In the bus on the way to Puerto Iguazu, there was a mother and her 5 year old daughter siting in front of me. Right away, the little girl did not hesitate to talk to me and play with me a little. The mother looked a bit embarassed and told her not to bother me, but I told her it was fine. They were from Buenos Aires going to some place in Brazil. The mother was really nice and offered me juice and food if I wanted some.

I ended up playing and talking with the girl the whole ride to Puerto Iguazu. The nus was scheduled to drop everyone off at Foz de Iguazu, which is on the brasilian side. Iguazu falls is shared by Argentina and Brazil, but everyone told me that the Argentina side is much nicer.

Once I got off, I had to walk about 500m to the bus station that took me to the Iguazu falls. Once I got to the falls (which was about a 30 minute bus ride), I left my backpack at the front and went to find out why this was called a wonder of the world. I had very little time (it was 1pm and I had to leave at 4:30pm in order to make it to my bus on time in Foz de Iguazu which was leaving at 6:45pm).

I thought I was not going to have enough time to do everything so I started out by walking very fast to the various sites. I was determined to do everything in the park. My first stop was the Devil's throat fall. As I was walking, I realized that this was the kinds of things that I liked doing most...walking in nature.

I got to the Devil's throat fall and realized how much more spectacular it was compared to Niagara falls. This made me think of the time Eleanor Roosevelt visited Iguazu falls, she proclaimed: "Poor Niagara!" I hurried back to take the little train of the park in order to walk another trail where there were more fall to visit. I realized at this point that i had a lot of time so I slowed down a little to admire all that was around me.

I had lots of fun taking pictures of all kinds of things...until suddenly, the one thing that every tourist hates to see happen in the middle of nowhere...Battery exhausted. My camera was dead. It was a good thing that this was near the end of the day, and I only missed out on two fall (which I visited anyway).

I took the bus back to Puerto Iguazu (the actually city near the falls) with time to spear. When I got to the border, I was told by a border patrol officer, in portuguese, that I would not have enough time to get to the bus terminal in Foz de Iguazu. I kind of understood his portuguese because it was a little similar to Spanish. He called me a taxi and it cost me 60 pesos (or 30 Reals). Again, the taxi driver did not put his meter on, and I was a bit suspicious about this (especially since I had an hour to my bus). The whole taxi ride tto the bus terminal, I was thinking about the possibility of the border patrol officer maybe getting a cut from the taxi driver, and they do this to all tourists. Then again, it was only 15 USD, and the ride was more comfortable and faster.

I got to the bus terminal at 6pm. I wanted to exchange the little amount of pesos that I had left so I went to an information kiosk and asked where I can exchange pesos to reals. I was surprised by the fact that almost no one spoke English of Spanish and I wondered how I was going to get around in Brazil. One girl spoke English and offered to go around the bus terminal with me and ask for the best possible rate. She was really nice, her name was Paula and she was just visiting her mother from Sao Paolo that worked in the information kiosk.

Once we finally found a good exchange rate, she offered me her card, and told me that next time I am in Sao Paolo, I could give her a call. She was really nice! As I boarded the bus, I asked the bus driver if we were going to have food on the 24 hour bus ride to Rio de Janeiro. He said no, but we will be stopping at places where I can buy food. I found this strange, because Brazil was a very rich country so I thought that it would have better services than other countries, however, so far, the best service on the bus has been in Peru...

Goodbye Iguazu, hello Rio de Janeiro!!!