22/5/17 - Cataratas Grande part 1
I'm at Iguacu Falls! (via Auckland, a night in Santiago, Chile, and a flight via Lima, Peru)
I'm staying on the Brazil side of the border, but today I've spent the day in Argentina, wandering the trails around the falls here. As I'm only here for 2 nights, the easiest way to get to the Argentina side of the falls was to book a day tour through the hostel (I arrived around 7pm last night but they were still able to get me on the am pickup today). Also as it's my first time in Brazil, it's easier to let the tour driver sort out the border crossing - I'm still jet lagged!
But all very easy and I'm not normally one for tours, but this I highly recommend as I wouldn't have been able to cover all the key sights by myself in a day! First stop was where the rivers meet for Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay - I don't think I've ever been anywhere where I could see 3 countries in one spot!
Then onto the falls, and very impressive they were. We got there before all the big tour buses arrived, so took the little train out to the largest fall first thing. Note - You. Need. A. Rain. Jacket. You. Will. Get. Wet. And a waterproof camera is fairly handy too... It's loud, and it's wet, and a bit scary to see the 'old' path mostly washed away! But the falls are IMPRESSIVE. It had been raining fairly heavily for the couple of days prior, so the water was brown (orange?) with all the mud and silt coming down the river, but the falls were also at full volume which was crazy cool to watch. A very 'the end of the world is nigh' feeling!
I'm staying on the Brazil side of the border, but today I've spent the day in Argentina, wandering the trails around the falls here. As I'm only here for 2 nights, the easiest way to get to the Argentina side of the falls was to book a day tour through the hostel (I arrived around 7pm last night but they were still able to get me on the am pickup today). Also as it's my first time in Brazil, it's easier to let the tour driver sort out the border crossing - I'm still jet lagged!
But all very easy and I'm not normally one for tours, but this I highly recommend as I wouldn't have been able to cover all the key sights by myself in a day! First stop was where the rivers meet for Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay - I don't think I've ever been anywhere where I could see 3 countries in one spot!
Then onto the falls, and very impressive they were. We got there before all the big tour buses arrived, so took the little train out to the largest fall first thing. Note - You. Need. A. Rain. Jacket. You. Will. Get. Wet. And a waterproof camera is fairly handy too... It's loud, and it's wet, and a bit scary to see the 'old' path mostly washed away! But the falls are IMPRESSIVE. It had been raining fairly heavily for the couple of days prior, so the water was brown (orange?) with all the mud and silt coming down the river, but the falls were also at full volume which was crazy cool to watch. A very 'the end of the world is nigh' feeling!
We spent the rest of the day wandering around the paths of the falls - the nature is pretty cool here as well (monkeys! birds! and my favourite, coatis!). You can do the touristy stuff if you want (food, jet boat rides etc) or you can just chill and take things at your own pace. Definitely one of the wonders of the world!
I was staying just out of the main town centre, but an awesome location because just around the corner from the hostel was a food truck station, so I hung out with the locals in the evening chowing down. But not being very chatty, as I have zero percent Portuguese, and my Spanish wasn't very decipherable. So mostly using the international language of pointing and smiling :) A very cool first day on holiday!
Oh, a tip! If you are arriving in the evening like I was i.e. 6pm - don't take the bus to town and get a cab from the bus station - there are no cabs after 6pm at the bus station!! Get a cab from the airport straight to your hotel! I was super lucky that a really nice station guide took pity on me and spent 30 mins ringing around for a taxi for me to get me from the station to my hostel. Thank you, kind stranger!
Oh and a second tip - get some $$ out at the airport from the ATMs before you leave. I did manage to get that part sorted!
I was staying just out of the main town centre, but an awesome location because just around the corner from the hostel was a food truck station, so I hung out with the locals in the evening chowing down. But not being very chatty, as I have zero percent Portuguese, and my Spanish wasn't very decipherable. So mostly using the international language of pointing and smiling :) A very cool first day on holiday!
Oh, a tip! If you are arriving in the evening like I was i.e. 6pm - don't take the bus to town and get a cab from the bus station - there are no cabs after 6pm at the bus station!! Get a cab from the airport straight to your hotel! I was super lucky that a really nice station guide took pity on me and spent 30 mins ringing around for a taxi for me to get me from the station to my hostel. Thank you, kind stranger!
Oh and a second tip - get some $$ out at the airport from the ATMs before you leave. I did manage to get that part sorted!
23/5/17 - Cataratas Grande part 2
A bit like my repeated trips to the Equator in Ecuador, or like Groundhog Day, I went back to the falls today. BUT "same, same, but different" - this time I went to the falls on the Brazil side of the border. I had a flight at 2pm, so did this side of the falls backpacker style:
Anyways, tips aside, the Brazil side is quite a different experience to the Argentina side, so it's well worth visiting both. The Brazil side feels much more commercial. There's a huge arrivals centre, then people are shuttled to the falls in big buses. The actual path beside the falls can be walked in 30mins to an hour, compared to at least 4 hours needed on the Argentina side to see everything, but the big draw of this side is you can walk on the bridge over the water. I was OK with this until just about the end of the bridge - then I started thinking about what would happen if the bridge got washed away, and got off there pretty quickly after that!
There's a big hotel there you can stay at (if you win lotto), also loads of bush treks if you have time. But I was happy enough staring at the falls for a couple of hours before I headed off to the airport!
- catch the public bus from town to the falls (about 40 mins, via the airport) - bring your backpack
- hire a storage locker at the falls and put your backpack here (they have enormous lockers for these)
- wander around the falls until it's time to go to the airport
- catch the public bus from the falls to the airport (around 10 mins away. It's a small airport.)
- try and get a seat on the plane on the side you'll be able to see the falls from when flying - it's so tiny from that far above! And a cool farewell view.
Anyways, tips aside, the Brazil side is quite a different experience to the Argentina side, so it's well worth visiting both. The Brazil side feels much more commercial. There's a huge arrivals centre, then people are shuttled to the falls in big buses. The actual path beside the falls can be walked in 30mins to an hour, compared to at least 4 hours needed on the Argentina side to see everything, but the big draw of this side is you can walk on the bridge over the water. I was OK with this until just about the end of the bridge - then I started thinking about what would happen if the bridge got washed away, and got off there pretty quickly after that!
There's a big hotel there you can stay at (if you win lotto), also loads of bush treks if you have time. But I was happy enough staring at the falls for a couple of hours before I headed off to the airport!
24/5/17 - hanging with my holiday stalker in Curitiba
I'm actually on my way to Santa Catarina island, but I'm not due there until tomorrow, and before I left for Brazil I was googling for things to do near there on the 24th, and what did I find - ED SHEERAN CONCERT in Curitiba! Turns out Curitiba is only a 4 hour bus ride from the island, plus it has a Hard Rock cafe so I can add a glass to my collection, so that's good enough for me - Curitiba is my next destination!
It's a pretty chill place, and I was feeling a bit flu-ey, so I did the lazy tourist hop-on, hop-off loop bus around town today. I high recommend the Oscar Niemeyer museum - it's shaped like an eye, quite spectacular to see. I stopped off in the Italian area to experience my first 'por kilo' lunch - it's a buffet where they charge you by how many kilos of food you eat. Each time you fill your plate with food, they weigh it (less the weight of the actual plate) and mark it on a card, and when you finish they add up the total weight and that's what you pay! An awesome system, and more countries should implement it!
Town is pretty cute as well. Let's face it, I wouldn't stay for a week but it was a nice place to pass through for a day.
And the Ed Sheeran concert in the evening was FABULOUS :) Thanks for stalking my holiday Ed Sheeran, you can come along anytime! Though I did have a little adventure on the way home, and didn't get off the bus at the right stop, and ended up at the terminal at the edge of town. Lucky it's a small city and only a cheap taxi back to the centre of town. Oops!
It's a pretty chill place, and I was feeling a bit flu-ey, so I did the lazy tourist hop-on, hop-off loop bus around town today. I high recommend the Oscar Niemeyer museum - it's shaped like an eye, quite spectacular to see. I stopped off in the Italian area to experience my first 'por kilo' lunch - it's a buffet where they charge you by how many kilos of food you eat. Each time you fill your plate with food, they weigh it (less the weight of the actual plate) and mark it on a card, and when you finish they add up the total weight and that's what you pay! An awesome system, and more countries should implement it!
Town is pretty cute as well. Let's face it, I wouldn't stay for a week but it was a nice place to pass through for a day.
And the Ed Sheeran concert in the evening was FABULOUS :) Thanks for stalking my holiday Ed Sheeran, you can come along anytime! Though I did have a little adventure on the way home, and didn't get off the bus at the right stop, and ended up at the terminal at the edge of town. Lucky it's a small city and only a cheap taxi back to the centre of town. Oops!
25/5/17 - otterly awesome
So today I've gone from flu-ey to really quite seedy, but I'm on the bus and heading to Florianopolis, Santa Catarina Island, because I'm volunteering at an otter sanctuary for a week!
Projeto Lontra is based at Lago do Peri at the southern end of Santa Catarina island, around an hour south of Florianopolis city. 'Lontra' is Portuguese for otter, and the station looks after abandoned and injured sea otters and rehabilitates them for release back into the wild (if they don't become too socialised). There were some tayras here also, which I had never seen/heard of before (they are sort of weaselly). And because we're in the country, monkeys in the trees! (Let's not talk about the snakeskin we found...).
The project is sponsored, so the facilities are pretty good - I really liked that it was a working station, so there were scientists popping in and out also, and they would give us biology lectures, which were awesome for us to learn about the wildlife. I started an observation project with one of the scientists and we found that one of the otters behaviour was disfunctional - it was repeatedly swimming back and forth in it's pool on it's back with a stone on it's tummy. So that lead to us introducing new things into it's environment to stimulate it; moving things around, bringing in toys etc. I was only there 6 nights so didn't get to see the results, but it was cool to be involved!
The project did a good job of keeping the volunteers busy with field trips also; but also plenty of down time. I think a week was enough here for me though. Other volunteers were there for a few months which would be too long just with the project as a volunteer; but good if you had your own science project you were running alongside. Super nice people! If you are in the area, you can visit as a tourist also if you give them a call first... but don't expect otter cuddles, they are vicious little b@st@rds who will bite your fingers off at the first opportunity. Those teeth and claws are SHARP.
Unfortunately I really really got hit by the flu here so I wasn't the best volunteer while I was trying to sleep it off; towards the end of the week things perked up though, so not a total lost cause!
Projeto Lontra is based at Lago do Peri at the southern end of Santa Catarina island, around an hour south of Florianopolis city. 'Lontra' is Portuguese for otter, and the station looks after abandoned and injured sea otters and rehabilitates them for release back into the wild (if they don't become too socialised). There were some tayras here also, which I had never seen/heard of before (they are sort of weaselly). And because we're in the country, monkeys in the trees! (Let's not talk about the snakeskin we found...).
The project is sponsored, so the facilities are pretty good - I really liked that it was a working station, so there were scientists popping in and out also, and they would give us biology lectures, which were awesome for us to learn about the wildlife. I started an observation project with one of the scientists and we found that one of the otters behaviour was disfunctional - it was repeatedly swimming back and forth in it's pool on it's back with a stone on it's tummy. So that lead to us introducing new things into it's environment to stimulate it; moving things around, bringing in toys etc. I was only there 6 nights so didn't get to see the results, but it was cool to be involved!
The project did a good job of keeping the volunteers busy with field trips also; but also plenty of down time. I think a week was enough here for me though. Other volunteers were there for a few months which would be too long just with the project as a volunteer; but good if you had your own science project you were running alongside. Super nice people! If you are in the area, you can visit as a tourist also if you give them a call first... but don't expect otter cuddles, they are vicious little b@st@rds who will bite your fingers off at the first opportunity. Those teeth and claws are SHARP.
Unfortunately I really really got hit by the flu here so I wasn't the best volunteer while I was trying to sleep it off; towards the end of the week things perked up though, so not a total lost cause!
5/6/17 - well hello there, Brazillian Santa Claus!
I heard of a little town in the south of Brazil in the mountains, that's home to a) a little Switzerland, and b) Santa's Village! It seemed like somewhere worth a visit, so I flew from Florianopolis to Porto Alegre and caught the bus to Gramado (about 2 hours, you can get the bus and ticket there from the airport).
It's a bit of a resort town - tiny, super cute, with a main street full of chalets. Half the shops sell INCREDIBLE chocolate; half the restaurants sell AMAZING 3 course fondue meals. Both of which I had to do - I didn't even know you could have 3 courses of fondue! But I was proved worng - 1) cheese fondue with dipping bread and vege chunks; 2) 'meat' fondue - where you cook your meat on a grill (kind of like Korean BBQ) then dip it in various dipping sauces provided; and 3) chocolate fondue, with loads of fruits to dip mmmm deliciousssss. I ate WAY to much, and don't regret a moment of it :)
It's a bit of a resort town - tiny, super cute, with a main street full of chalets. Half the shops sell INCREDIBLE chocolate; half the restaurants sell AMAZING 3 course fondue meals. Both of which I had to do - I didn't even know you could have 3 courses of fondue! But I was proved worng - 1) cheese fondue with dipping bread and vege chunks; 2) 'meat' fondue - where you cook your meat on a grill (kind of like Korean BBQ) then dip it in various dipping sauces provided; and 3) chocolate fondue, with loads of fruits to dip mmmm deliciousssss. I ate WAY to much, and don't regret a moment of it :)
But I'm also here for Santa's Village at Parque Knorr! SO the next day I wandered up the (steep!) hill to visit Papa Noel, who I'm sure was as happy to see me as I was to see him haha. Oh and I also heard about a dinosaur theme park, and (surprise, I know) I do love dinosaurs! So I also went there, and it may be one of the most disturbing things I've ever visited. I felt like, if I was in a post-apocalyptic world, and went to an abandoned theme park, this would be VERY close to it... but, hey, dinosaurs! So a very kitsch and enjoyable day in the end.
That was pretty much the end of my Brazil trip - a quick night in Porto Alegre on the way out, and a trip to the mall to do some shopping for some Havaianas, as that's the most Brazilian souvenir I could think of! Stoked with my kitty cat jandals! :)
That was pretty much the end of my Brazil trip - a quick night in Porto Alegre on the way out, and a trip to the mall to do some shopping for some Havaianas, as that's the most Brazilian souvenir I could think of! Stoked with my kitty cat jandals! :)