Time to go back to my Latam adventure. My story about Iguazu Falls from the Brazilian side would not be complete without Parque das Aves, The Birds’ Park. 

I remember us visiting it on the last day of our stay at Iguazu, on our way to the airport. It took us around 2,5 hours to visit (which was not enough to take the iconic photo with a parrot in the end of the visit, for which, it seemed, the entire park was queuing for). I did not exactly remember what I have from that day on my camera and first thought that The Birds’ Park visit might make a boring topic for a post. To my sheer delight, I found not only tons of amazing shots of tropical birds but also a series of flamingo’s love making scenes. (Several weeks’ journeys tend to blur the impressions into a rotating kaleidoscope. Travel photography allows you to keep the precious moments. So TAKE PHOTOS).

I’ll start with the flamingos because I am sure you all want to know (well, don’t you?).

Difference in male and female psychology. I was (taking photos and) thinking: “Wow, he takes off with such a grace. Should be uneasy with this long and awkward body”. Louveteau watched silently, took a reflection pause and said: “My friend, I don’t want to sound judgemental but it was a little bit short”. While I was preparing this post, the subject started trending, and we have almost scientifically established in a wide circle of MBA/ Masters’ that in the animal kingdom, only pigs can boast about long love making sessions with as much as 9 orgasms in a row. Talk about the value of education.

Back to Parque das Aves. It is a gorgeous place with lots of birds kept in spacious areas, so that they can fly and live their life as close to normal as it is possible in captivity. Many of the birds in the park were saved from traps and some other unfortunate life circumstances and brought back to life by the people working in the park. Thanks to that, you can enter some of the spaces and spend some time with the birds (and butterflies, on that further on).

Flamingo will never look the same to you now, right? Power of Internet.

Louveteau fell in love with toucans and made me take dozens of their pictures. They are adorable, I get it. I get it.

Personally, I sympathise with this somewhat evil-looking toucan’s relative (so I think).

Butterflies. By now, you should have pictured an idyllic image of The Birds’ Park. Now imagine that I am afraid of everything that flies (except airplanes, which are home to me, and small insects because, well, they are small). Birds, butterflies and, God forbid, especially pigeons, make me extremely uncomfortable. It has not always been like that, and I am unsure about when it started, but something inherently wrong should have happened between me and pigeons when I was very little (prior to that I enjoyed feeding them, which has been generously documented in our family photo archives).

I still went to The Birds’ Park following Ele’s recommendation, but was somewhat happy that the birds were separated from me by the safety net. And then we walked into the Butterfly Room.

The Butterly Room was full of, as you can imagine, butterflies, and if it was not enough, someone took one of them and offered it to me. I quickly passed it to Louveteau and sweetened an offer by suggestive signs at the camera. He made a pfff sound and told me that taking pictures with butterflies is not his style. I felt sorry for the poor rejected thing and took it myself. So there we were standing for some time, both afraid (I imagine, it was not easy for the butterfly as well). In the end, I have carefully put it back to where it could enjoy some comfort, food and still some attention. I was very proud of myself, yes.

My elegant photo shooting partner.

Encouraged by my butterfly experience, I approached the parrots’ open area with more courage. Luckily, no one there had a ready-to-take-a-photo parrot for me.

So that’s Iguazu Bird’s Park for you. I loved it, and if I did, with my birdsphobia, you will as well. In case, there are lots of other adorable friendly creatures in there, like this one.

🙂