Sunday March 26, 2023

Today we traveled to Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil to see the magnificent Iguazu Falls. This is the largest waterfall system in the world located on the border of Argentina and Brazil, and attracts 1.5 million visitors every year. Three months spent in Argentina wouldn’t be complete without seeing this natural wonder.

In preparation, I spent the last morning at our airbnb apartment in Viña del Mar, Chile, packing our backpacks. Every time I do this, I’m thankful we chose to pack lightly on this trip. In the past two months, we’ve stayed at 13 places in nine different cities across Argentina, Chile, and Brazil. Traveling lightly makes the logistics simpler!

While I packed, Andi and Aden left the apartment on a little recovery mission. Last night after visiting the Concon sand dunes, Andi was shaking out his tennis shoes over our 19th floor balcony and lost one of his insoles. It sailed away in the wind like a kite! So this morning, Andi and Aden went to look for the insole and to grab breakfast while they were out. They happily returned with both — the insole and Dunkin Donuts.

On their walk back, they encountered an intoxicated man on the pedestrian bridge near our airbnb apartment. Andi said he knew the man was going to be confrontational by the look on his face, so he shielded Aden behind him as they walked. The man shouted obscenities to them, and didn’t like that Andi was ignoring him. Andi and Aden were able to get past the guy OK, and then had a long talk about drugs and strangers. Aden was a little shook up by the experience when they returned to the airbnb, but honestly things like that happen — and they can happen anywhere. Viña del Mar is a nice resort community near Valparaiso and we’ve felt nothing but safe staying here otherwise.

Andi hired a driver to take us from Viña del Mar to the airport in Santiago, Chile today. After all our bags were packed, we still had 90 minutes to burn before our departure, so Andi and I watched church online and ordered lunch from Uber Eats. When our food arrived at Noon, we realized the meals were cold. Somehow Andi ordered the equivalent of microwave dinners from a place called Foodie. Huh.

Today would be a long travel day, so we quickly warmed up the food in the microwave and ate it anyway. Our ride arrived at 12:30pm and we set off for Santiago.

Santiago is two hours inland from Valparaiso, Chile. It was amazed how dry the climate became once we left the coast — and hot! The temperature quickly changed from the mid-70’s into the 90’s by the time we reached Santiago.

In Santiago, we entered the international terminal as we were traveling to Brazil. The Santiago airport is easy to navigate and we had plenty of time to spare before our flight departed. Andi wanted to get something else to eat since our lunch delivery was so gross, so we ordered grilled chicken, salad, chorizo sausage, and French fries for the four of us to share at a restaurant in the airport. Then, we boarded our Jet Smart flight to Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil. The kids were excited because we sat in the 2nd row of the plane! Jet Smart is a budget airline (equivalent to Frontier, Spirit or Southwest in the USA), so we had to pay extra for everything including our seats. For that reason, Andi was able to pick exactly where we sat on the plane. “Is this first class?!” Tory asked with excitement in her voice. Um, no… Not even close.

Our flight landed in Foz do Iguaçu at 7:30pm. I was glad to see that Brazil stamps passports when entering into their country. I was disappointed to learn that some countries, like Argentina, don’t. Andi reminded me that a passport isn’t a souvenir, and that most of immigration paperwork is done electronically. “Yeah, but don’t you want to collect the stamp to say you’ve been there?” I responded.

Andi arranged for a driver to pick us up at the airport, and take us to our airbnb. Before we left the airport, we stopped at an ATM to get some Brazilian money which are called reais. Then, we had our driver take us to the grocery store in Foz do Iguaçu to buy something for breakfast tomorrow.

Grocery stores are so interesting! This was, by far, the nicest grocery store we’ve shopped at on this trip. The produce section had a huge selection of tropical fruits, there was a nice meat counter, a big BBQ grilling section, and an entire aisle of dulce de leche varieties. The most unique product I spotted was crustless bread. Prices were listed in reais which really meant nothing to us having only been in Brazil for an hour (1 Brazilian real = $.19 USD). Even signs were confusing as they’re written in Portuguese.

This is also the nicest (and most expensive) airbnb we’ve rented on our trip. The owner is Brazilian, but coincidently, lives in Minneapolis, and has been so helpful in answering Andi’s questions and helping us rebook our flights to Foz do Iguaçu. The condo is relatively new & gorgeous! We had the option of staying on either the Argentina or Brazilian side of Iguazu Falls, and ultimately decided to stay here when we found this place available.

This airbnb condo has its own pool, so that’s exactly where Aden plunged as soon as we dropped our bags. This will be a great place to stay while we visit Iguazu Falls and Andi remotely works on Wednesday.

There are national parks on both sides of Iguazu Falls, so tomorrow we’ll visit the Brazilian side. I’m looking forward to it.