Iguaçu falls - Paraná state

A few days later Vanessa, Emma and I took a bus to Foz do Iguaçu, the closest Brazilian town to the famous waterfalls. It was an overnight trip that was meant to last 16 hrs, however it broke down and we spent about 4-5 hrs on the side of the road waiting for a new one, so we arrived quite late the next day. When we arrived we took another 2 local buses to reach the actual waterfalls. What I will always remember about these trips was the heat, carrying our backpacks through 40 degrees and humidity of 90%. But it was all worth it when we saw (and heard!) the waterfalls. There are over 200 tiered waterfalls that make a noise like thunder. We just couldn’t believe it was natural. Vanessa complimented my sunnies. They subsequently fell into the falls. Haha. Her comments are jinxed.
We got another 2 buses to get to the Argentinean border, where we planned to stay the night and get up early to see their side of the falls. Just before we got to the border Vanessa exclaimed how excited she was about the three of us being in Argentina together (remember her comments being jinxed?). At the border they wouldn’t let her through because she had the wrong ID on her. Oh well, we headed back to Foz and drowned our sorrows in icecream.
Emma and I headed over the border the next day by ourselves. We had booked our bus back to Sampa that morning and they didn’t accept credit cards and with no ATMs nearby we handed over almost the rest of our cash, hoping Argentina would accept credit. In the Argentinean town of Puerto Iguazu they didn’t accept credit so we had to change the rest of our money to pesos to get the park ticket (not thinking about the bus ticket back to Brazil). The falls were great, a closer view from this side. The Brazilian side was best overall for it’s panoramic views but the Argentinian side got you so close to the falls including the part called the Devil’s throat where we got extremely wet (not that you cared in that heat). Eventually back in Puerto Iguazu, we couldn’t get any money out for our bus back to Brazil or even change some euros which made us think we were stuck in Argentina. But we were then told of a bank a few k’s away that might help, so Emma, the trooper, walked through the heat to get us money. I stayed at the station with our bags, feeling quite ill. When she got back we nearly got on a bus to Uruguay but did realize in time to on the Brazil one. Phew.
When we were heading back to São Paulo, our bus was comfier than the last and Vanessa commented on how perfect the bus had worked out - oh no, she jinxed us again. I was still feeling ill and got off at any stop I could. At about 3am the girls were asleep and I hopped off and came out of the road stop building to find our bus not there. We were in the middle of nowhere. Two other buses of the same company were nearby - I got on, didn’t recognize the passengers, got off again. Sat on a bench, thought they had gone to get petrol (it had happened at other stops) but in fact they had left. Vanessa was woken by a guy sitting in frount of her, who told her amiga hadn’t gotten back on - so she got the driver to go back. She laughed when she saw me sitting there so calming, not realizing what a dire situation it was. Lucky the stranger noticed I was gone.

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