That was hell of a flying day. Arrived Foz do Iguazu about midday, quickly bussed to the urban bus terminal, left our luggage, and sped up to the Iguazu falls.
I was with the English couple, Maria and Matt, and we were on the same mission: see Brazil side of the falls, get a bus by 6pm to cross border, get to Argentina by nightfall. I also had to figure out where I was meeting Vamsi, and get him a bottle of top quality cachaça. There were a few tense moments but of course we succeeded.
The falls from the Brazil side was lovely; a panaromic view of all the falls (which were on the Argentina side). It was a hot and sweaty walk, and the spray from the falls at the end was very refreshing.
On the way back from the falls, in my dazed excitement (I didnt sleep much the night before), I lead everyone off the bus at the wrong stop (its beginning to become a pattern, me and getting off the bus too early). We had to wait to wait for another bus, and it wasnt easy communicating to the bus ticket guy that we wanted to get off as close to the urban bus station as possible. Hes thought was that the bus wasnt going anywhere near the station. Oh it was a glorious mess! We got there eventually, and even managed to ask a lady at the station when the next bus was - 40 minutes. We were in deep trouble because it looked likely we will miss the last bus to Argentina.
You cant help but be annoyed at the lack of organisation in some things in Brazil (e.g. no bus time tables, only rough estimates), but the niceness of the people make up for it. The bus driver waited for us at the immigration place to get out of Brazil while we got our passports stamped, even though he wasnt supposed to.
Puerto Iguasu, when we eventually go there, was lovely. Met Vamsi at the hostel, and we went with another guy, Jeremy, to eat steak. That was lovely as well.
The next morning, despite plans to leave for the falls early, we didnt get out of the hostel till about 10:30. We were checked out, and bus tickets booked to leave Puerto Iguasu for Colon, for the crossing into Uruguay. Highlights of the day would have to be:
1. Looking into the Devils Throat, at the roaring falls and the sky high cloud of spray it generates. The power of it, the massiveness of it, the force of the impact, the amount of the water being thrown over the edge every second, it was like ... wow!
2. Taking a speed boat ride up a bit of the Rio Uruguay, and under one of the smaller falls. Drenched, high on negative ions generated by the falling water, thrilling!
Vamsi and I caught the 5:45pm bus to Colon, got to Colon about 7:30am. The busy was Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice. Large reclining seats, movies, pillows, bankets, dinner served at 9:30pm with wine, and wake up call.
7:30am in a petrol station at the edge of Colon wasnt very exciting. Met up with David, fellow traveller from Canada, also heading for Montevideo. We taxied into town, spent 5 agonising hours waiting at the cafeteria there, and eventually got on the 12-something bus for Paysandu in Uruguay. There was always a bit of uncertainty about this part of the trip, since nobody knew if the bridge workers would strike and the road inpassable. I guess we were lucky.
From Paysandu, it was a 1 hour wait for our bus to Montevideo. Somewhere along the line we figured out it wouldve been easier and cheaper if We had just bussed to Buenos Aires and ferried over here. Oh well!
Bus ride to Montevideo was unexciting, except we got kicked out of our seats about half way along, and had to stand for about 2 hours. The Uruguaian country side was very flat, and support a lot of grasslands for grazing. Saw lots of cute little picturesque houses, much like what a kid might draw: here is lots of green grass, here is blue sky with fluffy white clouds, here is a litte rectangle orange house with a triangle roof, with doors and windows like a face.
The hostel here is awesome. Right in the big square in the middle of the city, huge ceilings, old and cool.
