Week 32: São Paulo, Iguazu Falls area (Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina)

Monday, 8/22

We woke up this morning to a very cold room! We had breakfast with our new friends and then went and wandered the city (Unfortunately, we missed the walking tour!). I wasn’t a fan of São Paulo at all and was happy we left. 

We were going to wander the city even more, but we had a bus to catch at 6pm and we still had to do laundry.

So we started our laundry, went and had some Chinese food, shopped for some things like a warm hat, and then went back to the hostel to charge our phones and pack up our laundry.

We went to the bus station and loaded up for an all night bus to Iguaçu.

Tuesday, 8/23

We arrived pretty early in the morning and we ended up taking a taxi up to our new hostel, El Shaddai.

Our hostel owner was so resourceful! We spent a good 30 minutes talking with her and getting the updates on the city, public transportation, and the surrounding areas.

We went to our new room and then started wandering around the city. We started with some Arabian food.

Since we didn’t have time to go to the falls or to the dam, we decided to go to Paraguay and check out the shopping.

We hopped on a bus over the river and headed to the Mona Lisa shopping center. 

Unfortunately, we aren’t big shoppers and didn’t see the big deal on that shopping mall. If you spend your money on lots of nice brand name items, this may be the place for you! It had a lot of beautiful things, but it didn’t seem like it was discounted as much as we had hoped. Because of high import taxes in Argentina and Brazil, residents can cross into Paraguay for cheaper shopping. As Americans the prices seemed no different than malls at home. However, non luxury items on the streets of Paraguay are extremely cheap. 

After some time there, we decided to wander around the outside where all the local shopping tents were. We got some money exchanged, grabbed a beer and walked about. Luke ended up getting his beard shaved again and a nice new haircut. 

Afterwards, we decided to head back. Luke found some amazing place that offered a buffet of soup so we ended up going there!

It was so great to have some warm soup on a cold night so we ate a lot and then headed back to the hostel. 

We spent a lot of time wandering the cities that day and we went to bed happy!
Wednesday, 8/24

This next day was the day that we went to the falls on the Brazilian side!

It took us a while to get there since we took the bus but we ended up getting there with plenty of time. 

It was so beautiful! We spent all morning and afternoon wandering the little trails, pushing our way past the crowds, feeling the power of the falls, and running away from the Coati. They were little critters like raccoons and they kept stealing peoples food including some left over chicken bones Luke and I had on our plate left over from lunch! They literally climbed onto the table where we were sitting and tried to steal food from right under our noses. 

Afterwards, we decided to leave and head back. We decided we weren’t done adventuring and we stopped by the zoo on our way back! It was a small free zoo and it was a pleasant little walk back on the way back to our hostel. We went and picked up groceries then headed back to the hostel.

We were still hungry so we decided to stop by the Arabian place again for some more snacks. Then we went back to the hostel to hang out by the pool and rest after wandering around the city just a little bit more!

Thursday, 8/25

Today was our last day in Brazil and we decided to go see the Buddhist temple and the dam.

It took us a while to get to the temple since it was a bus ride and a mile walk from where we got off, but it was totally worth it.

It was serene and filled with statues. It also had a great view overlooking a few of the cities! We spent a good amount of time there looking at the statues and wandering the grounds.

Afterwards, we walked back to the bus station and rode the rest of the way to the dam.

We bought the Panoramic tour and spent the day learning about the dam and taking a bus all the way around the area. It was beautiful and sooo massive. After a few hours, we went back to the bus sto and headed back to town.

That night, we picked up some beer and had a small beer tasting to ourselves while playing some card games and then went to sleep after enjoying the space at the hostel.

Friday, 8/26

Today, we packed up and headed to Argentina. Unfortunately, we missed our stop and then our bus broke down so we spent quite a bit of time getting our passports stamped and through the borders. We did meet some new people and spoke to them for a while before finally headed to Puerto Iguaçu. We headed to our new hostel and settled down before we left and wandered again around the town. Since we were in Argentina, we ended up picking up some super cheap wine (about $3 US), some cheese, and crackers. 

We headed to the 3 points where all the countries meet and watched the sunset while having our little picnic. It was a short and sweet sunset! We headed back to our hostel and hung out but then decided to go get dinner later that night.

We went out to this amazing restaurant that had an amazing meat platter! We ate that, some fries, and this amazing bread and sauce that night.

We finally went to bed later that night after a great day.

Saturday, 8/27

Today, we decided to finally see the falls in Argentina. I had heard that this side was better, and I have to agree!

If you don’t have time to see both I suggest the Argentinian side mainly because they have many trails through the grounds and over the waterfalls. We spent pretty much the entire day there! 

We took the tour boat ride that day as well and it was like a roller coaster! We got soaked and it was awesome!

After that entire day, we finally went back to our hostel and cooked dinner. 

Then we decided the night shouldn’t be over and ended up going to the Icebar which was amazing!

It is a bar that is -10 degrees and they serve you drinks in an ice glass. They also give you these huge massive coats and we posed with the ice sculptures.

You are only allowed to be in there for about 30 minutes but it was okay because it was freezing in there! 

We were finally exhausted and went to bed.

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Sunday, 8/28

Luke was still sleeping when I got up, but I ended up getting up for the sunrise which was beautiful!

We didn’t do much except for get bus tickets, eat, and then run to the station because we were running late! We bought tickets from Iguazu to Buenos Aires, a 17 hour bus ride. The tickets were only around $70 USD per person and we had fully reclining seats! It was a great bus ride! They gave us dinner and even a glass of whiskey! We watched movies and read and hung out before going to sleep.