On the Sunday night I caught the overnight bus to Foz do Iguaçu (The Iguassu Falls). It took about 16hrs on the bus and I even managed to get a few hours sleep. The buses are comfortable here, but you can pay more and get an even better bus, where the seat becomes a bed, I think for the price of these buses, I would rather fly. I left at 7pm sharp on the Sunday and arrived at about 11am on the Monday morning. I caught a local bus to the city terminal and then another bus to the local McDonalds where I then walk about 5 minutes to the HI Youth Hostel, which would be my home for the next few days. Thank goodness Mum suggested that I take ear plugs with me, when I traveled, just in case. I needed it being in a room with 7 other guys. We were a very multicultural bunch. 2 Aussies (me inc.), 1 x Englishman, 1 x Swiss, 1 x Frenchman, 1 x Spaniard and 2 x Brazilians. The Frenchmen, Antonio, and I got on very well. I think that it was due to this reason... There was an Australian (me) who naturally speaks English, a Frenchmen, who naturally speaks French, both in Brazil, where Portuguese is the official language, communicating with each other in Spanish. Go figure that one out... Antonio´s third language was English, so I guess he enjoyed talking to me about things, that the others could not understand. We also had similar thought patterns and ideas on certain social things. He told me that he travelled around parts of the world for 6 years, taking photographs of himself and friends on motorcycles for a Magazine in Europe, to help pay the bills. He now lives in the South of Spain, hence why his Spanish is so good. We also went out for a meal one night to a Churrascaria, where we were joined by 2 Irish lads and a guy from Finland, who told us stories about how he has fun with his mates. Sitting in a Sauna, at very high temperature, drinking beer and then running out into the snow and jumping into the hole in the ice, swimming around for a minute only to run back into the Sauna to drink more beer. This is done naked…with male friends…hmmm, not really my idea of fun when you do it for a few hours on end… While in Foz, I went to Itaipu. This is one of the largest Hydro-electrical power generating plants in the World. It supplies 95% of the energy requirements for Paraguay and 25% of Brazil’s power requirements. This place is huge. There are 20 turbines in operation and they have enough space and water to add more, if and when necessary. Yes, they are buses in the photograph attached. They also built an artificial water course for the fish to migrate and they have a whole education programme that revolves around the artificial stream and the plant and animal life that is around it. I think that it is a wonderful display of man’s imagination and determination to obtain electricity in a more environmentally friendly manner, even if they did put a lot of forest under water in the process. I also traveled to Paraguay for the day and I felt a little more comfortable, even though I was in a much more dangerous environment. Security guards here carried automatic machine guns, pistols and batons. I wondered what the police carried, if they were the Security Guards. I also felt comfortable because I was with the English guy, Stewart. Now Stewart is from up near Yorkshire, he is about 6 foot 4 and is a bricklayer. He is traveling South America, before he catches up with a mate in NZ. They will then work in Australia for 6-12 months. Cuidad del Este, which is the Paraguayan town over the border, is a market town. It thrives on the Brazilian tourists who come and purchase cheaper products. This is due to the high taxation rate that the Brazilian Government puts on technical items and other goods, to protect the Brazilian manufactures and IT companies. Not a bad idea, but when the tax is about 30 – 40%, you can see why the tourists like to visit Paraguay. I even purchased a T-shirt in Paraguay and got searched by Brazilian customs because of it. I was on the bus looking out the window with the T-shirt in a plastic bag on my lap, when all of a sudden I felt someone grapping at my T-shirt. He was about to get a knuckle sandwich, as I thought he was getting a little too familiar, when I realized he was a Customs Official and decided against any form of ‘retaliation’. The main reason why I travelled to Foz, was to visit The Iguaçu Falls. I had seen photos of these falls in books when I was little and remember seeing them in the movie, The Mission. They were fantastic. Awe inspiring… I can´t express what they were like in words. All I can say is, if you get the chance to go and see this work of God, then you should go. I hope that some of these photos do justice to what I saw. I also went on a boat ride and got very wet. My advice is to go and spend more time on the Argentinean side of the falls. I think that their National Park is far superior, with more things to do and see, for free. The Brazilian side charges for everything, I think even the air you breathe.
On the Sunday night I caught the overnight bus to Foz do Iguaçu (The Iguassu Falls). It took about 16hrs on the bus and I even managed to get a few hours sleep. The buses are comfortable here, but you can pay more and get an even better bus, where the seat becomes a bed, I think for the price of these buses, I would rather fly. I left at 7pm sharp on the Sunday and arrived at about 11am on the Monday morning.
I caught a local bus to the city terminal and then another bus to the local McDonalds where I then walk about 5 minutes to the HI Youth Hostel, which would be my home for the next few days. Thank goodness Mum suggested that I take ear plugs with me, when I traveled, just in case. I needed it being in a room with 7 other guys. We were a very multicultural bunch. 2 Aussies (me inc.), 1 x Englishman, 1 x Swiss, 1 x Frenchman, 1 x Spaniard and 2 x Brazilians. The Frenchmen, Antonio, and I got on very well. I think that it was due to this reason... There was an Australian (me) who naturally speaks English, a Frenchmen, who naturally speaks French, both in Brazil, where Portuguese is the official language, communicating with each other in Spanish. Go figure that one out... Antonio´s third language was English, so I guess he enjoyed talking to me about things, that the others could not understand. We also had similar thought patterns and ideas on certain social things. He told me that he travelled around parts of the world for 6 years, taking photographs of himself and friends on motorcycles for a Magazine in Europe, to help pay the bills. He now lives in the South of Spain, hence why his Spanish is so good. We also went out for a meal one night to a Churrascaria, where we were joined by 2 Irish lads and a guy from Finland, who told us stories about how he has fun with his mates. Sitting in a Sauna, at very high temperature, drinking beer and then running out into the snow and jumping into the hole in the ice, swimming around for a minute only to run back into the Sauna to drink more beer. This is done naked…with male friends…hmmm, not really my idea of fun when you do it for a few hours on end…
While in Foz, I went to Itaipu. This is one of the largest Hydro-electrical power generating plants in the World. It supplies 95% of the energy requirements for Paraguay and 25% of Brazil’s power requirements. This place is huge. There are 20 turbines in operation and they have enough space and water to add more, if and when necessary. Yes, they are buses in the photograph attached. They also built an artificial water course for the fish to migrate and they have a whole education programme that revolves around the artificial stream and the plant and animal life that is around it. I think that it is a wonderful display of man’s imagination and determination to obtain electricity in a more environmentally friendly manner, even if they did put a lot of forest under water in the process.
I also traveled to Paraguay for the day and I felt a little more comfortable, even though I was in a much more dangerous environment. Security guards here carried automatic machine guns, pistols and batons. I wondered what the police carried, if they were the Security Guards. I also felt comfortable because I was with the English guy, Stewart. Now Stewart is from up near Yorkshire, he is about 6 foot 4 and is a bricklayer. He is traveling South America, before he catches up with a mate in NZ. They will then work in Australia for 6-12 months. Cuidad del Este, which is the Paraguayan town over the border, is a market town. It thrives on the Brazilian tourists who come and purchase cheaper products. This is due to the high taxation rate that the Brazilian Government puts on technical items and other goods, to protect the 
Brazilian manufactures and IT companies. Not a bad idea, but when the tax is about 30 – 40%, you can see why the tourists like to visit Paraguay. I even purchased a T-shirt in Paraguay and got searched by Brazilian customs because of it. I was on the bus looking out the window with the T-shirt in a plastic bag on my lap, when all of a sudden I felt someone grapping at my T-shirt. He was about to get a knuckle sandwich, as I thought he was getting a little too familiar, when I realized he was a Customs Official and decided against any form of ‘retaliation’.
The main reason why I travelled to Foz, was to visit The Iguaçu Falls. I had seen photos of these falls in books when I was little and remember seeing them in the movie, The Mission. They were fantastic. Awe inspiring… I can´t express what they were like in words. All I can say is, if you get the chance to go and see this work of God, then you should go. I hope that some of these photos do justice to what I saw. I also went on a boat ride and got very wet. My advice is to go and spend more time on the Argentinean side of the falls. I think that their National Park is far superior, with more things to do and see, for free. The Brazilian side charges for everything, I think even the air you breathe.
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