foz do iguaçu

Foz Iguaçu

In São Paulo we found a car. Sara reserved a hotel for us in the city center. We drove to the hotel in pouring rain, it looked worse and worse, homeless people, graffiti, etc. The taxi stopped and he said 'We are here'! We looked around and saw a really ugly block. Anyway, we checked in at the deserted lobby. In the room, the shoes almost stuck to the floor. In the bed, there were hairs from previous guests, I wonder how many guests you have had. Hungry, we went in search of a restaurant, people on the street stared at us. We found a restaurant and had a good meal. Afterwards, we met up with a friend of Sara's who lives in São Paulo, she was shocked 'What? Why did you book a hotel in the red light district? Do not walk anywhere on foot'! Oh dear.. We took a taxi directly to the hotel and spent the night somehow. The next day we finally went to Foz Iguaçu.

On Friday, at 19:00, we got in the car in São Paulo. When we got in, a very strange smell hit us. It smelled like urine, from front to back. And it was an old car. GREAT, now 15 hours like this! We were so excited about the first car, so we were a bit disappointed. But we wrote down the name of the company and will not book with them again.

In case you are not familiar with it, Foz Iguaçu is home to the largest waterfalls in the world, located in the middle of the Amazon. It is on the border of three countries: Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. There are 20 big waterfalls and 255 small waterfalls. And just to put it into perspective, our great Rhine Falls are just barely ahead of the 255 small waterfalls.

Friday the 13th. We arrived in Foz Iguaçu and took a taxi to our hostel. At least that was the plan. The taxi driver was less familiar with the place than we were. And believe me, I have never been to Iguaçu before. But we found someone who knew the way. The hostel owner welcomed us and looked at us with a puzzled expression and asked 'Did you make a reservation'? Of course, he had no reservation from us, which was not the worst thing that happened during our conversation. He talked about Martin Luther King and how it is not at all acceptable for boys and girls to share a dormitory. Oh dear, better get out of here haha. We spontaneously booked a hotel, which was very nice. We enjoyed the best shower since we left home, it was clean and had a good location. After settling into the room, we prepared our daypacks, ran to the bus and took a 45-minute ride to the waterfalls on the Brazilian side, for around 85 cents. Once we got off the bus, we could already hear what was coming. There was a large, concrete trail where we could walk. We walked a few steps and then I had to stop in awe. A gigantic view, water as far as the eye could see. We walked along the trail and saw everything from a distance, sometimes we could walk out onto the walkway.

Day 2;

Bienvenida a Argentina - Cataratas del Iguazú. We booked a direct shuttle to Argentina from our hotel, to see that side as well. We woke up at 6:00 in the morning, had breakfast and headed to Argentina. Once there, we went to a huge national park. We bought tickets and got on a cute, diesel-smelling train that took us to various starting points of the trails. No, it wasn't a Stadler train.

Since we only had time from 8:30-12:00, we had to prioritize because it was impossible to walk the entire trail. In Brazil, we managed to do it in 4 hours. Not here. And there were many more options to walk freely, you could choose different paths. In the picture you see the trail from Brazil (on the left side) and the trails from Argentina (right side).

We walked on cool walkways and ended up right by the waterfalls.

When we reached the first viewpoint, we realized that we were practically walking on the waterfall. You were so close to the water, unbelievable. 

We completed about 3/4 of the trails before we made our way back to the hotel. And yes, it was worth it. It was completely different from the Brazilian side. We saw many more animals, including toucans, anteaters, various birds, iguanas, and monkeys. Apparently, there were also pumas and leopards, but we didn't see any. Muriel always said that if she saw one, she would try to pet it and take it with us. But I don't want to carry a whole tiger with me while traveling, so it's better this way.

Now we have arrived in Santos, in a super nice apartment. The journey took 20 hours instead of 16, but it's not too bad. Oh, and the car smelled a bit, but thankfully not like urine anymore. Yes, we are slowly getting used to small things.

Take care and have a great start to the week

Muri & Ernesto

Next stop: Itajaí