Day 79: Puerto Iguazu, Argentina

Get there early! That`s the best advice we can give you. Iguazu Falls is a huge tourist magnet (obviously–it`s amazing!!) and there are certain times during the day that sends waves of tour groups rushing in. The absolute best way to see the falls is on your own, at your own pace. Everything is so clearly marked and well laid out with walkways and maps and trail signs, there is literally no way to get lost even if you wanted to!

Us at the falls

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Day 78: Puerto Igauzu, Argentina

This morning we happily checked out of Foz de Iguazu and took a city bus (labeled “Argentina,“ cost 3 reals) across the border into Argentina. We walked around the tiny town trying to find a place to crash for the night and came across the Anahi hostel, about 15 minutes walk from the bus terminal. It`s a clean, well run establishment where we paid $7.14 (breakfast included) each for a couple bunks and a shared bath. The daytime manager speaks 3 languages and is a funny, hyper man who will make sure you are well taken care of. After a fabulous lunch at Il Fratello (the best calzones outside the States) and top notch service on a budget (come on, everything we do is on a tight budget!), we wandered through the town seeing it with news eyes without the weight of our backpacks. Read the rest of this entry »

Day 62: Petropolis, Brazil

We are absolutely in love with this city! It´s so beautiful, it´s relaxed, it´s comfortable. It´s perfect! There are beautiful parks, cobbled streets, canals, mountains, typical conveniences, tons of fruit stores, and gorgeous buildings.

Checked out the Imperial Museum where all visitors are required to wear the big fuzzy slippers over their own shoes while walking (sliding, rather) through the musuem.

Our rockin`fuzzy slippers!

It´s $2 for students and $4 for non-students to get in. The route throughout is roped off so you must follow the intended order of things. There are tons of neat artifacts from the royal family like the king´s clothes and crown, tons of ladies´fans, lots of lovely oriental decorations like vases and boxes plus lots of beautiful furnishings. Read the rest of this entry »

Day 61: Petropolis, Brazil

We needed to do a spot of shopping today but all the stores are still closed from Carnival. Most places close down for about a week during the celebration and some don´t open again til March 1st or so. We did some errands and did some web work before taking a late lunch. In Brazil, a buffet restaurant is called a “self-service“ and they usually sell food by weight. It´s typically 100 grams of food for $1.50 or $2 in smaller areas but can be more expensive in places like Rio. Ours tend to come out to about $3-4/person with drinks too! Self-service places are always a great deal but it´s a good idea to have a look at the buffet before you start loading up your plate to make sure the food looks decent and there aren´t any (or many) flies.

We couldn´t help ourselves and had to go see another movie (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button this time!). Of course, we had to make an ice cream stop at Toni`s, but only to kill some time before the movie…

Deliciously Glamourous Banana Split

We got up really early to go down to our new favorite bakery/restaurant to pick up breakfast for our wonderful hosts Bernardo and Marilia for hosting us an extra 2 days. Everything would´ve been fine, except we had forgotten to take our anti-malarials the night before (too much Carnival fun!) and had to take them this morning asap. Taking them on empty stomachs is a really bad idea, as we discovered! Read the rest of this entry »

Day 40: Uvita, Costa Rica

Still groggy from yesterday´s travel (bus travel makes one very lethargic), we sauntered down the street back to the bus terminal and hopped a bus to Uvita. It was headed down the “slow“ road along the coast and crawled the whole way, probably never going over 30 mph. Luckily, we got to sit in the handicap seats with a lot of leg room since no one actually needed them on this trip. Read the rest of this entry »

Day 21: Bus from Flores, Guatemala to San Salvador, El Salvador

Bought a ticket yesterday for today’s long bus ride at the same tour agency that we got our Tikal transportation from. We paid $30 each and made sure to ask (three times) that it would be a direct bus on a Pullman (the big “Greyhound” type, not the reconditioned old school bus, aka “Chicken bus”). However, like most things, the 9 hour “direct” bus turned into a 12 hour stop-every-quarter-mile-or-so-to-pick-up-more-passengers-than- there-are-seats ride. Read the rest of this entry »

Day 1: La Ceiba, Honduras

We finally got our Taca boarding pass at around 2:30 in the morning after an uncomfortable couple of hours in the back end of the airport. From Miami we flew to Managua, Nicaragua but luckily did not have to get off the plane. We were both really tired by this point so we were out as soon as the tires were off the ground, which we both missed the snack on the flight (some fruit and yogurt). Read the rest of this entry »