Beach and bus to Foz de Iguazu

I hadn't slept at all so I was eagerly waiting for Alyssa to wake up early so that we could check out of the hostel and try to book bus tickets to Iguazu Falls. We should have been able to book the tickets through our hostel but apparently no one at the bus company was answering the phone when they called so we decided to just wing it and show up at the bus terminal hoping to buy tickets there. The bus would leave at 6:00pm and we would need to take the local bus leving at 2:40pm to get to the terminal, so we spent the remainder of the afternoon walking along the beach. There was a triathlon going on right next to our hostel, so they were playing music at the finish line and celebrating the contestants.

It was Saturday so everyone was out at the beach having a great time. For the first time in our travels, we waivered on leaving. We really loved it there and wanted to stay but we had only a week and a half left in Brazil and still had so much to see. We decided that we would leave, but resigned to come back sometime in the future.

(The picture below shows our hostel nestled in the trees right across the river, overlooking the ocean)

We had no trouble catching the local bus despite all of the congestion caused by the triathlon and made it to the terminal so quickly that we were able to buy tickets for the earlier 4:30pm bus. Luckily, the bus terminal had wifi so we could do a little research before the long ride. The bus we boarded was fine, although the seats never recline as far as I hope they will. It's great when the bus is not full because then Alyssa and I sit in different rows and spread out a little. It's been a pain in the ass carrying the winter clothes we purchased for the salt flats around with us, but they are wonderful to have on the bus rides because it gets so cold and we bundle up like we're going skiing. They don't serve you food on the Brazilian buses but they do stop at these big buffets which actually have good food and charge by weight which has worked out well. All in all, the bus ride wasn't bad but neither of us slept more than an hour of the 14 hour drive and were prepared to be absolutely exhausted for the day ahead at Iguazu falls, now going on 72 hours with no real sleep.

Posted with Blogsy