We moved on from Buenos Aires to Rio. We got scammed right outside the airport where a fake Uber showed up to pick us up... after some tense moments once in the car, we did get out close to where we needed and after the local Airbnb lady negotiated in Portugese we got out.
Brazil is a sharp contrast to Argentina. You cannot trust folks on the road. Scammers everywhere. Everything is expensive and the locals are not exactly the welcoming type.
The Airbnb itself was very good. A walking distance from the Ipanema beach and close enough to grocery stores.
The kids had had enough and decided to stay in after doing groceries. San and me decided to go to the beach for a short time to see the sunset. There was so much fog that we didn't really get orange hues that day and it just started drizzling when we made it back to cook dinner!
We called it a night.. there were a lot of interesting art books in the Airbnb and we just decided to crash early after watching Rebel moon on Netflix!
The next day was going to be spent touring Rio!
We already got a glimpse of the Redeemer statue on the way from the airport. The plan was to see him up close the next day!
The main highlight of the Argentina- Brazil year end trip was a visit to Iguazu falls. This was the bucket list long awaited visit.
After spending two days in Buenos Aires, we flew to Porto Iguazu airport (which is inside the national park) and had a taxi pick us up and drop us at an Airbnb. Porto Iguazu is a small place with a bunch of hotels, restaurants and shops mainly catering to the falls tourists. It was raining as expected and we were in the middle of the jungle in a small town. We had a good nights rest and were to be picked up at 7AM.
Our plan was ambitious. See both the Brazilian side and Argentinian side of the falls in one day. Iguazu means "big water" in the local language.
We waited to get a same day visa to Brazil at Faz Iguazu (Brazil means Portugese becomes the language!) at the gates and after a 30 minute wait we were waved through. We were dropped off at the ticket center for the falls with precise instructions from Martin (our driver for the day). He communicated with us using Google translate on his whatsapp the entire time while trying to improve his English. There were three stops. First stop was a jungle walk (optional) which I did with a sub group from the bus. Second stop was a boat ride to the falls and back which the entire family went on. Third stop was a vista point with a walkway to the edge of the falls (again I went alone).
The boat ride took us to the Brazilian side of the falls. We were all completely wet anyways after that boat ride. The walkway to the edge of the falls was unbelievable. There is no way to describe this in words or capture my emotions as I wandered through this place. So here are the pictures in slideshows..
and some pictures with us ...
After the walk to the vista point we got back on the bus to the ticket center, waited for Martin to pick us up. This place reminds you of the Antarctic penguins documentary where everyone is trying to find their chosen one in a crowd.. unfortunately Martin and us did not have any specific Yaadon ki baaraat type songs to call each other.. in a mad crowd of drivers trying to find their respective tourists, we decided to wait as opposed to get lost. Finally our driver found us and off we went back to the border.
It was interesting as the Brazilian side had no record of us entering that morning as their computers had an issue updating. So we waited as they made manual passport entries and finally let us go back into Argentina. That cost us another precious 30 mintues. Martin raced us to the Argentinian side of the falls where we were to take yet another bus ride, followed by open jeep looking vehicle ride, a walk down 500 steps, and a boat ride. Given the wet clothes, San and the little one decided to walk and see the falls. It was a 2 plus mile hike and they preferred that to getting wet again.
Jr. felt bad for daddy and agreed to join me. She later told me it was a great decision as she thoroughly enjoyed the boat ride and falls. This trip to the falls was 10X better than the mornings trip. The highlight of the falls is a place called the "devils throat" where water just gushes out. The Argentina side of the falls is a must see just for this. It is risky as we don't get anything but a life vest and the waters are turbulent. However, all is well that ends well.. definitely recommend going on that boat.
we got gopro videos from both rides. I also took videos using my iPhone and the SLR and have combined them into multiple clips..
The videos ..
Bus ride and walk to boat ride on Brazil side
Brazil side boat ride
Vista point walk on Brazil side
Argentina side boat ride including a visit to "devil's throat"
Videos we paid for and got.. again the Brazilian side was a lot less exciting and a lot more expensive..
Was not even able to find the video from the Brazil side. One reason why I should try to blog as soon as trip is done!
Jr. and me had to walk back a good mile and a half in rain to get back to the entrance and then we made it back to the Airbnb. We got some to go food at one of the local restaurants, rested for the night and were off the next morning.
We said bye to Martin.. good people come in many shapes and forms.. Martin, is "good people"!
We got to see the falls from the plane and it was magnificent.
also got to see some beautiful sights from the plane as we flew along the river..
There was still an evening to spend back in Buenos Aires near another airport and we were to fly to Rio from there the following morning..
In the late nineties, my cousin in the US gave a subscription to the National Geographic Magazine. The very first few issues that we got blew our minds. One was about the Serengeti National park. It is still being talked about in the house. The pictures, the occasional map that was packed inside the magazine, the posters, the big official looking certificate that stated that I was now an explorer.. not to mention the fact that the mail was actually addressed to me.. priceless!
That membership lasted two years and it was a window to the world for me and my brother!
One of the things I learned in that magazine was that there was such a thing as a glasswing butterfly with transparent wings. It was to be found near a natural wonder of the world called Iguazu falls.
Many years later I ended up in the US and got my own subscription to the bucket list generator magazine! There is a long list of places I told myself that would be visited in this lifetime. After getting married the wife was told about this long list of items. She was not aware of most these places. The kids would shake their head and go "no wonder you two are married.. there is nothing in common between you two! Appa raves about all these places and you have never heard of them!". Needless to say, when it came time to visit any of these places, the kids would give excuses to bail and it was my darling wife that would actually force them to come and also plan the entire thing.
She got tired of me mentioning Iguazu. She did her research, found that this was in the middle of the amazon jungle, part of this visit involved a boat tour that was dangerous, vegetarian food there was going to be a challenge and there were insect bites to deal with (which was a strict no no for the little one). In spite of all this, she did an amazing job booking everything. There were a few last minute twists but we handled them well as a collective, given our last day in Greece during Labor day!
This is going to be a series of blog posts on this trip to Iguazu.. as an added bonus, given we don't visit this part of the world that often, we decided to go to Rio to see "Christ the Redeemer" as well as the world famous beaches there. Then there was Buenos Aires, our first stop before flying into Iguazu at the Brazil Argentina border.
Given my status as a frequent flyer is questionable, we had to go a week early. The kids were not thrilled with a 9 day international trip the day after they got back home from college. We had both taken the week off before Christmas to beat the crowds and it was a good move, except having to spend Christmas in the southern hemisphere where it is summer and it is not exactly festive like in the northern hemisphere. A summer Christmas is intersting! You start feeling bad for the mall Santa in 95 degree heat!
We made it back from South America in one piece and in good health. A new years party took some of us out. My throat is still recovering and I could not even speak for a few days last week. Thinks are just slowly getting back to normal.
Word of caution to bay area peeps. Start wearing masks and sanitizing hands again! Did take the covid and flu shots in October. Know this is not COVID or flu but some other respiratory virus that takes aim at the throat. Trying to sing songs I like did not help either (given I sing them 50 times back to back till a version clicks).
Right now all I can do is type.. hence the blogging to distract myself!
The travelogs follow..
Fun fact: We did not see the glasswing butterfly during this trip.. but we did see the falls in all its glory. Jr. and myself made it to the "Devil's throat" within the falls, which was the real core of that bucket list item!
