Day 118 - Arriving in Iguazu Falls, 24 Hours Late

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We awoke to an amazing buffet breakfast and another one of those travelling coincidences - Harry and Ghia from our jungle trip were sat in the restaurant! They had also had flights cancelled (to the Pantanal), but had been stuck in this hotel on the outskirts of Sao Paolo for two nights (three if you include tonight, as they had already been to the airport and been told they could not fly today). Once again, it made our unfortunate situation seem a little better, as we had only been delayed 24 hours at the end of a 4 month trip; Harry and Ghia were only in Brazil for a few weeks!

We headed to the airport early to see if Chris’s bag had turned up. Luckily the lady in lost luggage spoke Spanish, and told us the bag had made it to Iguazu Falls without us. We were sceptical, but again counted ourselves lucky when we met a woman who had her wallet stolen whilst travelling alone, so was stuck in the airport! All we could do was board our plane to Iguazu and hope for the best. Sure enough, Chris’s bag was waiting there, and relief swept over us as we delved in for the malaria medication!

The 3 minute taxi drive to our hostel was the biggest rip off of the trip - more expensive than England at £10! We splashed out on a private room (an extravagance with Brazilian prices) but it was worth it for the hot shower and the air con unit that doubled as a heater - the weather felt unseasonably cold. After dinner in the hostel (I say “in” the hostel… the restaurant, bar and even the computers were actually outside in the open air!) we ordered a couple of drinks and sat shivering in the cold when Chris spotted someone he recognised at the bar……… Lucia!! The awful guide from our month long Kumuka trip around Patagonia. After some indecision we decided we should probably say hello. I was as friendly and fake as is possible (it was more amusing than uncomfortable) and pretended to be surprised when she told us she had fallen for a European guy on her last tour and was about to spend 3 months travelling with him (when in fact I knew all the gossip from the girls who had continued on the Kumuka tour after we left). We wished her the best and thanked our lucky stars we had not already sent in our feedback forms, otherwise the encounter would have been much less pleasant!

Chris's Corner

It is impressive how TAM airlines, the premier airline in Brazil can fail to fly Sophie and I to our destination but somehow manage to get my bag there on its own... to an airport supposed to be closed! Its not surprising that we were sceptical about this! There was definitely a bit of relief when I walked up to the guy at baggage claim and he instantly retrieved it from the back, and relief for Sophie when we got access to the Malaria drugs again.

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