My first excursion outside of Rio: Foz do Iguaçu and Buenos Aires

With all of February off, me and four other girls from my program took off the day after Carnaval ended for our first excursion outside of Rio. We flew to Foz do Iguaçu, a gigantic expanse of waterfalls that sits between Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina.



We spent two days exploring the Brazilian side of the waterfalls where we hiked down to the base of one of the largest waterfalls, got thoroughly soaked, marveled at all the butterflies, played with a kuati (a funny looking animal that looks like a cross between a raccoon and an anteater) that approached us for food, took a million pictures, and stood in awe of the majesty of the Falls. How so much water can possibly exist in one place blows my mind! We also went to a bird park where they had hundreds of colorful birds, many of which were flying free.



We stayed at the most amazing family-owned hostel called “Klein Hostel.” The mom makes the wonderful breakfast in the mornings, the dad cooked the guests an amazing Brazilian barbecue dinner, and the son introduced us to Brazilian country music, called Sertaneja. In fact, the first night we were there, it was “quinta-sertaneja” night… aka: COUNTRY NIGHT!! What are the chances?? I also took the opportunity to introduce him to Brad Paisley, Zac Brown Band, and George Strait. We all spent the night meeting other guests from around the world, and dancing. The next night at the hostel, the family had all their friends over to play music and sing. We all feasted on sausage, beef, vegetables, rice and beans, and relaxed by the pool enjoying the music long into the night. Talking to the other guests in Portuguese really made me realize how much my language skills have improved. Really, once you move outside of Rio, people speak much slower and clearer. Rio has a distinct, thick accent and people speak very quickly. I had no problem speaking and understanding Brazilians from other parts of Brazil. In fact, close to Argentina many people speak a mix of Portuguese and Spanish (Portoñhol). In fact, the man from our hostel that picked us up from the airport was Brazilian but spoke Spanish!

After two nights on the Brazilian side of the Falls, we crossed the border into Argentina where we spent the day seeing the Falls from a different perspective. We hiked to the largest and most well-known part of the Falls called “Garganta del Diablo” (Devil’s Throat) and peered down into the misty abyss below.



That night, we stayed at a rather dingy and rundown hostel, but everyone was very easy-going and we ended up having a blast! Again, we feasted on Brazilian barbecue and partied with the other guests (mostly crazy Australians) well into the night.

The next afternoon, we hopped a 20-hour overnight bus to Buenos Aires. We had been warned that Argentinean police stop busses quite a bit, and that turned out to be quite true. Three times, the police stopped our bus, boarded, checked passports, and looked for drugs and other illicit things. The third time, they even brought a dog on to sniff out drugs. Two rows behind me, the dog signaled that he found something and it turned out a 14 year old boy traveling alone had a tiny bit of marijuana on him. This turned into a 2-hour ordeal in which the police found other Argentinean men on the bus to be witnesses while they opened the boy’s bag and found the drugs. Then they removed him from the bus, called his parents, and did paperwork. MEANWHILE, we made friends with the two bus drivers, convinced them to blare Reggaeton music from the bus, have a dance party on the side of the road. They even let us sit in the drivers seat and take pictures ☺

The next morning we arrived in a flooded Buenos Aires. The rain was coming down very hard and we went straight to our hostel in Palermo. Luckily, that was the last we saw of rain. In fact, the rest of the week was absolutely gorgeous!! We welcomed the “cool” weather (75-85 degrees) and explored all that Buenos Aires had to offer. Here are a few highlights from B.A.:



-An amazing Tango show at a famous Tango Bar called Café Tortoni
-Moved to a great hostel in San Telmo (the older section of town well-known for their antique shops and Tango
-Had a picnic in a park
-Went paddle boating
-Took a double-decker bus tour of the city
-Celebrated Jenny getting accepted to law school in Miami with a dinner of fruit, desserts, and champagne
-Took a tour of underground tunnels beneath the oldest church/monastery in Buenos Aires
-Went to a planetarium to see a show and we all ended up sleeping through the entire thing!
-Saw the Eva Péron museum—absolutely incredible!!
-Got a tour of the Argentinean version of the White House, aka: the Pink House (Casa Rosada)
-Saw the madres of the desaparecidos at the Plaza de Mayo
-Went to a bar and watched teenagers competing in a rap contest... HILARIOUS =)
-Went shopping at outdoor markets
-Ate lots of steak, dulce de leitche (caramel) and chocolate
-Learned salsa at a dance club and danced till 6am =)
-Laughed SO MUCH!!



Also, I almost got robbed at a restaurant. It was about 3pm and we ate a Spanish restaurant downtown. We were sitting inside a huge empty restaurant kinda near the door. No one at our table noticed, but an older man dressed well came in the door talking on a cell phone and stood near our table. He brushed past my chair, and I assumed he walked by to sit down at another table. Well, he didn’t. He took my purse and walked out of the restaurant. Luckily, the waitress noticed him and yelled “sua bolsa!!” Me, Garazi, and two restaurant employees ran after him out of the restaurant. When he saw we were chasing him and realized he was too fat and slow to get away, he dropped the purse and took off running down the street yelling over his shoulder that he had dropped it! Luckily, he hadn’t even opened it so everything was still there. I was so lucky!! I think I was off guard because I felt so safe in Buenos Aires. That just goes to show you have to be careful no matter where you are!

Overall, the trip was an absolute BLAST. The five of us got so close and I couldn’t have gone with a better group☺ Now it’s back to Rio to finally start classes.