Foz do Iguaçu

Foz do Iguaçu is a small but very beautiful town on the Brazilian side of the waterfalls. There, we were surprised to find a surprisingly clean and spacious hostel. After our arrival, we took a public bus directly to the waterfalls on the Brazilian side. At the entrance of the park, we bought our tickets and took a bus that takes you to the waterfalls.

From the Brazilian side, you have a gigantic view of the front of the waterfalls. We walked along the waterfalls for about an hour.

In the evening, we originally wanted to go to a churrascaria to celebrate New Year's Eve. However, in the afternoon, the receptionist from the hostel called to make a reservation for us and informed us that the New Year's buffet would cost 350 real ~ 80€. Therefore, we decided to wait comfortably at the hostel until 9:00 pm, have a drink, and call home to wish them a happy new year. Then we went to the city center to have dinner. What we didn't know, however, was that all restaurants on December 31st offered a New Year's buffet for 350 real and it was not possible to order individual dishes. Finally, around 10:00 pm, we found a steakhouse where you could also order dishes from the menu. The only problem was that you had to put yourself on a waiting list and we were ignored. At some point, shortly after 11:00 pm, when we were already expecting to eat something from a really disgusting snack and go home, Judith made a last attempt and took out Google Translate and asked a waiter if there was "any hope left to get a table" and told him that "we are being ignored". He actually took pity on us and put us on the waiting list. At the same time, two Brazilians, who we had actually been keeping an eye on the whole time (😂), asked us if we wanted to join them. At midnight, we finally got a table outside and were in the middle of the fireworks. 20 minutes later, we finally got a huge steak platter.

Although the evening was rather frustrating, it somehow had style to start the year 2019 with a Brazilian steak.

The next day, we spontaneously decided to take a bus to Bonito in the evening, so we quickly went to the bus station in the morning to get tickets. Then we took an Uber to the border. There we met a friendly Argentinean who took us in a car across the border and drove us to the waterfalls on the Argentine side.

This side is also really impressive, as you can look directly at the waterfall. However, for me, the Brazilian view was more worth seeing and spectacular. In the evening, we had to rush because we waited forever for the public bus that went back across the border to Brazil. For some reason, we assumed that we would miss our bus to Bonito. I don't know why, but despite everything, we decided to quickly shower and eat and literally ran to the bus.