Trancoso - NYC – Rio de Janeiro – Curitiba – Foz do Iguacu – Dazed & Confused but fabulous!
OK, here we are on the road again. If you’ve been following our travels, you know we arrived back in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in December 2012. In January we moved back to beautiful Trancoso, in the south of Bahia. Well, it’s now October 2013 and it is time to dust off our backpacks and hit the road again. This time I leave Trancoso on the 8th of October, fly to Rio and then off to NYC with my BFF (best friend forever), let’s call here Katia, even because her real name is Katia. Our plan is to spend 6 days in NYC to celebrate our 100th birthday as we’re both celebrating our 50th this year. We rented an apartment in Midtown Manhattan and head for our own “Sex and the City” adventure, minus the sex. And for 6 days we do just that, enjoy the fabulous city with all the sights, shopping and food we could pack in. We walk around so much, our feet are excruciatingly painful by the end of absolutely every day. We shop so much we need to buy 3 extra massive bags to bring home all the stuff (yeah, we suddenly became the tourists we usually laugh at in the airports while cruising with our light backpacks). Of course we also eat a bit of everything and we can’t miss a thing as I need to report my detailed gastronomic adventures to Paul when we meet up in Rio. We even go to Katz Deli, the sight of the famous fake orgasm scene in “When Harry met Sally” for brunch with my friend Faith on our last day, what a gorgeous send off that was. Anyway, the six days become a big blur of food, walking, shopping and sightseeing and suddenly it is time to leave as I will be meeting Paul in Rio to begin a new trip, this time to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. We planned a road trip through Argentina and Chile with a quick detour to Machu Pichu, Peru, the last wonder of the world we haven’t seen yet. We only have a total of 7 – 8 weeks, so, let’s make the most of it.
Paul and I leave Rio de Janeiro on the 11th of October and make a crazy dash to Curitiba, the capital city of the state of Parana, in the south of Brazil, where we spend 3 days catching up with lovely family and friends. They take us around to see a lovely, chilled and diverse city which has welcomed waves of migrants from all over Europe and the Middle East over the centuries. Their diversity is reflected in the food, architecture and ethnicity of the place. After spending the weekend with our friends Bosco and Gi, who welcomed us so well, we head down south towards Foz do Iguacu, the city where the natural wonder of Iguacu Falls is located. Well, we have to warn you, if you ever decide to take this road trip, be prepared as the roads are as lovely as the insanely frequent road tolls are expensive. We checked in to ur hotel and the room is OK but the bathroom is really horrible but we are so tired we just nod and stay.
We get some sleep and the next morning it is time to see one of the seven natural wonders of the world, Iguacu Falls. OK, we’ve seen photos, movies, heard stories, but nothing really prepares you for the massive scale of the water falls. It’s AMAZING and it’s impossible to be blasé or untouched by the majestic sights. Also, we have to highlight the organization of the park, the pristine native forest, the colourful buses in the park and of course, I have to mention, the discounted ticket price for Brazilian residents (finally we are the ones getting a discount!! In your face, foreigners!!). Anyway you can feel the ground shake below you, it is just amazing and something everyone should see at least once. Check out the pictures. In the afternoon, we make a quick dash to Ciudad de Leste, in Paraguay but go back very quicky as we are not prepared yet to brave the insane Paraguyan duty free, let’s leave it for the way back. Next morning, another long drive, this time to Corrientes, Argentina.
