Blog: I’m Starting to doubt Brazil will let us leave

We’ve been in Brazil for almost a month and a half now, and with so many more countries to visit, and so little time left – for how much we have to do – we’ve been making the conscious effort to leave. This is easier said than done. There is just something about Brazil that wont allow you to leave, despite our best efforts. We’ve been saying to one another “”””Okay, after this next town, we’re getting the HELL out of Brazil!””””, but this has been going on for over a month now. The country has taken hold of us and wont let go. The people are amazing, the beaches are beautiful and the all night parties last all night long!!! Personally i think they put something in the Caprihnas, being as we always seem to be “”””chasing”””” the next best one, but Stewart seems to think im a little crazy. The problem with Brazil is it is or is close to the most expensive country in South America, and our budgets are starting to suffer and so are the countries we still have left to travel. Having said all this, im pretty sure that after Florinopolis (our next stop) were getting the HELL out of Brazil….

We left Rio 2 weeks ago, with the intention of skipping along the coast southwards to Uruguay, but we first had to stop in Paraty. We chose Paraty because of easy access and it sounded like a good place to celebrate St Patty’s day (and the surrounding area had some 70 islands and 300 beaches). Lets just say we were proved right. On the bus ride there we met Steve, a 38 year old Englishman who had been living in Brazil on and off for the last 8 years, and upon hearing that tomorrow was St Patty’s, he was down to party. And party we did. Steve had just split with his Brazilian wife (which simply means they were living together) and he was more than willing to go out on the piss. This lasted more or less the entire 5 days we were in town. He spoke the language which helped us get the best service, the coldest beers, and the best Caprihnas we have yet to find in Brazil!! It was a great 5 days, and although we did take a day trip to see some (3 or 4) of the hundred beaches, along with some of the waterfalls and natural pools in the rainforest areas surrounding town, but the highlights were definitely after the sun went down, dancing or just chatting shit at a local pub. It was definitely hard to leave here, but we understood that we could probally stay here forever, and decided it was time to move along.

Thinking that maybe we would just see a few more places along the way out of Brazil, we decided it was worth it to make one of them Foz do Iguacu, home of a massive series of waterfalls, and which happened to be some 1000km on the far side of the country.  The journey took us 3 bus trips and 27 hours, and while not as horrible as some of the bus trips we had endured already on this trip, it was extremely exhausting. Foz do Iguacu literally means “end of the Iguacu river”, and the point in which the town sits is the point which Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil meet (decided in 1903 after Paraguay declared war simultaneously on Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay and after a “short” asskicking, 25% of Paraguay’s land mass was split by the victors). The waterfalls are shared by Brazil and Argentina, and were made up of 275 different waterfalls, all varying in size and magnitude. We spent a day wandering arround the paths that make up the Argentinean side, getting close up views from both the top and bottom. The falls were definitely impressive, but there was not much else to do in town. Our last day, with a few hours to kill before our 10 hour overnight bus outta there, we checked out the Hydro-electric dam shared by Brazil and Paraguay (which powers 25% and 90% of the two countries) and is the largest dam in the world. The tour of the dam was kinda boring, but we got to take a hike through the nature reserve/zoo that the dam built after they flooded the area, and this was well worth the free admission.

We caught our bus out of town and arrived in Curitiba early the next morning. Deciding that we were finally done with Brazil, we decided not to stay here and caught a bus directly to Paranagua, where we had to meet one of Steve’s friends for drinks. Knowing very little of the area, we figured we could spend a few days at the beach and then head on to Florinopolis, our final destination in Brazil, but we had to make it through Paranagua.