Only 9 days left

It's been a while since my last post. That's mainly because I didn't have much to report, as I do the same thing almost every day. However, last weekend I was at Foz do Iguaçu, the famous waterfall at the border of Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina. We started on Thursday evening - 15 hours overnight on a bus. Thanks to my oversized pillow and a sleeping pill, the journey was bearable. After we arrived, we went to Paraguay for shopping. For Brazilians, Paraguay is a paradise because everything is much cheaper there (especially chocolate from Germany :D). The large Milka chocolate bars cost 'only' 7 dollars there. So my host sister Mary went on a shopping spree. My mom's shopping list felt like it had 50000 things that we should bring. The photo shows the extent of our sweets loot :D.

Since Mary's cousin, who lives at Foz do Iguaçu, has good connections, we basically got our trip as a gift. We had a private driver who took us wherever we wanted to go. In the evening, we had dinner with Mary's cousin Sebastian and his wife and child, and two other friends at a typical Brazilian churrascaria, where there is mainly grilled meat (churrasco), but also a lot of other delicacies (so even vegetarians can get full). There were also dance performances from 8 different Latin American countries. The next morning, finally with our private driver, we went to the long-awaited waterfalls. I think I have never seen anything so beautiful and impressive. And there are animals running around everywhere, especially herds of coatis (a type of raccoon), which I naturally fell in love with (who can resist such a look?), but also parrots and other exotic birds. We even got closer to the waterfalls with a boat. To say closer is maybe an understatement, because we actually went right through the waterfalls. Soaking wet from head to toe, we went back to the hotel. Since it was 37 degrees on Sunday and we didn't want to walk the long hiking trail on the Argentine side without any shade, we treated ourselves to a helicopter flight over the waterfalls with an outstanding view of one of the seven wonders of the world.
This excursion was a real experience that I will never forget.

Of course, I don't want to keep the incredibly impressive pictures from you.