We left São Paulo after cleaning up our room, saying goodbye to Katia, then heading to the airport. We checked in, passed through security, the found our gate. We had some time to kill after our premade lunch, so we went to the nearby TGIFridays and had the worst caipirinhas of our trip thus far.
We caught our plane and headed to Cascavel. We landed in possibly the tiniest airport I had ever visited, then A was able to ask a cab driver to take us to the bus station. We were early for the bus to Foz Do Iguaçu so we relaxed a little. We boarded the bus and got to sit up top as the full panorama of Brazil opened up in front of us as we snuggled in our huge seats.
There was a lot of greenery, farms, dirt roads and children waving. Two hours later, we were at the Foz bus station. I hooked up to the internet and got us an Uber over to our hostel. It was away from the city on a service road of the highway next to an automotive shop.
It was late, but the proprietress opened the security gate and showed us our room. As we wanted some privacy, I bought out all three bunkbeds for our stay for R$306 or $59 USD for 5 days! The room was air conditioned which was absolutely lovely as we were in a rain forest climate, but there was no lock that worked on the door. After we dropped and secured our things, we walked to a local hotel where they were still serving dinner. I had full plate of fried fish before we went back to the room and unfortunately had to sleep in separate beds.
We woke up well rested, showered, then headed out to find a grocery store. We followed the map to the best of our ability, but our travel was interrupted by a small restaurant. We were hungry so we stopped and had authentic Brazilian barbecue. They really came around with huge plates of meat and shaved off what we wanted. It was not just a gimmick of Fogo de Chão. It was delicious. We then had a few more beers as it was sweltering.
It was on our second liter of beer I realized why AmBev, a Brazilian beverage company was able to buy so many brands, including Heinekin. In the hot and festive climate of Brazil, it was the best way to keep cool.
We further trekked into the small suburbs of Foz Do Iguaçu looking for the grocery store, but it was midday and very hot, so we sought the shelter of a bar and the shade of a few more bottles of beer.
We were able to find a grocery store eventually and stocked up for the week. We then headed back to the hostel and A made us dinner of pasta with sauce from a bag. Apparently, this was very South American.
We were tired due to the intense heat of the day, so we headed off to bed in the nice, cold air conditioning.
The next day, we decided to head over to the Bird Park. Due to its location in the world, Foz Do Iguaçu has an incredible variety of flora and fauna. It was at this park that they housed many different types of birds native to the area. A had never seen actual flamingos before, so we made sure to look at them and take lots of pictures. As we were walking around, I noticed that I was wearing the same neon blue as a few of the macaws, but I definitely wore it better.
One of my favorite stories of my time in the bird park with A was when we walked past a bird that looked like an incredibly large and furry emu. A absolutely loved animals and thought of becoming a photographer for National Geographic. Upon looking at this bird, she looked over at me with hearts in her eyes and asked me if we could get a bird like this and let it sleep with us in our bed so we could cuddle and squeeze it. As if on cue, this majestic bird let loose an incredible torrent of diarrhea, the likes of which I had never seen nor smelled before. I learned that day that yes, birds can fart. After it emptied its bowels all over itself, and was standing in about ankle-high feces, I looked over to A, with a smile on my face and said no.
After the park, we got some better caipirinhas, and had a late dinner. I had to do some client work, then we went to bed.
I woke up early the next day, but let A sleep for another hour. We had breakfast, hung out a little while I finished up some work, then caught an Uber to a kayak adventure we booked. We were out in the boonies and had a little time to kill. There were hammocks that we lounged in while one of the guides, Ricardo from Venezuela picked a mango off the trees and sliced it open for us.
When the rest of our group came, we hiked through some of the rain forest to our waiting kayaks on the Iguaçu River. The Foz in Foz do Iguaçu means mouth. As we walked me made sure to take a few “couple” pictures along the way. We got in a two person kayak and set out. After 4 strokes, we actually crossed the border into Argentina (the river served as a natural border,) where we were shown the skeleton of a Hilton hotel that was abandoned due to foreclosure. We continued on to a spot where we parked the kayaks and hiked through the woods to a stream. The water was warm and there were boulders which reminded me a lot of the streams and creeks I experienced growing up. We all got in the water and just hung out. A made sure we took a lot of pics. Unfortunately, she lost her shirt as she had taken it off to get in the water, so she just had a bikini top, a real shame.
We headed back, and the guides showed us another great spot for photos along side a waterfall. I tried climbing the boulder, but it was slick with algae and water, so I ended up eating it; banging my elbow on the rock really hard. But that was OK. We still took some sweet photos. After that we headed back.
We changed and unfortunately, we got zero cell reception to call an Uber. Luckily, there was a pair of gentlemen from West Hollywood that said we could ride with them back to the city. We were dropped at a wax museum, said goodbye to our new friends, then called an Uber. Apparently, when A books one, she needs to present a code to the driver so they know who is who.
We got back to the hostel, washed our clothes, showered, had dinner, then I did a little work. Afterwards, we had some pillow talk where she told me about one of her exes, some hot shot eye doctor that offered her a proposal, but was on tinder, fucking a lot of people on the side. Neededless to say, his loss was my gain. We were both very tired so we ended up going to bed after that as the next day would be a very big one.
We woke up early, then headed out to get our tickets for the Falls. The Falls of Iguaçu are the largest waterfall system in the world. The names derives from the Gurani, the local indiginous tribe, “y” meaning water and “ûasú” meaning big. It is split into roughly 275 separate waterfalls and is about 50ft taller than Niagara Falls.
There was a really round about way we needed to get our tickets for entry. First we needed to print a voucher, then find a vendor that would accept it. They would then print the entry ticket, then we needed to go to the actual entrance of the park. Seemed like the whole process could have been a lot more streamlined. I bought the skip-the-line tickets, but that only meant I could skip the line from buying them, not waiting in line to get the bus to get there. We waited in line with people from all over the world for about an hour in the heat. It was fun trying to guess where people were from, although when families busted out the maté and started passing around a calabaza, we knew they were from one of two, possibly three places.
After finally getting on the bus, we drove deep into the park and they let us out at a little walkway in front of what looked like a posh hotel. Right there were some of the falls. It was breath taking. While I have been to Niagra Falls many times, this was a whole lot more spread out with so much water just cascading everywhere. There was wild life all about too: iguanas, birds, and little lemur looking things that A just had to feed, despite all the signs saying not to. We walked down a gangway to where there was a massive crowd where there was an over look of the falls. We started waving to the Argentine side of the falls and some people waved back. We then took one final hike up to the top of the outlook and surveyed the whole scene. Nature can be so beautiful and so powerful at the same time.
We then got the bus back to the entry. We debated heading over to Paraguay because it was so close. We decided not to as the customs line would probably take forever. People in Foz would go just across the border to shop as everything was so much cheaper. Also, unfortunately, I did not think the entry fee of $150 USD (in cash) I needed to pay to get in was worth it for just a few hours.
Instead, walked across the street to the Bird Park, and caught an Uber. We needed to get supplies for our long ride the next day, so we went to a supermarket. We realized that it was not the correct one by our hostel. We then got another Uber to the right one.
After we shopped for a little, we then headed back to that restaurant we stopped at on the first night to find out they had no food. We ended up getting some great pizza, then headed over to a local gas station for some more supplies for our trip. I did a little work, then we went to bed. We had a very long day coming.
The next day, we woke up and got ready for our 28 hour bus ride to Rio de Janeiro. A made us lunches and dinners while I packed up the room. We showered, then she packed up her things while I got us an Uber. We went back to the Foz bus station and had a little time to kill before the ride. South American bus stations are interesting. Besides being able to buy a ticket to almost anywhere on the continent, they have the little shops for clothes, souvenirs, drinks, and the like.
Our bus arrived and we hopped on. We had a lot of time to kill, so A and I just talked for a while. I showed her more pictures of Asia. Right before we left the state of Paraná, the bus was stopped and searched by police. They went to every passenger and made them open their bags. I was worried they were going to confiscate the bottle of cachaça we smuggled on board for cocktail hour, but they were no doubt looking for drugs.
We stopped at a rest stop along they way, which was better than I was expecting. It reminded me of the ones in middle America that I became quite familiar with on my cross country roadtrips and trucking for work. After about 30 mins, we hopped back on the bus and settled in for the night. We watched Joker and Rio and tried to get to sleep around 1 AM, although there were so many talkative, crying, and screaming children.