Foz do Iguaçu

Ok...we made it to Foz!

After nearly 24 hours on the road H and I arrived in Foz at lunchtime today. We left Paraty at 2pm yesterday and travelled to Sao Paulo with Zoe, Colm and Shane in luxury. The bus was air conditioned and the seats reclined so far it was like being in one of those adverts for BA´s Business Class. The scenery was spectacular as we travelled down the coast road and then up and over the mountains, through the rainforest. A local artist in Paraty told me the first few hours of the journey to Sao Paulo was the best bus journey in Brazil and I reckon he must have been right. Why was I talking to a local artist I hear you ask? Well as I walked past his gallery I said the word "Art" quyite loudly in H´s direction, half-expecting her to take me inside to have a look round. But the guy standing by the entrance was the artist himself. I felt quite rude at making such a comment, especially as he said that he hoped it was indeed art and that he tried his best. And so we got onto talking about bus journeys.

Anyway we arrived in Sao Paulo at 7.30pm and after saying goodbye to Zoe and Colm, who have been great company ever since meeting them in Rio, H, Shane and myself tried to find out when the next bus was out of Sao Paulo - the idea of spending any longer than we had to didn´t appeal at all. To our surpise the next bus left at 8pm - we had visions of spending the night in the bus station. So we gladly got our tickets and made our way to the platform. We were pretty chuffed that we needn´t spend more than half an hour in Sao Paulo. Having spent the last five and a half hours on a bus in luxury we had high hopes for the 16 hour bus trip that we were about to start.
The bus looked ok from the outside, and I can sense you know what is coming next. It was a shitheap. There was no proper air-con, the TVs had been removed and the seats didn´t recline as much as we had hoped for. When you are 6´2" you need all the room you can get on these things, and although there was more leg room than on a normal long-haul flight, I knew the journey would be uncomfortable. But when things don´t turn out as expected you just get on with it, and enjoy it as much as possible.

When the bus left Sao Paulo things got slightly worse - not only was the suspension and gear box knackered but the bus was in serious need of some WD40. Actually we hyadn´t even left Sao Paulo when we found ourselves being driven up this dark road and into a garage. There were loads of other buses there and I thought we would be chaning buses for something better. When we stopped a couple of other gringo´s came and chatted to us and hoped for the same thing. You can only imagine our disappointment as we drove over a garage pit, only for the door to remain closed as a few Paulista´s put some freight in the hold.

So on we went into the night. I guess the best thing about not having a TV was the fact that we didn´t have to watch terrible movies in Portuguese. We stopped a few times as you do on these trips, in the middle of nowhere, to be served by people who´s job it is to serve people who turn up every now and again in the middle of nowhere. It makes for an interesting combination. After listening to the iPod for a bit (thanks again to Andy for the Medley ) and wishing that I had a book to read, I managed to get a bit of sleep. But it´s just like sleeping on an aeroplane, waking up every ten minutes, thinking hours had passed by when they hadn´t, and wondering where the hell you are. We were treated to a fantastic sunrise but I barely remember it because I was so knackered. And the bit after sunrise, when most of the bus (or aeroplane) wakes up is the bit I dislike the most - everyone yawning, stretching, farting and queueing for the toilet which by this time was beginning to smell. Luckily we weren´t sat near it, that pleasure went to three highly tattooed Brazilians who looked like they had just stepped out of The Lost Boys movie. After one more pit stop for more greasy food we finally made it to Foz just before midday. We arrived during a huge downpour.

I have been on a lot of long distance bus journeys on my travels but I think the one from Sao Paulo to Foz was the second worst I have ever been on. The worst was the overnight one from Dahab to Cairo (sat right behind the happy clappy bus driver and the whole of his family (who sung arabic songs the whole way), without any leg room at all - with the "attendant" slapping my knees everytime I tried to stretch my legs in the aisle).

I had pre-booked two hotels in Foz because I could. Zoe and Colm had recommedend one and "the book" recommended another. We decided to go for the one that Zoe and Colm recommended and after working out what buses we all needed to get, and when, out of this place, we set off in a taxi to the hotel. We left 15 minutes later and went to the one recommended by the LP. There were two parts to this hotel, the old and the new, and we must have been put in the different part to the one Zoe and Colm had stayed in. Our view from the bedroom window was of a wall no more than three feet away, and it was very basic for the money we were paying. Although excited at the prospect of finally having a 220 volt socket so I could charge my batteries and H´s iPod we knew we should leave. So we went to next hotel - and I discovered that if I unplugged ther air-con I could still charge my batteries.

We left Shane to try and win some more travelling money via his online poker addiction and H and I set off into town. This place reminds me of some strange outback Australian town, but it´s cool seeing street signs for Paraguay and Argentina. And every shop here has the most ridiculous number of shop attendants waiting to "help" you as you enter.

So tomorrow we head off to the Brazilian side of the Iguassa falls which should be brilliant. I really want to check out the Itaipu Dam as well. In a couple of days we will go to the Argentinian side, but we have yet to decide if we will leave Foz and head to Puerto Iguazu, the Argentinian eqiivalent to Foz, and spend any time there. You can easily see each side via local buses from Foz but Puerto is supposed to be nicer - I guess it all depends on whether or not we can be arsed to pack and unpack our bags again.

I´ll do a blog, with some piccys, after we have been to the falls.