Well, something did not click there... with Brazil and me... I will give it another try during my trip.. but for now... Brazil and me are not a match made in heaven... :) Or maybe, I was just not ready for it yet... Granted I just visited the southern Brazil, and most of the other parts I left for later.
Florianapolis, in the south Brazil... supposedly a beautiful beach destination.... In the week that I spent there I was never too comfortable.... the language, the hostel... I even got somewhat sickly while there. The rain and the clouds did not help either... The highlight for me was the samba party on the beach with a live band during which there was a lockout on the whole island. But the party continued, with musicians still playing whatever instruments they could (without notes and electricity) and people singing all the well-known songs, mucho caiperinhas and of course while still shaking it... I had a blast!
The long 18-hour bus ride from Florianapolis to Foz Iguazu was very annoying. Apparently the buses in Brazil are not as good as the ones in Argentina. Maybe I was just too spoiled by the famously comfortable buses in Argentina... We even ended up breaking down and changing the bus in the middle of the night... right there on the highway.
Foz Iguazu is the Brazilian town that is 20 min away from the border with Argentina and Paraguay and its famous for the entry point to the famous Iguazu Waterfalls. Many tourists cross 3 countries to see the waterfalls from different perspectives.
I never even considered to go to Paraguay because they require the expensive ($130) visa for all US citizens. But, to my surprise I learned that I can just take the local bus and go to Ciudad del Este... and take it off my check list :). Ciudad Del Este is quite a dirty and noisy city where you can buy anything you can possibly imagine from electronics to guns to cheap clothes to fake perfumes... 2 hours in the heat and a lot of hustling... Maybe, one day I will actually cross into the country and see what else it has to offer...
The next day, in the morning, we went to check out the Iguazu falls on the Brazilian side, where you can get a nice overview of the falls. And later on, on the same day,we took the city bus to go to the Argentina. As we learned, we had to get out of the bus and go through immigrations and customs and stamp the passport on both sides, Brazil and then Argentina.
The following day was quite emotional... :). Marina, la chica loca Portugesa, who I traveled with for 3 weeks in Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and even Paraguay :), had to go back to Buenos Aires... It was some good 3 weeks... Now, I was all alone... once again! :(
The rest of the day, I hanged out with hippies, who read my energy, showed me how to make bracelets. One guy, Dante Minero,the local miner, taught me for hours about semi-precious stones. He made me leak the stones for the color and bite them to tell them apart from the fake plastic ones. :). In the end, he gave me a gift, a big chunk of raw crystal rock for good luck and spread some mate yerba in my bag for good energy!
In the morning, I had to check out, go see the touristy Iguazu falls and find a place to go next. So, I bought the bus ticket to Salta, in the north of Argentina. This would be my longest bus ride yet, 26 hours!!!
Well, something did not click there... with Brazil and me... I will give it another try during my trip.. but for now... Brazil and me are not a match made in heaven... :) Or maybe, I was just not ready for it yet... Granted I just visited the southern Brazil, and most of the other parts I left for later.
Florianapolis, in the south Brazil... supposedly a beautiful beach destination.... In the week that I spent there I was never too comfortable.... the language, the hostel... I even got somewhat sickly while there. The rain and the clouds did not help either... The highlight for me was the samba party on the beach with a live band during which there was a lockout on the whole island. But the party continued, with musicians still playing whatever instruments they could (without notes and electricity) and people singing all the well-known songs, mucho caiperinhas and of course while still shaking it... I had a blast!
The long 18-hour bus ride from Florianapolis to Foz Iguazu was very annoying. Apparently the buses in Brazil are not as good as the ones in Argentina. Maybe I was just too spoiled by the famously comfortable buses in Argentina... We even ended up breaking down and changing the bus in the middle of the night... right there on the highway.
Foz Iguazu is the Brazilian town that is 20 min away from the border with Argentina and Paraguay and its famous for the entry point to the famous Iguazu Waterfalls. Many tourists cross 3 countries to see the waterfalls from different perspectives.
I never even considered to go to Paraguay because they require the expensive ($130) visa for all US citizens. But, to my surprise I learned that I can just take the local bus and go to Ciudad del Este... and take it off my check list :). Ciudad Del Este is quite a dirty and noisy city where you can buy anything you can possibly imagine from electronics to guns to cheap clothes to fake perfumes... 2 hours in the heat and a lot of hustling... Maybe, one day I will actually cross into the country and see what else it has to offer...
The next day, in the morning, we went to check out the Iguazu falls on the Brazilian side, where you can get a nice overview of the falls. And later on, on the same day,we took the city bus to go to the Argentina. As we learned, we had to get out of the bus and go through immigrations and customs and stamp the passport on both sides, Brazil and then Argentina.
The following day was quite emotional... :). Marina, la chica loca Portugesa, who I traveled with for 3 weeks in Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and even Paraguay :), had to go back to Buenos Aires... It was some good 3 weeks... Now, I was all alone... once again! :(
The rest of the day, I hanged out with hippies, who read my energy, showed me how to make bracelets. One guy, Dante Minero,the local miner, taught me for hours about semi-precious stones. He made me leak the stones for the color and bite them to tell them apart from the fake plastic ones. :). In the end, he gave me a gift, a big chunk of raw crystal rock for good luck and spread some mate yerba in my bag for good energy!
In the morning, I had to check out, go see the touristy Iguazu falls and find a place to go next. So, I bought the bus ticket to Salta, in the north of Argentina. This would be my longest bus ride yet, 26 hours!!!
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