To add to our South America bus experiences we took a bus from Campinas, Sao Paulo to Foz de Igazu, the home of the Brazillian side of the Igazu falls!! The bus was an overnight bus that would take 17 hours, we figured by this stage we’d done so many and had slept on them, we’d be fine! But we didn’t realise we were leaving from a SMALLER bus terminal and that the “Semi Cama” or “Semi Beds” wouldn’t be as nice as the ones in Argentina!! The bus was a little gross, there was no ventilation, it was smelly and we were right near the disgusting toilets…
17 hours later we arrived in Foz de Igazu and headed off to see the Falls for the day before attempting to cross the border that night (before 7pm) to get to our accommodation in Puerto Igazu in Argentina.
So can you imagine me on no sleep/broken sleep? Well, for those of you that do know me, you know it’s a scary thought and that perhaps Matt should be fearful for his life (okay not that bad, but he could be fearful of tipping me over the edge at any point!!) Well, I think this travelling lifestyle is for me! Because Matt is still alive, and has no scars to show for the lack of sleep!! We have noticed that the amount of buses we have caught over here has definitely been more than we’ve ever caught in our lives!!!
So the falls in Foz de Igazu were beautiful!! The falls are in a really natural environment, and a bit bigger than Niagra from what I hear. It’s tropical jungle/forrest all around and they put to shame any Australian waterfall we’ve ever hiked an hour to go and see.
A great way to experience the falls was to take a boat ride which was awesome fun! We were quite surprised when it took us right up under the waterfall!! We got absolutely drenched and pounded by the water, luckily, they had put all our valuables in a water proof bag so they didn’t get wet. We’ve never seen a waterfall that big let alone been under one!! Other people had their togs on but we were just in our clothes, luckily it was about 35degrees so we was actually really refreshing 🙂
Our first bad experience…
We’ve be constantly aware of the fact that we’re in South America. We probably stick out as foreigners a mile away and need to be really careful about getting robbed, mugged etc etc. We’ve heard lots of stories of it happening to others along the way and we need to be on the ball…
Well… today we were captivated by the Waterfalls and Matt was taking some photos and put his bag on the ground as he did something with his camera. Before we know it, Matt’s bag is grabbed at, there’s a desperate, snarl and hiss and then see you later… That was it, in broad daylight, we were robbed… luckily Matt got a picture of the guy with his camera that we could show the police…
Hopefully from here it’s all uphill and our insurance will buy us another bag of dorritos that the creature above stole straight out of our bag!!!! In the meantime, these guys were everywhere so we were a lot more cautious from here on in.
Back into Argentina
That evening, rather than stay in Foz de Igazu in Brazil (with the thieves), we got on a bus that took us to the nearby town of Puerto Igazu in Argentina. We literally walked over the border, got the relevant stamps and settled at our hostal for the night.
It was up early the next morning to visit the Argentina side of the Igazu Falls. The best bit about this side of the falls is that there’s a really long walkway that Argentina have built over the top of the river that walks you right up to the Devil’s Throat, the most intense part of the falls! This part breathtaking as you can see!
Our personal preference for the better side of the falls was the Argentina side because of the fact that you could walk right up to the Devil’s Throat part of the falls. You could only see this part at a distance on the Brazil side. And it was all just mist!!
Timeframe: Wednesday 11th – 13th September
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