Foz do Iguacu
Day Twelve - January 13th
Our first flight that day from Curitiba to Sao Paulo was only a little over an hour and surprisingly, I was able to fall asleep for a bit. While waiting for our next flight, I decided to grab a snack from one of the stands in the airport. It was the strangest thing seeing someone I knew in Sao Paulo... There was Tayke, our tour guide from Manaus, walking right towards me. I shouted his name to get his attention and then gave him the biggest hug. Tayke just barely speaks English, so it was quite a task to find out what he was doing there or where he was headed. I led him back to the rest of the group who were just as excited to see him as I was. Luckily, one of the girls traveling with us is fluent in Spanish and was able to communicate with him. We found out he was on his way to Rio to see some family. After catching up with Tayke and telling him about the rest of our trip, we all made sure to thank him once again for such an amazing time in Manaus. We took some pictures with him and then said our goodbyes. We boarded the plane that would take us to Foz do Iguacu a little while later. The flight wasn't bad at all, only about 2 hours. As soon as we landed, we quickly grabbed our luggage and drove to an international hostel known as Manga Rosa. When we pulled up to the house, I immediately noticed a small dog in the front yard. I automatically knew I going to love this place. We would come to find out that this little guys' name was Einstein. There was reggae music playing when we walked inside, and tons of posters covering the walls. I couldn't believe that this was going to be our home for the next 3 days; I was so ready for a new city.
Two of the rooms in the hostel were filled with 4 sets of bunk beds each, so we split up amongst ourselves. Only one of the rooms had air conditioning, but since I don't have a problem sleeping in the heat, I grabbed a top bunk in the other room and then headed outside to explore the backyard. To my surprise, I discovered that there were 2 more dogs in a fenced in area, so I proceeded to call them over and let them sniff my hand; I couldn't wait to get to know them later. There were also several hammocks and a slack line set up out back. This place just kept getting better and better. Manga Rosa was definitely the most relaxed place we had stayed. It felt nice to be able to wind down and be lazy for once, since we had been on the go from day one. The owner of the house was a man named Joelton. He was super friendly and welcoming. I talked to him about his dog Einstein and found out that the other 2 dogs were still puppies; their names were Sombrio and Galega. He was going to let them run around the yard a little later on. Having dogs around was my favorite part about this place. Im such an animal lover and had been missing my furry friends back home. This was just what I needed. We had planned to have a BBQ for dinner that night, so we all hung out with each other and enjoyed the day and the perfect weather in the meantime. I made sure to soak up some sun and play with the dogs. One of the guys had a great idea; we should all have a soccer game. He went to the store across the street to buy a ball and we ended up playing for hours. One of the girls on the trip was training to be a yoga instructor back home, so I encouraged her to practice leading some of us through a class. It was very relaxing and I felt so refreshed afterwards. We wandered over to the outside kitchen after yoga and found Tait cutting up some interesting new fruits. I had the chance to try fresh dragon fruit, passion fruit, and mango. If only the fruit tasted this good back in the states! Joelton prepared the BBQ for us that night while the rest of us listened to music, played limbo, and danced together. I was loving this place. It was a good thing we had all bonded over the course of the trip and became good friends. We were in such close quarters and there wasn't much to do in the surrounding neighborhood, so we were forced to spend time with one another (I'm not complaining!). Before I headed to bed I noticed how clear the night sky was. I decided to lie down in the grass for a bit to admire the stars and take it all in. While I laid there I reflected on my time in Brazil and thought about how lucky I was to be there. |
Day Thirteen - January 14th
This morning I was able to sleep in until 9am!!! I got ready for the day and walked outside to find one of the guys making breakfast for everyone. It consisted of eggs, some leftover meat from the night before, toast, lots of fruit, and yogurt. Today we were going to Iguacu Falls, the largest waterfall system in the world. It is made up of 275 different waterfalls over approximately 1.7 miles. The view of them completely blew my expectations out of the water (no pun intended). It was absolutely amazing! I felt as though I couldn't get enough pictures. The park was set up so you could hike alongside the length of the falls. Towards the end of the hike there was a large platform that brought you out into the middle of the river and allowed you to get close to the largest waterfall. You literally walked out onto the platform with dry clothes and came back soaking wet from all of the mist in the air. Everyone looked like they had just gotten out of the shower.
Next on our agenda was to walk over to a hotel down the street from the falls. We would be taking a hike on a trail located behind the building. The first stop on the hike was at a small waterfall. We were given some time to stand under it and swim, but the plan was only to stay here for about 20 minutes, so I decided not to get my clothes and boots wet. We hiked a little bit further down the steep trail until we saw the Iguacu River in view. There were a handful of kayaks and paddle boards waiting for us at the edge of the river. I grabbed a paddle board and followed our guide up stream to another waterfall. By this point I was in my bathing suit, so I jumped off my board into the river to cool off; the water felt so refreshing. A bunch of us kept paddling under the falls too and riding our boards through them. I remember thinking about how heavy the water was as it pounded me on the head. The Iguacu River separates the countries of Brazil and Argentina, and since the river wasn't that wide, a handful of us paddled over to the other side and touched the rocks in Argentina. So technically, I visited 2 countries during my trip. Once we got back to the launch site down stream, we thanked our guides and made our way up the trail to the hotel. I noticed a vineyard and several other types of fruit trees growing alongside of the building. Our tour guide explained to me that this was his garden! It was so cool to see the variety of fruits he was growing, which he graciously allowed me to pick and eat. I thought about how untraditional this garden was from the ones back home that mainly consisted of vegetables and herbs. His garden was filled with grapes, limes, oranges, passion fruit, star fruit, bananas, you name it! I made sure to stuff the side pockets of my backpack with snacks for later. We all just hung out for the rest of the day at the hostel, talking and laughing, swinging in the hammocks, playing with the dogs, and attempting to master the slack line. That thing was so difficult to walk across. My legs kept shaking like noodles. Tait announced that he was collecting our notebooks that night (we should have been keeping them updated all along), so I scrambled to write in the activities from the last few days, as did everyone else in the group. We had another delicious BBQ that night and then began our final reflection. Tait asked for our feedback on the entire trip. We were direct about the things we didn't like so he could think of alternatives for the future, but we raved about our favorite activities, such as the lookout tower and boat ride in Manaus, Cristo and Sugarloaf in Rio, the city tour and train ride in Curitiba, and the relaxation time and paddle boarding in Iguacu. This reflection had really got me thinking about how much fun I had been having and all of the memories I had made over the course of the trip. I began to feel nostalgic about tomorrow being the last day of our journey through Brazil. |
Day Fourteen - January 15th
We left the hostel by 7:30 this morning and headed to the Itaipu Dam, a hollow gravity dam located on the Upper Parana River at the Brazil-Paraguay border. We were scheduled for an underground tour of the control rooms and giant generators. This enormous structure is one of the world's largest hydroelectric projects, as well as one of the highest (643 ft) and largest (5 miles) hollow gravity dams across the globe. Apparently we didn't get the memo about girls not being allowed to wear shorts on the tour (safety reasons), so security made us wear oversized cargo pants to put over our clothes. Unfortunately, there weren't enough pairs of pants for all of us and Tait had to buy Jacalyn and me these hideous, skin-tight bermuda shorts from the gift shop. I was very unhappy about having to wear these pants all day. We were given our tour by one of the technicians that worked for Itaipu Binacional. I couldn't believe the size of the place as he led us through the structure. The Itaipu Dam was built between 1975 and 1982 as a joint venture between Brazil and Paraguay. It has the potential to generate 12,600 megawatts of electricity (1 MW can power up to 750-1,000 homes)!!! When we got to the control room there was a line on the floor that separated the Brazilian side from the Paraguayan side. I made sure to snap a picture of my feet on either side of the line just so I could say I had now visited 3 different countries on my trip. I found it to be very intriguing that all of the signs on the Brazilian side were written in Portuguese, while all of the signs in Paraguay were written in Spanish. Even though the 2 countries looked to have been divided in the control room, we were informed that both teams worked together in perfect harmony. After our tour, we bought snacks and browsed through the gift shop while we waited for our bus.
When we got back to the hostel I decided to take a little nap while everyone else packed up their stuff. I woke up after an hour, quickly packed up my things, and then ran outside to lay in the hot Brazilian sun for the last time. Around 1:15 we walked down the street to an all-you-can-eat buffet to stuff our faces with the most amazing food in the world, again, for the last time. The plan was to head to the airport at 4, so we all hung out and reminisced about the most incredible 2 week adventure anyone of us had ever been on. The time had finally come... :( I grabbed my bags, thanked Joelton, and said an extra long goodbye to my four-legged friends, whom I had grown to love so much in just 3 short days. I took my last breath of Brazil's fresh air and thanked the country for being so good to me. Our first flight from Foz do Iguacu to Sao Paulo was a little under 2 hours. The dreaded 10 hour flight back to the states was yet to come. It started to thunderstorm and rain heavily right before we were getting ready to board the plane, which (fortunately) delayed our flight a little bit. It was sign! The amazing country of Brazil wasn't ready for me to leave, and the feeling was mutual. We boarded the plane a little while later and I attempted to get in the most comfortable position in my seat... It was going to be a VERY long ride. I planned on watching several movies to pass the time but ended up sleeping the entire flight! I guess all of those lost hours of sleep finally caught up to me. Finally, we were back in New Jersey. The freezing cold weather was such a shock to me, and I knew I was going to have a very hard time trying to maintain my newly tanned skin. My friend Asai was already at the airport and waiting outside for us. Tyler, Andy and I quickly retrieved our luggage and hugged all of our good friends goodbye. The spring semester actually started the next day, so we would be seeing them all again very soon. The three of us made our way to passenger pick up and walked through the doors to face reality. The feeling of being home was bittersweet. Although I missed my family, I would much rather being living it up in Brazil. I can honestly say that this was the BEST adventure I had ever been on. I learned so much about the country and felt myself grow as a person along the way. I am destined to travel the world and this trip just made me realize that even more. I made the best of friends and have so many picture to prove it. I will forever look back on these memories and cherish this once in a lifetime opportunity. I thank my parents for supporting (and funding) my love of traveling, and I especially thank Tait for taking me on such an incredible journey and teaching me just how important it is to experience other cultures. I fell in love with this beautiful country, and there is no doubt in my mind that I will back, hopefully before my VISA expires! Obrigada Brazil!!! |