these are the small falls. uh huh
Happy New Year!
And just like newborn babes, we stumble out of my mother's care on our own again at 6am. We navigate the flight over, which I won't revisit, and land in the tiny Puerto Iguazu airport. Erin asks if I had looked up how to get to the hostel we had booked (which she had reminded me to do back in BA). No, but it'll be fine. Our bigger problem was that in my haste to take out money to pay for our tickets this morning, I took just about exactly what was necessary, and no more. Now here we are with enough money for maybe our bags to go into town without us and the one ATM is broken. that was a fun problem. but hey, you've got to crawl before you can walk.
We arrived at our pension at 10am, dropped off our things and hopped on the bus to Iguazu national park. A friend of ours said she had spent one day but could have stayed for a few more, so we were expecting the park to be quite large. In honesty, if we hadn't been so tired, we could have easily done the park in one day, that's just the kind of travelers we are. But since we decided to take a nap in the shade for a couple hours, and I was toying with the whole "take your time" travel idea (i think erin was of the same mind), we decided to take the two day pass.
And just like newborn babes, we stumble out of my mother's care on our own again at 6am. We navigate the flight over, which I won't revisit, and land in the tiny Puerto Iguazu airport. Erin asks if I had looked up how to get to the hostel we had booked (which she had reminded me to do back in BA). No, but it'll be fine. Our bigger problem was that in my haste to take out money to pay for our tickets this morning, I took just about exactly what was necessary, and no more. Now here we are with enough money for maybe our bags to go into town without us and the one ATM is broken. that was a fun problem. but hey, you've got to crawl before you can walk.
We arrived at our pension at 10am, dropped off our things and hopped on the bus to Iguazu national park. A friend of ours said she had spent one day but could have stayed for a few more, so we were expecting the park to be quite large. In honesty, if we hadn't been so tired, we could have easily done the park in one day, that's just the kind of travelers we are. But since we decided to take a nap in the shade for a couple hours, and I was toying with the whole "take your time" travel idea (i think erin was of the same mind), we decided to take the two day pass.
they're coming right for us!
At the entrance there's a picture of a family walking down a trail surrounded by a dozen little creatures, with some tagline about how much nature is in the park. I thought it was one of those setup shots where they probably have a bunch of food in their pocket, luring all the animals for that one perfect shot. That was until we walked about 100 feet into the walking trail and were met by a dozen little creatures walking all around the trail. they were a mix of raccoon and monkey, and we were a little intimidated by them - quick hide the food and water bottles! But luckily tourists haven't turned the coati's into dependent scavengers. they just walk around, burrowing their noses in the ground looking for ants, uninterested in the groups of people taking their pictures. In the end erin had to convince me not to grab one of the little ones and stuff him in my bag to take home.
The falls themselves are, as you can imagine, pretty spectacular. there is such an immense quantity of water falling into this whole in the world. We took all the paths to see the tops and bottoms of all the cascades on the Argentinian side. The Brazilian side is where you get the closest to the Devil's Throat, which is the highest flowing part of the system, and we were hoping to go there on the third day but that never happened (waiting at the border for an hour for a bus didn't help our tight schedule).
The falls themselves are, as you can imagine, pretty spectacular. there is such an immense quantity of water falling into this whole in the world. We took all the paths to see the tops and bottoms of all the cascades on the Argentinian side. The Brazilian side is where you get the closest to the Devil's Throat, which is the highest flowing part of the system, and we were hoping to go there on the third day but that never happened (waiting at the border for an hour for a bus didn't help our tight schedule).
bus station restaurant (we didn't eat the chicken)
Leaving Puerto Iguazu mid-day, we crossed into Brazil. Brazil! Hooray! Although I am sincerely sad that we didn't get to hike patagonia, I am so excited that we get to explore Brazil for a month. I have grown up being Brazilian, and speaking the language, but in my 30 years, I've only been to Rio and Sao Paulo, mostly spending my time with family, hardly sight-seeing, and never choosing what we were going to see, so this is going to be my chance to do it. And as much weight as we'd gained in BA with my mom, I was planning on doubling it eating all the delicious Brazilian food, and drinking the juices and caipirinhas.
It took us long enough to cross the border that we didn't get to see the Brazilian side of the falls, and it turns out Florianopolis is a popular place to go, therefor the bus there was sold out, and we opted to go part of the way to Curitiba on a sleeper bus. We spent the afternoon sitting at an outdoor restaurant, eating as much rice and beans as we wanted, chatting, and reading until our overnight bus.
The bus ride itself was not as relaxing as the websites make them out to be. As much as erin complains that I could sleep on a donkey in the middle of the day while a mariachi band plays, that doesn't mean i would sleep well.
It took us long enough to cross the border that we didn't get to see the Brazilian side of the falls, and it turns out Florianopolis is a popular place to go, therefor the bus there was sold out, and we opted to go part of the way to Curitiba on a sleeper bus. We spent the afternoon sitting at an outdoor restaurant, eating as much rice and beans as we wanted, chatting, and reading until our overnight bus.
The bus ride itself was not as relaxing as the websites make them out to be. As much as erin complains that I could sleep on a donkey in the middle of the day while a mariachi band plays, that doesn't mean i would sleep well.
But yet we forged on, arriving in Curitiba at 7am, finding a hotel, dropping off our bags, and going to the train station to catch an 8:30am train through the southern rainforest. BAM, we're back to being lions of travel.
This train is one of the few in Brazil, and exists pretty much solely for tourism. We wound our way through the hills, overlooking vast valleys covered in thick green vegetation, saw waterfalls, remains of disused train stations from the old days, waved at all the small children that came out to watch the train ride past, had another caseiro (homestyle) buffet lunch, tried ginger ice-cream (but stuck to coconut and passionfruit) and took a nap by a river where the boys came up with different ways to almost kill themselves by flipping off the high banks. Most people apparently just take the bus back, and on our slow train ride back we could see why, but we made it back, and after a shower and a quick rest, we went out into the city for dinner.
This train is one of the few in Brazil, and exists pretty much solely for tourism. We wound our way through the hills, overlooking vast valleys covered in thick green vegetation, saw waterfalls, remains of disused train stations from the old days, waved at all the small children that came out to watch the train ride past, had another caseiro (homestyle) buffet lunch, tried ginger ice-cream (but stuck to coconut and passionfruit) and took a nap by a river where the boys came up with different ways to almost kill themselves by flipping off the high banks. Most people apparently just take the bus back, and on our slow train ride back we could see why, but we made it back, and after a shower and a quick rest, we went out into the city for dinner.
it's a rough life.
The following morning we packed up and headed south to Florianopolis. We arrived in the early afternoon, and hopped on a local bus that took us to Lagoa da Conçeçao, a lake in the middle of the island. We were dropped off at a campsite, which was not the one we'd planned on staying at, but it turned out to be more fun, as we quickly made friends and spent the evening drinking communal caipiroskas with locals, regulars, and foreigners.
The next day we got up early, and after finding a coffee (surprisingly a difficult task) headed over the hill to the beach. What a gorgeous day that was. We spent all day playing in the crystal blue surf, sitting on a beautiful sand, and eating grilled cheese on a stick and fresh juices. The next day we hauled our packs to another beach to get in some more sun before we headed to the bus station and learned the difference between a vitamin (fruit/milk shake) and batida (alcoholic mix drink). Live and learn.
This week made Brazil for me. It was the country I was looking for, and there are still two more weeks to explore. Next we're headed north to Sao Paulo, then Paraty, Rio and Salvador Bahia. No way one blog post could contain that all. Til next time!
-SB
The next day we got up early, and after finding a coffee (surprisingly a difficult task) headed over the hill to the beach. What a gorgeous day that was. We spent all day playing in the crystal blue surf, sitting on a beautiful sand, and eating grilled cheese on a stick and fresh juices. The next day we hauled our packs to another beach to get in some more sun before we headed to the bus station and learned the difference between a vitamin (fruit/milk shake) and batida (alcoholic mix drink). Live and learn.
This week made Brazil for me. It was the country I was looking for, and there are still two more weeks to explore. Next we're headed north to Sao Paulo, then Paraty, Rio and Salvador Bahia. No way one blog post could contain that all. Til next time!
-SB
RSS Feed