We have left Porto Alegre and are now near the border of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. The Iguacu falls which join the Brazil and Argentinian borders are absolutely spectacular....
Our last few nights in Porto Alegre were eventful and everything went so quickly. On our last day at the creche I was busy trying to spend time with all the kids, share a few extra cuddles and taking a heap of photos which I have yet to post on the web (yes - more of the kids!) Little man Brian and Myara gave me the most beautiful big hugs goodbye, as well as all the staff who were lovely and wished us well on our journey ahead. Since then Tanya and I keep spotting kids who we think look like cousins of ones at the creche and miss each of their little antics. Even so, it is great to be on the road again.
We had a pretty big and successful house party before leaving. The volunteer coordinator, Dan, came back from the States about two days before we were due to leave and luckily he was all for us using the house. We just invited friends we had here and ones we met out and about, and somehow ended up with about 35 people - one complete reggae band who were awesome and another muso producer guy who sings and raps so they were playing away to the early hours of the morning which was great and gave the whole thing a really good vibe. Lots of people sitting around in our backyard area and everyone mixed well with those they didn't know. And even better - the neighbours made no complaints and no calls to the cops to shut down the noise. In typical Brasileiro style, we said the party would start about 9 but people started arriving around 11 and kept coming till about 3am and so we were ushering people out just after 4 for some much needed sleep. It was great though.
Also the night before we left was Porto Alegre's 234rd anniversary and so there was a huge concert in the park which is just a 3 minute walk from our house. Somehow we keep ending up in cities for their birthday celebrations - it's great! There was this big stage and screen set up quite like what you see in the domain at Christmas time. The music was fantastic - they had such a huge variety which was quite unexpected, from blues to jazz, musical, bordering on operatic and one of the best Brazilian reggae bands. Apart from the local music there were some really good medleys like when we were leaving - an Elvis one, with jailhouse rock, earlier they did Beegees, oh - just a huge array that I can't even remember but the brass band they had was awesome, as well as the reggae. There was loads of people sitting around tables and standing - mostly dancing and I love seeing families in that sort of atmosphere all celebrating together. One family in front of us at one point was a mum and dad and daughter who must have been late 20s up dancing to all the music and it's just so nice that they do those things together; and beside us was a young family with two kids under about 6 years old who were being encouraged to dance along with their parents.
On Sunday I got to sleep in the early morning and woke up again around midday, the 4 girls - Tanya, Lara, Soheila and I, went to our favourite breakfast/suco (fruit juice) place for brunch which is a really classy plastic chair and table joint that looks old but is great value and it was packed as usual. Then Lara and I had a wander through the markets which are beside the park and just a few blocks from our house. They run the length of about 4 blocks and it was the most beautiful sunny day, perfect weather to be taking it easy and had a few chats with some stall owners who were lovely, including one artesan who wanted to paint free henas on me, a lady who was very interested in learning some English words and had us write a few translations on some scrap paper. Actually - I had come full circle as I went to the markets on my first day in Porto Alegre and here I was on my last day doing the same thing. It reminded me a little of lazy Sundays at Bondi.
Dan was really great and dropped over a beautiful cake as a farewell token for us which was so unexpected and proper cakes are very expensive here so that was so nice of him and a special treat. Only problem being that after the markets and spending a while burning photos onto cd, I had little time left to pack up and get going. And just as the last of my washing was nearly dry, I found a bird had kindly pood over my sleeping liner and pyjamas - great aiming! Not to worry, we made it to the rhodoviaria with perfect timing for a short wait and left Porto Alegre just on sunset at 7pm - a 15 hour bus ride to Foz do Iguacu. The buses are fairly comfortable but this journey was particularly bumpy and the air con is always freezing. I was loving looking out the huge window at all the stars but found it hard to get comfortable and sleep.
A lot of the countryside in these areas reminds me of Australia - that is, the south and western areas of Brazil. Our hostel here in out of town on the way to the national park where the waterfalls are and I am enjoying a bit of r'n'r here today. The day we arrived we got here in the morning, had a swim and lunch by the pool then headed out to the Brazilian side of the falls in the afternoon which you can do just by following the walking tracks along the river. We were in the company of more than a few American tourists, many of whom were on an organised tour so it felt a little like Disneyland at times - particularly on the bus into the national park which is complete with nature sound effects of birds and water together with the voiceover. We went along with two Swedish guys Henrik and Erik who we spent a bit of time with here and are pretty cool. I also discovered last night while talking with one of the guys who works here that the Scottish boys are quite renowned here too for their stay a few weeks ago! (Davey you guys are famous!!)
The Brazilian side of the falls was quite impressive, though you see most of it from more of a distance than on the Argentinian side and you can see less of the falls overall. All up the Brazilian side takes 2-3 hours. Yesterday we spent the whole day on the Argentinian side though which is absolutely incredible. We went along with a bus from the hostel which takes you across the border and then stops at the 3 points where you look out to each of the Brazilian and Paraguay borders while standing on Argentinian soil; then into the National Park where the falls are located. The park is somewhat like a big theme park - more natural, but I had so much fun. At first it felt a school excursion at Homebush bay - walking along paths on our way to the falls. There is a little train which takes you some way into the park, then a really long bridge across the river up to the mouth of the falls called Devil's throat which is absolutely huge. I don't know what the volume of water is that goes over each day but the force is incredible and the site is breathtaking.
We spent all day in the park as there are quite a few good walks, an upper circuit and a lower circuit with lookouts along the way to view the falls at different places. In the afternoon we did a boat ride (fiberglass hull but inflatable sides) which lasts about 15 minutes and goes up under two areas of the falls and we got TOTALLY SOAKED!!! Bright idea of ours - to sit up the front on the side where it would be most exciting - just imagine being right smack bang under a huge volume of water with nowhere to go to hide! We couldn't stop screaming and laughing, I thought okay, so they'll scare us a bit by getting some spray but man, I am talking a flood of water for a good 10 seconds each time. Soaked to the core but oh so funny!
After that we took a small boat across the short width of the river to an island (after squeezing excess water from our clothes, shoes and socks) and a few minutes later it started pouring rain there too so we were soaked again. Luckily it was still warm. Almost finished for the day so we trudged back up the lower circuit and stumbled upon the huge Sheraton hotel which overlooks the falls. Tempted to check it out so we snuck inside thinking we'd be kicked out any minute - still dripping water from head to toe, no exaggeration. We were leaving a trail so very classily, we went to the bathrooms, dried out butts, hair and whatever under the hand dryer and finally walked back out and sat in the lounge (on our plastic bags so we wouldn't leave too many watermarks) and ate afternoon tea and drank coffee all afternoon like real flashpackers - overlooking the beautiful view to the falls. Man we couldn't stop laughing and making cracks about how posh we felt. In reality I don't think the accomodation would be very expensive there in comparison to prices in other countries but we still felt a little out of it amongst flash American oldies and European fancy-dancy women and men. But hey - we paid for our afternoon tea - a whole 10 pesos (about $4 AUD) and had made the most of it over an hour and a half - 2 cups of coffee, a cup of tea, fresh juices, cakes, croissants and fruit salad :) very spoilt. It really is a good idea to do if you are there. I don't think many are aware of its availability. Certainly the rest of the backpackers on our bus weren't - when we told them after we happily walked back on board they were extremely envious! At least we had a little lull of luxury and didn't need dinner last night so we saved more money than if we hadn't done it.
After leaving for the falls at 8:30 in the morning and returning at 7pm we were pretty zonked from walking all day. It was awesome though as we felt like we'd really accomplished something and I loved being outdoors and walking around and feeling like I was back in nature and getting some exercise at last! Plus it's been cloudy and rainy here today so we're really pleased we had good weather for most of the day yesterday. There were even two beautiful rainbows arched over eachother as we were leaving the park. Took lots of great photos to post when I can upload at a later date.
This afternoon (after spending all morning on the computer trying to pin down our apartment for Buenos Aires) Tanya and I walked about 5 km's towards town to the chocolate factory! Yum yum. Not a factory at all - rather a highly commercialised tourist attraction that looks something like a giant (overpriced) duty free shop. But there was chocolate and it did taste nice - as did the hot chocolate we had before walking the rest of the way back. The walk was great actually as we got to see some more of the surrounding neighbourhoods/ countryside that looks a bit like England in this weather (cloudy/about to rain) or reminds me a tad of Kempsey. There are a lot of dilapidated shacks around here. We passed one house which had 12 dogs in the yard and went crazy cause one looked just like Tanya's dog Jackie, there were 9 of these little playful pups (maltese terriers/scottish terriers perhaps?) most of which were fair but had been rolling in the rich red dirt so had a ginger colour to them, and they were gorgeous all jumping around, and then 3 HUGE dogs came up aswell, not sure of the breed but compared to Sheba (German Shepherd) they looked like horses. You would have loved them Shell!! All running around playing games, we wanted to jump the fence to join in but one of the big ones was a bit grouchy. So yeah, it's been a low-key day but all good, fun and games. Planning on heading off to the Jesuit mission ruins in Argentina tomorrow.
Oh - and there are a few more recent pics up on Tanya's journal if you want to take a look.
xoxoxo
Posted by Haley at March 23, 2005 05:35 PM