February 21st - 22nd
The day that Robbie's mum left to fly back to Ireland was also our last day in Argentina and my last day being with Robbie and Eva. I was to meet my sister in Rio on March 1st and Robbie and Eva wanted to head towards the cheaper travelling destinations of Bolivia and Peru. We were to go our separate ways at the bus station in Foz do Iguazu in Brazil, across the border from Argentina (which, confusingly and interestingly, was one hour behind the town of Iguazu in Argentina because of Daylight Saving. It was surprising how many people - us included - didn´t know this. We thought, if anything, the Brazilian side of the same national park was one hour ahead. But no, we left Iguazu in Argentina at 16:30 and arrived in Foz do Iguaçu also at 16:30, only 2 hours behing GMT. We´re saving time all over the place these days!).
It was a strange feeling saying goodbye to Robbie and Eva. I had been travelling with Robbie for 7 months, sleeping in the same room as him every night. Eva had been with us for the last 3 months, of which the majority of time we had all been sleeping head to toe in campervans. I watched their bus pull away and felt both very conscious of my aloneness in a new country and excited about the prospect of travelling independently.
When I got on my own bus to Florianopolis (Floripa), 1145 km south of Rio do Janeiro (just a small detour before meeting my sister in the "River of January"!), my hopes that knowledge of Spanish may help me to understand some Portuguese were soon dashed. I sat next to a Brazilian woman for about 12 hours of the 14 hour journey and the most I was able to communicate was gratitude for the biscuits she gave me, my nationality and a confirmation of my inability to speak Portuguese. I was startlingly aware that I was, for the first time in my life, completely on my own in a country whose language I couldn't speak. I needed to extend my Portuguese quickly beyond “obrigada”, “bom dia” and “eu não falo portugese”.
At one point the bus was ordered to pull over and a number of armed policemen jumped on board, searching random bags. After about forty minutes, one man was dragged off the bus by his collar, handcuffed and never returned. I assumed drugs had been found and thought to myself “welcome to Brazil”.
