly after we took the picture in front of the hotel and the one we took with the waterproof camera of the "spread" did not turn out, so you'll have to use your imagination. I was just amazed. Not only was there a ton of food, but they kept bringing out more of it all night long. It was nuts!

They had a one man band for entertainment and he was really good. He played the keyboard, saxophone, accordion and sang. We danced to a few Sinatra songs...most of the music he played we recognized (and was in English), which was nice.

The actual stroke of midnight was not super easy to identify since he didn't play Auld Lang Syne, but I think we got our "Happy New Year" and kiss in there somewhere close. They also have a tradition to eat 12 grapes in the last 12 seconds before the stroke of midnight. They brought out a huge bowl of grapes just before midnight and everyone went over and picked out 12 grapes. We weren't too successful in getting them choked down in the right amount of time, but we did our best...they had seeds in them. What the heck??

Anyway, shortly after midnight, we headed to our room to the sound random fireworks going off. We had to be up and in the lobby by 9am to catch our bus to the Falls.