Don´t Go Chasing Waterfalls

DISCLAIMER: THIS IS A VERY LONG POST

abridged version- paraty---sao paulo---foz de iguaçu---argentina. boom.

We left Ilha Grande on Friday to go to Paraty. The bus ride to Paraty was quite interesting...2 hours in a basic local bus. We had a little bit of a mind fuck, half way through the ride these 3 english girls with gigantic rolling suitcases started to cause a ruckus because they thought the young boy sitting next to him was going to rob them. Yes, they should have been worried and cautious but geez what a scene did they create!!! They began to talk to the bus driver and they seemed they wanted action to be done against this young boy. Eventhough they were freaking out the girl sitting next to him still stayed there eventhough there were many open seats. They were worried of their gigantic rolling suitcases....hmmm because those don´t make you a target at all. So basically, we were sittnig behind listening and watching this all happen so this just cause us to be a little scattered brain coming off the bus.

After the bus experience, we arrived really not sure where we were going. So we began to wonder around looking for this hostel. We had a map of the city but it was only of the historic square area which unknown to us was not where we were trying to stay. So after asking directions, being lost and finally a young women took pity on us and helped us out, we arrive at your hostel. It was this cute, funky place that had a sweet courtyard filled with hammocks. We have definitely decided hammocks are where it is at! Paraty main square has the most amazing colonial style buildings with the worst streets. I swear, I was paying more attention to the road then my surroundings for fear of falling from the uneven cobblestone. The place reminded us both of Sausalito, it had amazing art and artisan crafts. I swear if I become rich and want to decorate my house this is where I will come. We walked around the town wondering in and out of shops wishing we had money or space to bring stuff back. We found this cute creperie with the nicest people who worked there. I think we liked them more for the fact that at first they thought we were portuguese....yes tricking the locals! Much like Europe and far from the US, people love PDA!!! Oh especially in parks! It kinda unsettling watching two teenagers with braces making out on benches...those uncomfortable moments where you should look away but just can´t help to stare and make a ongoing commentary like a sports announcement! Paraty is also known to havwe amazing surrounding beaches though we decided that we should move on and that should be kept for an another time. Can´t go everywhere!

The next day, we took a bus to Sao Paulo. And man traveling is a small world! We keep running into people we have seen at previous hostels and such! Brie and J, Slash from Rio and some others were in Ilha Grande staying at the same hostel but unfortunately no ginga! We finally talked to them right as we were departing...slash is from LA and works in PAsadena! small world! Then on the bus to Sao Paulo we ran into the South African and the Englishman. The bus was quite nice... Katie had a row to herself and Nicole had the luxury to sit next to a very large man with roomy elbows. We stayed at this place called LimeTime. We were able to navigate the metro with ease and found the place with no worries...actually katie walked right by and then nicole actually saw the gigantic lime on the side of the building. For my defense, it was dark and I couldn´t tell it was a lime!!! The bus ride was longer then we thought, and we were absolutely exhausted. So we had plan to go out and grab dinner and drinks in this section called Villa Magadalena. Though after getting off the bus, we got lost and we wondering around dark streets going down stairs where streets should be! Nicole swears she had a vision earlier that we might get shanked on the streets especially when the pizza delivery man asked for directions! Luckily enough katie had her clipped on woodcutter, knife and nail filler on hand for protection! Finally we managed to find a restaurant to eat at and it was a mexican restaurant, which surprisily enough the food was really tasty and flavorful. Though the waitress was a bitch and a half. We could figure out if it was because they were about to close, after all it was like 11:30 but then more people came to eat so it wasn´t that. So who knows, but she didn´t like us! After finally eating, we were soo tired and katie was coughing up a lung of green mucus so we decided to go back to the hostel. Nicole proceeded to get harassed by one of workers of the hostel for not going out on a Saturday night in Sao Paulo.

Sunday, we went to the Asian street market. It was amazing!!! Ate delicious food for cheap! We had a bean paste pancake, fresh squeezed jucies, shrimp tempura pancake and a soba noodle thing that wasn´t too hot probably had alot of msg. Nicole once again got harassed by a deaf man as Katie was peeing in MacDonalds. Apparently she is beautiful and asking where her beautiful short hair friend was...Slightly creepy! We wondered around the ¨mall¨ which was filled with everything from phones, watches and shoes that had obviously falled off the back of the truck to japanese anime shops and then a out of place gothic shop where I tried to convince Nicole to by a corset! Unfortunatly she doesn´t listen to me. Load up on MSG, we decided we need to take a nap so we TRIED to find this park which is suppose to be like Central Park. Lets just say, we walked ALOT and went on many detours bc maps do not like to give you all the strees!!! We did find the place and took a nice relaxing break by the pond surrounded once again by spandex filled PDA.

Later that night, we took a overnight bus to Foz de Igaçu. We thought we would have time prior to go to the market and grab some provisions but our time management wasn´t that great. And we had to eat at the bus station, not to bad ate some Bob´s, fast food chain and at this pasta place. Though when we arrived on the bus we were embraced by the smell of salami from our neighbors who had gone to the market prior. The smell of salami and feet is really not pleasent. The 20 hr bus ride was not bad though I think we made some enemies because Nicole was reading with her light on at 9 pm while everyone else was trying to fall asleep or watch the indiana Jones movie dubbed in portuguese.Taking the bus, is always a fun game of ¨do we get off here?¨. Bus stations never seem to say like hey this is Foz de Igaçu, there are no welcome to the cornfield signs here. We opted to take a taxi to our hostel instead of taking three different buses. The hostel was ok though since it is the off season when we arrived it felt alittle like the hotel in the Shining...vacant. We dropped our shit and head the falls on the Brazilian side. Foz de Igaçu are these enormous waterfalls that are located in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. The Brazilian side is has the best overall view.. great panoramic shot of the vast size of these water falls. It made Nicole speechless...a nice surprise! haha jk! We were both dumbfound by the beauty, I don´t think either one of us expected it! The pictures we took will probably not even do it justice. Thank god, Katie had her raincoat and Nicole her emgerency pancho because we got a little wet! We had some first hand experience with Coatis basically a cross between a racoon and an anteater. Man, so they enjoy garbage!! They are little scavengers for food so if you had any you better eat it fast or run...THEY ARE KNOWN TO BITE!!

That night we taught a Brazilian to play the card game speed. We have settled on speed for we have not found any other players for spades and also Katie is kicking Nicole´s ass in speed. So we might be sticking with this game for a bit!!! Too fast for her! The next morning, we woke up bright and early to go to the Argentina side fo the falls. We had the most amazing/ hilarious bus driver from Paraguay who would not stop humming the tune from the Beatles, Yellow Submarine...ahh it was great! We were able to past the Brazilian border with no problem..relief considering our falsified documents to obtain our visas. The falls in Argentina are amazing you could literally spend a couple of days going through all the trails and seeing all the waterfalls. The first couple of hours we were there was alittle bit of a cluster fuck... think schools of childrens running around. It kinda took away from the experience at first. BUT THEN, as we broke away from the tours we got to get up close and personal with DOS HERMANAS. You literally stand like 2 ft away from the waterfall, shooting out water with such velocity that you get soaking wet and barely can keep your contacts in. IT IS SUCH A RUSH!! Everyone that comes out of it is insanely happy. Since we still had a couple of hours before heading back, we decided to take this scenic trail which is good for spotting animals. Once again maps lie! It said it was only 3 km to the waterfall but we didn´t even make it (bc of time) to the fall and it was encrouching on like 6 km. Though along the way I think we found a new species...it was a cross between a rabbit and pig. And of course this was the moment our camera decided it was going to die though we do have a picture of its ass. We basically hauled ass and ran back to the bus for fear of being ¨those people¨ who like to hold up everyone by being late..we were really hoping the mexicans wouldn´t be on time but once again stereotypes fail and the Japanese ended up being last. We had planned on staying on the Argentine side so the bus driver was gracious enough to let us off at our hostel.

Our hostel, Hostel Inn is like a resort. And that night they were celebrating there anniversary and having this big shindig. Lets say, caiprinha and cerversas were had, Nicole got DOWN on the dance floor and Katie woke up with a huge bruise on her leg. So of all the nationalities we have met, everyone seems to be living in the Caymans. We have met like 10 people who live there (haha basically the whole island), all of which are accountants from Australia, South Africa or England. The next morning thank god it was raining so it gave us an excuse to not do much and helped Nicole nurse her hang over. We were a bit productive and went to town mainly bc we needed a bank. Though not thinking ahead, we had no clue where the bank was nor did we have a map of the town. Also, we did not realize that in Argentina they take siesta so nothing was really open. We did eat lunch at this restaurant. The main attraction was the crazy Chilian man who keep talking to everyone. At one point, he took Katie´s hat and was taking about how fashionable he was with the hat, his button down shirt, board shorts and socks and sandals. After lunch, we tried to find a marekt but it was closed due to siesta unfortunately not knowing this we let the bus to go home past us...so then we were stuck in the downpour rain for 20 minutes waiting for the next. Since we were unable to go to the market we ate the hostel. They had a giant bbq, I was really proud of Nicole she ate two large piece of beef and throughly enjoyed it! Ahh the beef, more will come! At dinner, Nicole had the pleasure talking to a Irish man about carbon footprints...basically had a gigantic smile on her face the whole convo. Katie volunteered Nicole to perform some dance routines with the man in the flashy shirt and his two samba dancers wearing very little. Then a giant congo line broke out...it was like an aerobics class mixed in with the limbo. Afterwards we both losted a few games of pool and fooseball.

Now, we are taking a break and relaxing a bit. Tomorrow, I think we are going to Buenos Aires!!! We can´t wait we keep hearing amazing things.

- Nicole & Katie ( the personality and the looks)

ps - Nicole actually said this in referring to herself and her quirks: ¨she is an enigma wrapped in a riddle wrapped in a rhymth¨ oh yes!! this is the girl I´m traveling with!

Sickness update: pink eye clearing for Nicole we finally found her eye drops. Katie is no longer hacking up green mucus. So all that is left is lots of itchy bug bites and massive bruises.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS WE GOT LAUNDRY DONE!!! WOO HOO SUCH AN EXCITEMENT!!