The day finally came to say goodbye to Maria. In many ways Andrea and I were sad at the fact we would not be on our way home to see family and friends to celebrate the holidays. We were happy for Maria to travel home and experience all the Christmas fun, food, and family. We said goodbye to Maria at a restaurant on the Argentine city of Iguazu Falls. She hopped in a cab and away she went to the airport.  

First glimpse of Cataratas

It was a strange feeling to travel just the two of us again. Our plan was to head into Brazil today. We were so excited to see another country and really spend some time at the beach relaxing in Rio De Janeiro.  Our first stop though was to the Brazilian side of Iguazu falls. The town is called Foz do Iguaçu and is located less then twenty minutes away from the falls. In Portuguese the falls are named Cataratas. We were blown away with the Argentina side and were really looking forward to seeing it from Brazil. We went to the bus station and waited for the bus. The buses are so frequent, and a very popular route for locals and tourist that you simply pay your fare on the bus once it arrives. We were not sure what we expected since it was yet another border crossing into a new country. Fortunately for us, crossing into Brazil from Argentina was only minutes away from the bus station. The bus was only $1.50 USD to cross into Brazil. The bus drivers were very used to helping people and making sure everyone was able to cross the border. We were expecting quite a smooth and easy process since we had already went through the trouble of preordering our visas, which sat nicely tucked into our passports. I was very happy I had done all the leg work at home to obtain the visa for Brazil. Though the visa process required a lot of paperwork and money to obtain it was nice to have it completed before hand. The good news is though that the visa is good for ten years so at least you get a lot of time to potentially travel back. 

The bus dropped us off at the border crossing on the Argentina side. We had to wait in a long line in order to receive our exit stamp. Unfortunately we were at the end of the line. I exited before Andrea just in time to see the bus pull away. Luckily, I was able to wave a guy down who was sitting in the back of the bus and he told the driver to stop. Thank god for the stranger that stopped the bus for us! That could have been a potential headache to maneuver out of. Andrea and I  jumped back on the bus and we headed to the immigration office on the Brazil side.  A few other tourist jumped off as well and we easily gained access to the country thanks to our visa. The actually border crossing was a sitch but then we had to wait for the bus to return in order to get dropped off into the town we were staying at. The next hour and a half was spent waiting at a bus stop outside the immigration office waiting for the next bus to come to take us to the city of Foz do Iguaçu. It eventually arrived and we were off!

Foz was a great introduction to Brazil. We had booked a lovely hostel called "Hotstel  Che Lagarto," on one of the main roads. We later found out their were two of the same hostels in Rio also. The hostel cost $20 a night.  We could walk everywhere and really enjoyed being so close to a fruit market and the biggest grocery store we had encountered in South America! Our hostel room felt more like a luxury hotel and we enjoyed the clean, cool and comfortable room. The wifi was great and we enjoyed the rooftop pool and bar. I ordered a watermelon caipirinha and we watched the sunset.
The only trouble was the quick change from Spanish to Portuguese, which definitely threw Andrea and I for a loop.

Sunset Caipirinha

The following day we decided to explore the city of Foz and visit the Brazilian side of the falls. The falls from the Brazilian side are called Cataratas. They are truly capitivating from both sides however you get to see them facing forward, head on and truly understand the shear magnitude, force and beauty these waterfalls are from the Brazilian side. Although the catwalks and animal life are not as abundant as the Argentina side it was truly stunning to see. The catwalks on the Argentina side of the falls allows you to walk out right on top of the water and makes you feel like you are standing on top of the waterfalls. These catwalks take you right out and over the Devil's Throat which is the largest and most impressive part of the Iguazu Falls. It was spectacular to see. It was incredible to witness the power of water and its impressive place in nature. From the Brazil side you can meander down a path and see all the falls you saw from the Argentina side, but now you see them from a completely different angle. You see the vastness of the falls really are and how they are so interestingly spread out through out the river. If you continue walking to get to a catwalk that leads you out in the falls. You are guaranteed to get wet and people were buying ponchos and water proof pouches for their cameras and phones. We luckily invested in Lifeproof cases so our phones are waterproof.  We walked right out on the catwalk and soon were drenched from the spray from many glorious waterfalls. Since it was quite hot we loved this part. If you continue walking soon you are almost surrounded by nothing but waterfalls. The spray from the falls and the hot, blazing sun causes rainbows everywhere you look. You walk so far out on these cat walks that when you turn your head to the left you are staring straight up into the Devil's Throat. If you visit Iguazu falls from both side of the park you have the wonderful opportunity to see the Devil's Throat from the top and the bottom. I would try to see it from both sides because its a true natural miracle to see in person. I can not stress enough how out of the way Iguazu Falls is comparison to other major cities and sites in South American but it worth a long bus ride, a flight and all the money it takes to go to and from them. The cities around the falls are used to people showing up to see the falls. They are very well organized and have lots of hostels to choose from but they are basically tourist trap towns. The major draw are the Falls and the nature parks they are situated in. A bird sanctuary and the proximity to Paraguay may draw a few people also. It would have been a quick walk over the bridge into Paraguay from Foz do Iguaçu and a quick immigration check point, unfortunately we ran out of time. We had been watching flight prices to Rio and were pleasantly surprised with how affordable they were. However, when we went to book the prices sky rocketed. We were so disappointed and started to mentally prepare for another 20+ hour bus ride. As luck would have it right before we were going to walk to the bus station to buy our tickets to Rio we checked once more on Google Flights and they had fallen again. This time even lower than before. We were ecstatic and booked immediately to fly out the next day!! Next destination RIO DE JANEIRO !!