WELCOME TO BRAZIL

WEATHER: FLIPPING HOT AND 40C

HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Having no problems getting into Brazil – finally here

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Feeling a little shady after the wine tasting-must have been something I ate

WORD OF THE DAY:  Ice Ice baby

Well I didn’t wake up tooooooo bad.  A little rusty, but nothing that I couldn’t handle.  I am glad that I had packed yesterday though.  I now have rearranged my bag for ‘camping’ and packed all the ‘hotel’ stuff back into the big pack.  It is all in the organization on just how much you enjoy camping.  Kate and I have our systems in place and we know whose job is what with the erecting of the tent and in the mornings which order we get the tent down, shower and breakfast.  We make great tent buddies and I will miss her and out tent gossips when Zeme arrives in 9 DAYS!   The good thing is there aren’t too many tent days on the next section, so that makes me feel a little bit better.  At least I know Zeme is a camper, as they stay in tents on their tours and they actually put them up for clients as well which is nice.  So Kate and I only have 8 more nights together and that is a little sad, but we will be together again when Z leaves in Caracas, there will still be 5 weeks of tour left.

We cross into another country today.  No. 8 of South America.  BRAZIL.  But it won’t be till this afternoon as we are staying pretty close to the border as the next 4 nights will be out and about exploring the mighty Iguassu Falls from the Brazil and Argentinian sides.  We left Asuncion at 7.30am and we had 6 hours to get to the border.  I am expecting the Brazil border formalities to be all over the top and hoity toity with all the dramas and fuss they make of getting their visas. 

At our lunch stop I was able to buy my bag of ice for my water esky and it was only 1AUD.  I got half the bag into the cooler and filled the remaining space from my water bottle and wallah I had a nice cold icy drink in which to suck from for the rest of the afternoon.  That is one thing I have missed is ice in my drinks, so not to waste the rest of the ice, I used one of the movie cups Kate and I had saved and filled that with ice and added in my Coke and on a hot hot day, slightly hung-over, it was heaven.  Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

We arrived at the Paraguay formalities at 2.30pm, where we got off the truck, marched into a small, but aircon’ed room and got our passports stamped and we were back on the truck at 2.45pm. A quick border is always a good border, especially when it is 15 minutes!!!   We had to cross a bridge over the Paraná River which runs through Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina for some 4,880 kilometers.  All trade between Brazil and Paraguay uses the Friendship Bridge. The Parana River is second in length only to the Amazon River among South American rivers. The name Paraná is an abbreviation of the phrase "para rehe onáva", which comes from the Tupi language and means "like the sea" (that is, "as big as the sea"). It merges first with the Paraguay River and then farther downstream with the Uruguay River to form the Río de la Plata and empties into the Atlantic Ocean. 

Now let’s see what Brazil had to offer.  The border controls for both countries was massive and it is smack bang in a massive shopping area called Ciudad del Este that sells goods duty free on the Paraguayan border.  It was so busy.  They have a system where if you use these courier bikes, they are dressed in yellow vests and have yellow helmets; you can cross back and forth on the border without having to be stamped in and out each time.  So there are literally 100’s of these bikes that have their own motorbike lanes ferrying people back and forth.  It is supposed to have cheap electronics, but with the heat, I am not sure I could be fagged going through the whole thing to save a small amount of money.  Surprisingly Brazil was quite low key and very quick to process us all though.  The truck took longer to get cleared than all of us getting stamped.  There was an inspector that checked the truck over and after an hour or so we were back on the road again at 4pm and heading for the camp site via a supermarket stop. 

WELCOME TO BARZIL.

So with another country comes another currency.  They use the Brazilian Real here and the rate for one Australian dollar is 1.85 Reals.  I think I can manage my 2 times tables.  The other main change entering Brazil is they speak Portuguese and not Spanish, so the 5 words that I had learnt in the last 3 months are now useless and will now need to learn another language, well at least five more words.  The biggies like toilet, thank you, how much, hello and goodbye.  Apparently Portuguese and Spanish can be crossed over, so all is not lost, but people appreciate if you learn some of their language, even if it is the basics.  Mark gave us a translation sheet, so I am sure I will have time to study that for the next 2 months we are in Brazil.  We also wound our watches forward an hour keeping up with the sun the further north we head.

We stopped in Foz do Iguaçu for a supermarket stop.  It is the 7th largest city in Paraná state, Brazil, with a population of 255,900 inhabitants. The inhabitants of the city are known as Iguaçuenses. The city is one of Brazil's most-frequented tourist destinations. The city has about 100 hotels and inns. Its main attractions are the Iguaçu Falls, which has a flow capacity equal to three times that of Niagara Falls. Part of the falls are on the Brazilian side. Others are on the Argentine side, including the "Garganta do Diabo" ("Devil's Throat" in Portuguese), the tallest of the falls, which is 97m.  Parque Nacional do Iguaçu (Iguaçu National Park), in both Brazil and Argentina, where the falls are.   

The city experienced a big economical boom in the 1960s to the late 1980s, first with the construction of the Friendship Bridge, concluded in 1965, and the Itaipu Dam, finished in the beginning of the 1990s. However, the city suffered with the world economy's recession that resulted in fewer tourists and fewer consumers of Ciudad del Este's imported goods.  In 2004, the city's economy started again to grow up, after a long time of recession.  The cities claim to fame worldwide is due almost entirely to the falls, which are known as the Iguassu Falls.  The city has the second largest Chinese community in Brazil (approx. 55,000, and second only to São Paulo), and the third largest Islamic community.

After stocking up on snacks and water at the supermarket, another 20 minutes got us arriving into camp.  And what a camp site it is!  They have a small pool, a lake, free Wi-Fi, a new toilet block, large head showers a nice bar area, pool table and couch area and a few bungalows around and hammock from trees AND all the food and drinks are run on a bar tab.  Oh yeah!  Dangerous, but oh yeah!!!  Sounds like heaven doesn’t it!!     

The tents were put up quick smart and then all went and did our own things.  Kate and I headed straight to the pool.  It wasn’t the cleanest, but hey, on a boiling hot day beggars can’t be choosers and even with the water like warm, it was amazing and reduced the body temperature to a more normal level. 

I also checked my emails and there was an email from Zeme.  The Brazil Consulate needed something in writing from me that he was travelling with me and that I would be with me for the full duration to which I could email to them direct with an email address.  Will this was good news, they were working on his application and it was only Tuesday.  This was very encouraging, so I did what was requested and cc’ed Zeme in.  I am starting to feel better that I know it is finally getting processed.  Thank goodness as there are 9 DAYS till he is here. 

I also got an email from Beth and my round the world ticket is looking all in order.  So I have pretty much finalized my next 12 months of travel and it feels great to know what I am doing and where I am going to be.  Thanks Beth for all your work, we finally got there so in summary I will be doing:

01 May Quito to Lima

02 May Lima to Easter Island

06 May Easter Island to Lima

07 May Lima to Miami

07 May Miami to Barbados

14 May Barbados to Miami

14 May Miami to Ottawa via Chicago

26 May  Ottawa to Chicago

02 June Chicago to Minneapolis

06 June Minneapolis to Las Vegas

13 June Las Vegas to Los Angeles

20 June Los Angeles to Auckland

22 June Auckland to Christchurch

25 June Christchurch to Auckland

04 July Auckland to Brisbane

08 August Brisbane to London via Singapore

29 August London to Addis Ababa

29 September Addis Ababa to London’

Date to be confirmed London to Sao Paulo

Date to be confirmed Sao Paulo to Quito

So not a bad looking itinerary, if I say so myself.  I have locked everyone in that I will be visiting and I am super uber excited to be seeing you all again and to have some down time, no tents and more than 2 nights in a place.  Be prepared for the Bernjuane xx

So another day draws to a close.  It is still warm and at 9pm it was still 30C to give you an idea on what we are dealing with here, but there was an amazing sunset that would rival some of my African sunsets and I am finally in Brazil.  Now we just need to get Z his visa and then I can truly relax and know he is on his way.