Foz do Iguaçu
12/14/2001
The river Iguazu goes down towards the east, where it finally passes
the giant waterfalls of Iguazu. The river is also a natural border
between Argentina and Brazil, Brazil being on the North side, and
Argetinia on the South side.
The bus goes overnight and arrives 7am in the morning at Puerto
Iguazu, Argentina. I decide to cross the border to Brazil (the city
there is called 'Foz do Iguaçu'), since it is cheaper. At the
border, formalities are quick, and the bus arrives in Foz. I find the
youth hostel there, and first take a good sleep of a couple of hours,
some lunch, and relax.
The food is great in Brazil, and especially the nightmare for
Vegetarians, called 'Churrasco' is a great treat and a great deal. It
is a buffet for about $3, all you can eat - meat! It is a nice idea,
Churrasco combines has the benefits of a buffet while still giving
the guest the feeling of 'being served'. How does it work? Well,
different waiters continouosly run around, with different cuts of
meat (10 or more different cuts or meats). So all the time different
people come to your table offering different meats, and it is up to
you whether or how much you want to take. If you are not careful, the
meats pile up on your plate - I established the rule for myself not
to have more than two at a time on my plate, otherwise it blows up!
Accompanied is the whole things about some other Brazilien
specialities, like the Yuka root, beans, vegetables, and salad.
12/15/2001
I take a tour to the Argentinian side of the waterfalls, organized by
the youth hostel. It is a big national park, not just the waterfalls,
with many trails to walk around, so we spend the whole day there.
As we arrive at the falls, I'm really impressed. I have seen the
Victoria Falls in Africa, but these one top them. Hundreds of streams
of water go down at different places, in a beautful green area of
rainforest. The paths lead above the falls, some others down where
the water keeps crashing down. Plenty of animals can be seen on the
way, from big Leguans to amazingly exotic butterflies.
12/16/2001
I check out of the youth hostel, and already have my bus ticket to
Florianopolis, where I will meet my girlfriend Virginia, who just
finished the Clemson fall semester, ready to have some good time back
home in Brazil.
Since my bus leaves tonight, I also have time to visit the Brazilian
side of the waterfalls, which I recommend. The Brazilian side is not
so costly as the Argentinian side and easily reached by bus.
Nevertheless it presents itself nicely - compared to the Argentinian
side, it offers more impressive panoramic views, but less "park"
feeling and a smaller area to walk.
In the evening, the bus leaves to Florianopolis, and goes through all
of the night.
Floripa
12/17/2001
Virginia and I booked already our hotel, but finding it is another
story. Now I need to explain myself with my basic Spanish to
Portugese speakers. Some Brazilians speak Portugese, and the rest
understands a little because of the similarities of Spanish and
Portugese. Still, after talking to a dozen people and passing two bus
stations, finally, the third bus station is the right one. I even
manage to leave the bus at the right station and find the hotel
easily.
A part of Florianopolis is on the island of Santa Catarina, famous
for its great beaches. Our hotel is in the south of the island, near
the lake Peri, which is one of the lakes on the island. The area
where we stay is relaxed and blessed with pretty nature. However,
expect some actions on the roads of the island - everybody drives
like they need to run to the bathroom urgently or they have a
pregnant woman in the car that is about to give birth to her baby.
Virginia is supposed to arrive at 6:30pm, but due to the annoying
procedures for renewing her visa in Sao Paolo, she misses the flight
and makes it only until 11:30pm. I decide to walk around to find an
internet place and start walking towards downtown. Similar to Forrest
Gump, I just started walking, and kept walking, until I reached
downtown 3 hours later without finding any internet places. No
problem, nice exercise, and the bus takes me back to the airport in
time where I welcome Virginia. We take a rental car since the island
is big and great beaches are distributed over the island.
12/18/2001
We hit the first Brazilian beaches. They are famous not only for
white sand and blue sea, but also for their girls - so as part of my
travel report about "natural beauty", I must say that the Brazilian
girls live up to their reputation - girls everywhere being so pretty,
in great shape and small bikinis I think you only find in Brazil.
Spending time at the beach is also a big part of the life (style) in
Brazil, and the atmosphere is friendly, relaxed, and lively. They
also have some great things they sell at the beach, like grilled
corn, or coconuts that are cut open with a straw so that one can
drink their coconut milk. Finally, Beach restaurants and bars and
surfers in the water make the great atmosphere perfect.
12/19/2001
More beaches - we do some kind of "beaches hopping" and see 4-5
beaches today, all with different landscapes, different people there.
12/20/2001
We do a little hike to the waterfalls that can be reached after one
hour hiking along the lake Peri. After that we are ready to go to
Virginias home town, Porto Alegre. Just the question is, per car,
bus, or plane? We choose to take a cheap airline of Brazil (GOL),
which has a flight for about $40. Funny, the airline is *really*
cheap, even instead of a ticket we just get a little receipt (looking
similar to one you would get at Walmart).
The flight is supposed to leave at 11pm, but gets delayed until 2am!
So we arrive at 3am in Porto Alegre, and it takes until 4am until we
finally reach the house of Virginias parents.
Porto Alegre
12/21/2001
The day is filled with a birthday party and meeting some of Virginias
friends, and I enjoy all their company. People in Porto Alegre say it
is more a great city to live in, not so much a touristic place. I
still enjoy being "touristic" by hitting the stores and buying some
nice presents, typical for Brazil, like a cup for preparing the
national cocktail, the "Caipirinha". The people drive like crazy in
Porto Alegre as well (and sometimes lane markings disappear or change
on the fly on the road!), but other than that is a nice comfortable
city, along a big river, and with some beaches at the river. It also
has a number of nice bars and cafes.
A little reminder here that it is December, but summer in Brazil! In
Porto Alegre it just had a huge 37 degrees Celcius, but today there
are some heavy rainfalls and everything cools down a little. Still, I
never have been that warm three days before Christmas!
12/22/2001
This it is... the last day in Latin America, the final one, the
ultimate of my trip! One last time eating Churrasco for lunch, some
more shopping, packing, saying goodbye to the everybody!
My flight is 8pm in the evening, first to Sao Paolo, and then finally
8 hours over night to Miami...
Miami
12/23/2001
Brazil, South America, the adventure is over. However, I should still
enjoy the beach one more time! I arrive in Miami 4am in the morning,
and my friend Dennis, who lives in Miami, is able to pick me up and
drive me around a little. So we visit the beach also. Funny and good
feeling to be in the States again, just for one day!
Another 10 hours of flight ahead of me, but now returning to Germany!
I have a Swiss Air flight, but luckily, the guy with the bomb in his
shoes is in a different plane, a day before! The flight leaves with
one hour delay, at 6pm. At least they have video games in the chairs,
although not really good ones (Maybe I should find a job in that area
and develop new flight games!).
Munich!
12/24/2001
I arrive in Zuerich and switch planes to take the last flight to
Munich with Cross Air. In their plane I get this interesting piece of
information from their magazine, that a plane of Cross Air just
crashed a month ago! Well, nice to know :(
But the plane arrives safely in Munich, ready for Christmas, and from
the air the scenery presents itself in a new shape: Everything is
white, snow covered - White Christmas! The temperatures are about -10
degrees Celcius (A nice drop from the +25 degrees of Miami!). What a
strange place, all the people speak German, and they understand me!
So that's it, my trip is finally over for good!
The End...
So this is the end of 110 days of meeting
interesting/crazy/annoying/funny people, riding luxury and
catastrophing busses, cars, taxis, and trucks, visiting nature
spectacles, freezing in the mountains and tanning at the beaches,
meeting the butterflies and llamas, drinking coca tea and caipirinha,
eating burritos and churrasco, going back to ancient times and
cities, listening to Salsa and Samba, all in all visiting 9 countries!
And... keeping up with the journal (more or less delayed). I think I
wouldn't do it anymore in that detail, it took a lot of time - but I
enjoyed it very much. It was not meant to win the nobel price in
literature, but I hope it entertained you guys a little and you
enjoyed reading. And, most important, it inspired some of you to
follow in my steps and explore the world in a similar fashion. I can
only recommend travelling long and by yourself - it is a very special
experience.
On my way, I finished 34 rolls of slide film - another big project
coming up for me now, to develop, frame, and sort out over 1200
pictures. I plan to get it scanned also, and I hope to be able to
post a selection in the group in the near future. Till then, Merry
Christmas, take care and stay well!
Markus
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