Iguazu Falls, the Hat Trick, and Brazil

After 5 weeks of driving around in our little station wagon, we were pretty excited to get back on a bus... where we could recline, kick up our feet, relax and even fall asleep. With that spirit in mind, we decided to book it all the way up to Iguazu Falls. This meant a 20 hour bus back to Buenos Aires, with a quick stop over to say goodbye to our friends and have one last meal at our favorite steak place, before getting back on a bus for another 18 hour bus ride up the coast. Within the span of 2 days, we had gone from snow capped mountains and penguin spotting, up to the tropical jungles and toucan spotting.

Our first stop was the Argentine side of Iguazu Falls, one of the best waterfalls in the world. The falls lie along the border of Argentina and Brazil and there is one spot in the town of Puerto Iguazu where you can stand at the juction of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, the monument of the 3 borders!
That sign says, "Wuddup now!? I can throw a rock at Brazil and Paraguay from here..."
In the picture below, you can see a tiny white building in the background, which at the time we took the photo we thought would be the best pic we'd get of Paraguay. It's a little building that says Bienvenidos a Paraguay. Turns out we would get much closer in days to follow...
After a good night sleep (not on a bus!) we spent a day in Argentina's Iguazu National Park.
Argentina lays claim to 70% of the 275 waterfalls that make up Iguazu Falls. The park is comprised of several walking paths and platforms to view not only an overview of the entire set of the falls, but also walk through, over and under many individual waterfalls. All in all, we thought it lived up to the hype and has officially taken #1 on our lists of best waterfall we've seen in the world. This place makes Niagara Falls look like a miniature waterfall...









While photos don't really do the place justice, because the amazing part is the sheer size and number of waterfalls in front of you, we certainly tried!
After one too many photos and a few hours exploring the falls up close, we took a tram to the highlight of the park, the Devil's Throat, a U-shaped, 82-meter-high, 150-meter-diameter and 700-meter-long waterfall that divides the falls between Argentina and Brazil. At the end of a long catwalk, you can look down into this massive fall.


The next day we made a discovery that enabled us to check 2 things off the list at once. Having heard from one too many people that in order to truly experience Iguazu Falls, you must see it from both the Argentine and Brazilian side, we searched for an inexpensive way to get there. We then stumbled upon a cheap tour called Tres Pais en Una Dia (3 countries in a day... aka the Hat Trick)! The tour went to the largest hydro electic power plant in the world, shared by Paraguay and Brazil. While not as interesting to me (of course Mikey was all over it...nerd.), what was interesting was the fact that it was our ticket into Paraguay without having to pay the $60 US for a visa! Because you have to drive through Paraguay to get to the plant, the tour also drops you off in the Paraguayan border town for an hour to peruse. Ingenius!
Unfortunately this also meant that I had to sit through a boring presentation and tour about this hydroelectric power plant. I suppose it was mildly interesting, but it was in Spanish and our schooling in the language thus far didn't quite cover terms such as "energy generation capacity" or "frequency converter." I think I was at about a 30% comprehension rate on the tour...
That being said, the place was pretty incredible and the dam itself was huge! 30% more info than I had known before we left!
Next stop was Ciudad del Este, Paraguay!
Turns out it was a crappy, dirty, ugly town with cheap, broken merchandise drunk men were trying to sell. Given that it was a border town, probably not the best representation of the country, but also made us that much less interested in paying for a visa. Not much else to report other than, Paraguay, check!
Our 3rd country for the day was our first glimpse into Brazil! We stopped for an awesome Brazilian steak house lunch, with the dudes that walk around with massive amounts of different meats on a stick and slice off as much as you want. Yum! Then we were off to the Brazilian Iguacu Falls.
From this side, you get the overview and massive scale of the falls. From the platforms, you can see all of the Argentine side at once and get a better perspective of just how huge the whole thing is. Again, pictures just don't do it justice, but we certainly did our best...



Mike was having fun photographing the coutis in the park...the South American racoon. Similar looking to ours, but with a longer body and long schnoz. Just as pesky...
After about 4 months in and out, it was finally time to say goodbye to Argentina! The wine will be missed...

From the falls, we took a bus to Sao Paulo and for the first time arrived about an hour early! Sounds great, right? Well, early had us arriving at about 5:30am on a Saturday in the pouring rain, with a hostel that didn't open until 10am for us to leave our bags. With no where else to go, we spent a good hour walking up and down the long corridor of our metro station admiring the "artwork." When we caught a slight break in the rain, we took a chance at ringing the bell early and were able to drop our bags before exploring the city in a downpour! Our first stop was a pretty impressive Latin American Art Museum...
After a few hours of walking through our nice neighborhood absolutely drenched, we learned 2 things.
1. Brazil isn't as bad as travelers make it out to be. Our area was really nice, super yuppy, nice people, filled with expensive American shops, nothing like it had been described...well that was until part 2 of the day when we saw the rest of the city...the real Sao Paulo. Not so nice.
2. As much as people try and claim it to be, Portuguese is NOTHING like Spanish. Our first day trying to order breakfast and neither of us could understand a word people spoke to us. They seemed to understand what we said when we spoke in Spanish and we could sometimes read things because it looked like Spanish...sometimes, but it sounded like Russian to us.

Before lunch, with dark clouds and scattered downpours, we decided to go back to the hostel to officially check in and put on our rain pants before exploring the rest of the city. When we reemerged ready for the worst...the sun came out. Of course.

After learning that Sao Paulo has the 2nd largest Japanese population outside of Japan, it seemed only logical to find some Japanese food for lunch, a treat we haven't had in months! And it got even better...Mikey's dream...a sushi burrito!
It was a massive mound of spicy tuna inside a temaki, which we've now learned are the thing in Brazilian/Japanese places. You can still get normal sushi, but who doesn't want a pound of fish wrapped in seaweed? Also now know...only order one. They're HUGE (our table had 4...oops)!
Cathedral looks nice? The plaza surrounding it would be too if it wasn't filled with sketchy dudes. Pretty much our take-away from most of Sao Paulo, other than the yuppy area where the rich people and the hostels are...the town is sketch. When we mapped out our walking tour of town, we saw two plazas relatively close to one another that we wanted to check out. As we walked around the first one, we quickly learned that we should move on to another area. Strolling toward the second, we realized that while seeing crackheads hanging out in the plaza were scary, it was even scarier once the crackheads, too, disappeared. After our walk, the city's reputation made more sense.
I'd like to start off by saying, no we weren't drunk. In an effort to use our one full day in Sao Paulo to its maximum potential we tried to make the city seem less sketch by doing our own self guided pub crawl through the neighborhoods. Our first stop was this ridiculous photo, Bar Brahma, the first bar in Sao Paulo. Well, we walked up and some mediocre band was playing inside, giving the bar justification for charging an overpriced cover. So we settled for the photo and moved on to the next...
And I know what you're thinking...that's not a bar. Because the rest that were "recommended" in our guidebook, outside of our yuppy neighborhood which didn't feel very authentic, were SKETCH. It was the last place on the pub crawl we were willing to take out our camera. Truth be told, we didn't actually stop at a bar in the end because we didn't want to stay in any of the places we saw. Instead, we stood on this bridge thinking it would be a great picture when the wind blew. After 10 minutes and no wind, Mikey finally made me move. A shame. Well, that's what Sao Paulo looks like...

In seach of more picture worthy places and in hopes of not getting all our stuff jacked, we headed to a tiny, touristy, but safe beautiful beach town...Buzios!
White sand, aqua blue waters, beautiful people...all you'd expect from the beaches in Brazil. And this country definitely knows how to do tourism. With ample bar spots and the coldest beer I've ever had, we enjoyed many a afternoons, chillin on the beach...
And yes, plenty of booty cheek in this country too...if you look closer in the right corner...here, I'll help you...
Right and left. My semi-coverage bikini certainly stood out as prudish.

We spent 4 days, enjoying the sun, the small town feel and exploring the beaches of Buzios.

After some serious R & R, we went back to busy city life for some culture and fun...Rio de Janeiro!

Hola blog readers! At the moment, Marisa is tired of typing... and I don't blame her. Blogging is rough stuff. So, I will take this opportunity to blather to my captive audience and fill your brains with the wonders that are Rio de Janeiro. From a distance, Rio is a beautiful city. Its numerous neighborhoods lay cradled within the valleys created by the jagged coastal mountains revealing some incredible panoramic views. There are dozens of beautiful beaches, most notable of which would be Copacabana and Ipanema.

Our first stop, Copacabana.
Quite possibly one of the most famous beaches in the world, Rio's Copacabana is a 4km stretch of white sand beach backed by a promenade created of black and white rocks in a characteristic wave pattern. Note Marisa below, "At the Copa, Copacabana... where music and passion are always the fashion... at the Copa, Copacabana!" Right about now, Marisa is totally sick of that song. Perhaps its because her boyfriend has been singing it nonstop for the past 4 days. Come to think of it, I don't think Barry Manilow sang his song about this particular Copacabana... because one of the lines is about the Copacabana being the hottest spot north of Havana, which would be in Cuba, which would make this south, but its hot nonetheless.
My bad guys, I totally forgot to wear my stars and stripes speedo for this pic...We took a nice stroll along the promenade and soon realized that Copacabana is quite shady. As I said before, Rio is beautiful from a distance. Up close and personal, she appears to be a little worse for the wear. In fact, Rio has one of the largest disparities between rich and poor of any city in the world. Thus, Copacabana is surrounded by like 5 shady ghettos. The promenade looks beautiful in the pictures, but its just OK in real life. While we were walking along the beach we stopped for some ice cream at one of the many food stalls. On the beach nearby, there were two soccer teams warming up for an afternoon grudge match of beach futball, so we decided to find a spot in the shade and watch the game. We had been relaxing for about 10 minutes, enjoying the game, when a little boy came by and asked, nay, demanded that we give him our ice cream. I actually don't speak a word of Portuguese, so he could have asked nicely and I would have had no idea... but that's not the point. The point is, I said, "No." At which point the little boy simply reached his grubby little hand across the table in an attempt to grab our ice cream off the table. As soon as I realized what he was doing, I swatted his hand away and just stared at the kid. Defeated, he meandered off down the promenade. Within about 2 seconds, a little girl, maybe his sister, walked up to our table with a sad face on and once again, demanded that we give her our ice cream. Again, I said, "No." I felt bad. It was like I was talking to a dog. Then, with lightning quick reflexes, the little girl took her dirty little index finger and plunged it into the ice cream! I looked down at her in complete disbelief. Then she coolly walked off with our ice cream in her hand. I looked at Marisa and was like, "Holy shit! Dude, we just got our ice cream jacked by an infant?!"

From Copacabana, we took a bus to a mountain called Pao de Acucar, or Sugarloaf Mountain, or as I call it "Sugar Pao!" One of the tallest mountains in Rio, Pao de Acucar provides one of the best panoramic views of the city. To get to the top, you actually have to take 2 separate gondolas. We arrived at the top just before sunset, and the view did not disappoint. Unfortunately, Marisa could not completely enjoy the view, because I would occasionally sneak up on her and punch her in the arm whilst saying, "Sugar Pao!"
Across the bay, you can see Rio's famous Christ the Redeemer statue at the top of Corcovado. I managed to snap a nice pic of J.C. at sunset...from a distance, you can't really see the scaffolding.Marisa fell in love with this monkey eating a piece of fruit. I must admit, the little guy had some pretty stellar side burns.Our next stop, Ipanema.
So, can you guess the other song that Marisa is pretty sick of right about now? "Tall and tan and young and lovely, the girl from Ipanema goes walking." Thank you Frank Sinatra for that little gem. Like a smaller version of Copacabana, Ipanema has a pristine beach with a black and white patterned stone promenade.
Unlike Copacabana, Ipanema is not surrounded by 5 ghettos...its actually really nice. And this time Marisa sends her apologies. She forgot to wear her stars and stripes g-string thong and stand facing the ocean showing off her booty for this pic... One of our biggest regrets while living in Argentina was that we didn't make it to a local soccer match. As luck would have it, the two biggest soccer clubs in Rio were going head to head at the Maracana national stadium during our stay in Rio de Janeiro. We would not leave Brazil with the same regret. After doing some research, we soon found out that it would be much safer to go to the soccer game with an organized tour. The stadium is in a pretty shady area of town and public transportation usually results in getting mugged. On top of that, the game we would be attending was between the two biggest rivals in Rio, Flamengo and Vasco. In fact, two days before the game, some fans from opposing teams got in a fight and one dude got killed. Brazilians take their soccer very seriously. In an attempt to thwart violence at the game, they don't sell any alcoholic beverages. I even heard a rumor that they shut down most of the local bars like 2 hours before the game starts. Speaking of 2 hours, that's how early our tour group arrived at the stadium to ensure our safety so we could all sit together.The game was awesome and our team (Flamengo) won. It was pouring rain with thunder booming and lightning dancing across the sky for the whole game. The crowd was on their feet the entire time, standing on top of the chairs, waving flags and yelling obscenities. Again, it was an incredible experience. Brazilian soccer fans are crazy.

Our last day in Rio, we took a walking tour of the city center... which was poquito ghetto. We saw the monument where Brazil established independence from Portugal (it was in the middle of a sketchy park with fallen down trees, hundreds of stray cats, and a couple crackheads counting their loot that the probably stole from tourists)...This is the Petrobras builing. I took a picture cuz it kinda looks like a rubix cube...This is a picture of the ultramodern National Cathedral in the city center...All in all, I think I wanted to like Rio more than I do. As a city, it has such potential. Yet the poverty, as glaringly obvious as a gutter punk kid stealing your ice cream, often casts a dingy shadow over the majority of the city. Also, we got pretty sick of the major attractions being covered in scaffolding...Next stop, Guyana!
Tonight we take a flight, followed by another flight. Then tomorrow we take a bus, walk across a bridge (hopefully they finished the bridge!) into Guyana, then take another bus. Then the following day we take a flight, followed by a bus, followed by a taxi. Then we'll be home sweet home in Tucber Park, New Amsterdam.

Ate logo! Tchau!
Mikey&Marisa