Thrill in Brazil

Sunday, March 15, 2009 19:03
Rio Uruguay bus to Buenos Aires

Kara and I woke up at what we thought was 7:30, but apparently Argentina had its daylight savings time change in the middle of the night so that it was an hour earlier. It turned out good for us, because we needed that extra hour for the crazy day that we had! We caught a bus from the train station to Foz de Iguaçu, the city in Brazil near the falls - you have to love paying three pesos to cross a border into another country.

First order of business was to search for a bank. Since it was Sunday, everything was closed - I don’t think I saw a single store open, not even the American fast food chains we saw. There was hardly a soul on the street either. We saw a nearby sign that pointed to a "Bianco" several hundred meters away, so we figured that might mean bank in Portuguese. After walking several blocks, we realized that we guessed wrongly and that it was actually some restaurant (that was closed). Luckily, we were able to find and converse with a local, who pointed us in the right direction. We were really fortunate that the two languages are related enough that if we spoke Spanish slowly and listened to their answer in Portuguese, everyone could get the gist of what was being said. The Portuguese that I heard was really interesting sounding, at times the intonation almost reminded me of a Dutch or Scandinavian language.

Anyway, it wasn't until our third ATM that our cards were accepted and we were able to successfully withdraw Brazilian reales but after that we were on the bus and on the way to the Parque Nacional do Iguaçu. Once inside the park, another bus took us to the main path, which, although crowded -making it hard to take pictures or commune with nature and whatnot - afforded some spectacular views. Since most of the falls are actually on the Argentine side, Brazil has all the great lookout spots. There were even more water falls than I had known existed! We continued to walk down the path, where we ended up at the Garganta del Diablo, this time with a stunning view head-on . We were misted by another large waterfall as we stood on the path that hung slightly over the edge of the waterfalls directly below us. Rainbows were abundant once again.

After we took a minute to say goodbye to the falls for the final time, Kara and I began what ended up being a long process to get back to Puerto Iguazú. We had some time before we needed to get back, so we used the last of our reales for a bus to Paraguay (completely in the opposite direction from Argentina). When we arrived at the border of Ciudad del Este, it was as if it was a whole different city than the day before. Paraguay must also observe the Sabbath day because it was a ghost town of the hustle and bustle from Saturday. To head back to Argentina, we sat on a curb near the bus stop and waited. And waited. After waiting an hour and a half for a bus that should have come every half hour, despite reassurance from the tourist police man (not Hernan, unfortunately) that the bus runs on Sundays, we were in slight panic mode to get back for our 5 o’clock bus back to Buenos Aires.

At last minute, we jumped back on the bus to Foz do Iguazu without a plan and without any guaranies or reales (we found out later that the bus we had needed does in fact run on Sundays but had broken down earlier). Since we had AR$80 between the two of us, and we weren’t sure if we could afford a taxi, it was our only option, even though we were charged a ridiculous amount for not having the proper currency. Our bus driver then dropped us off at a bus stop that should have taken us back to Argentina, but that bus wasn't coming either. In desperation to get back on time, we found a nearby taxi driver and he luckily agreed to take us back to Argentina even though we had way less than the usual fare. We got back to our hostel with just enough time to grab our bags and get to the bus station. So, 8 buses and 1 long taxi ride later, we had successfully seen the falls and were on the way back to Buenos Aires. Woo. That was definitely a memorable day.

Até daqui a pouco (Portuguese for "until later"), Coli

(AN: if you want bonus behind-the-scenes footage of my day in Brazil, email me nscholet@tampabay.rr.com and I'll send you a special edition!)