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Published: January 1st 2014
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I am traveling around Brazil for two weeks with my parents David and Lupe who are semi-retired and have always wanted to visit Brazil. I am their daughter/travel guide and I have also always wanted to experience Brazil.
We left LAX not believing we were actually going to Brazil. It’s weird how your mind stops you from believing it until you see it. The flight wasn’t bad. Korean air has great food and movies. In the airport we were given the royal treatment because of mom’s hurt foot and her new walking cane. People over 70 are considered “prioridade” in Brazil. Everywhere we went people gave up their seat for my mom and papi. The condo I booked ended up being a fail. The apartment made papi wish he had his tools which was not how I wanted him to feel on vacation. Although he did get rid of the ants with some tequila he found under the kitchen sink. So I booked a hotel online with a pool and Jacuzzi called Hotel Luz (my older sisters name). Minus 1 for airbnb and +1 for hotels.com.
Our first day in Brazil we went straight to Iguaçu falls. Arriving at
the main entrance was overwhelming. It was busier than Disneyland. There were lines wrapping around every which way. We immediately tracked down someone with a National Park vest. Her name was Karen Beatriz and she helped us the entire day. She helped us bypass all the lines and gave us information all along the way about how to navigate the park. First we took a jeep ride down to the river for a boat ride. The path was filled with every color of butterfly and the rainforest sang a symphony of critters. One of the bugs sounded just like a car alarm. The boat ride was a rush. The driver took us right into the mist of the falls. I couldn’t see or hear anything and for a few seconds could hardly breath. Mom was laughing so hard she was falling over. That was our taste of the Catarata (waterfall in Portuguese). The mist made it difficult to take pictures but Karen Beatriz warned us about the bath we would get on the boat, so we left everything in a locker.
At the last bus stop in the park is a long path along the side of the center
of the falls. We could see a full panoramic view at almost every step of the 7 miles of layered waterfalls that stretch across the border of Argentina and Brasil. My mom was an absolute trooper with her hurt foot because we walked for what felt like days. Papi was suffering from the heat and humidity. He kept wiping his forehead with one of his dry socks that stayed in the locker. Mom was hoping no one would notice. The Iguaçu falls were formed by volcano lava that caved in after an earthquake 100,000 years ago. The rock erodes very slowly for this reason.
When we finally made it to the last look out point Papi said he was done. Not because he was tired of walking but because he was tired of being a waterfall himself. We bypassed one more long line to ride the bus back to the entrance. As we waited for the bus into town the good weather wore off and buckets of rain started to fall within seconds. It was over by the time we got to town. At hotel Luz we went straight to the pool and enjoyed the colors changing in the
clouds left from the passing storm. When we got back to the room it was 10pm and we realized the restaurant was closed. We ate oranges and cashews and mom had some cold ravioli out of a zip lock baggie we had made the night before. I’m so glad my parents are rugged backpackers.
Our second day in Foz we rushed out in a taxi to Itaipu: the hydroelectric dam up the river. The dam supplies all of Paraguay’s electricity and 17% of Brazils. 62 million litres of water pass through the dam every second. It’s not as tall as the Hoover dam but it’s more efficient and the river is big enough that they only had to divert part of it. The rest is a fish migration route. They claim that the dam is not harming the fish or the environment. If that’s true then it is a sustainable energy and it’s certainly better than nuclear or coal. There’ s a university with housing on the grounds, which are equally governed by Brazil and Paraguay. Two companies are responsible for distributing the energy to each country.
After seeing the massive lake and reservoir we went into town
to eat lunch. A ruthless taxi driver convinced us to go to a restaurant he recommended. It turned out to be a total tourist trap. They wanted $120 for 3 people. So we left and found a place with traditional food and fresh juices for less than $30. We had to guess what each fruit was because of the language barrier. I got melao (melon) but what I got tasted nothing like melon. It was delicious but I have no idea what it was. Mom had coco and papi got açai.
Our entire trip people kept asking us if we were going to go to Paraguay to shop. Each time we passed the bridge to cross over into Paraguay there was a massive traffic jam. There was even a special hand drawn map of the centro commercial at our hotel for people to take over with them to Paraguay. We decided to take the bus over and see what all the commotion was about. I also wanted to make Paraguay number 28 on my list of countries I’ve visited. As we crossed the bridge there were tons of people walking back across with huge shopping bags and large boxes
with electronics. The view of the river and hillside with the city behind it was gorgeous, like Emerald City. When we got to the centro commercial of Ciadud de Este we were very disappointed. It was an American style shopping mall. I asked the girl at the info booth if there was anything else around to see and she said that everything to see is in Brazil. “People come to Paraguay for the shopping,” she said. Coming from Los Angeles it’s easy to live under the assumption that everyone has access to Costco, Ross and Best Buy but apparently they do not. We saw a few men sitting in the corners of the mall alone covered with bags of all the stuff their wives bought as if that was the only time they were going to shop all year.
For anyone going to Foz stay as close as you can to Avenida Republica Argentina and Avenida Juscelino Kubitschek but not on them because it's loud. All the buses leave from this area and all the good restaurants are here. You only need two days in Foz unless of course you plan to trek through the rainforest.
Agora a
Rio pra ano nove! (Now to Rio for new years!)
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Michelle
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Amazing! Just amazing. I want to go!