Tríplice Fronteira, La Triple Fronteira, The Triple Frontier

Oi gente, tudo bem?

I'm back in Joinville and more or less rested from my trip to the Triple Frontier (where Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina meet), Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo. I'm going to split up the trip into the three posts so that one post won't be obscenely long. And now we begin with the Triple Frontier.
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On the night of Friday, July 13th, the two Colombians Natalia and Daniel, Ruhy, and I took a night bus from Joinville to Foz do Iguaçu, the town in Brasil. Our bus was supposed to leave at 20:45, but it didn't arrive at the terminal until 21:30 (side note: if you're travelling by bus in Brasil, I'd reccomend Catarinese, where the buses leave right on the dot...Pluma arrived an hour late and we arrived there almost two hours late, which is understandable since we took a half hour pit stop shortly after leaving the Joinville rodoviaria). The only good (?) thing about the bus arriving so late was that there was more time to say goodbyes with AIESECers. Natalia and Daniel just finished up their internships and wanted to travel a bit before returning to Colombia.

I'd highly recommend Timbó Posada.
Foi muito legal.

We arrived in Foz do Iguaçu around 9:00, and took a cab to the Argentine side of Puerto Iguazu. Unlike entering Brasil, the immigration in and out of Argentina was very easy.We checked into Hostel Timbó Posada, which is the nicest hostel ever. Before continuing with the day, I need to describe how beautiful the hostel was. Every morning, the wonderful people of the hostel served us breakfast that included coffee, bread, orange juice, fruit, and even chocolate cake. They were more than helpful and helped us plan each part of the trip. Furthermore, the hostel's decor had a homey feeling and featured a swimming pool and hammocks.

Since we arrived during mid-morning, it was already too late to visit the Argentine falls (not to mention that the entrance fee was 130 pesos for foreigners). Instead, we decided to try to cook. We went to the grocery store and bought ingredients for pasta with meat sauce. I believe we were economizing as we bought one kilo of ground meat for 10 Argentine pesos, which is equivalent to $1 per pound. There was another option of buying one kilo ground meat for 40 pesos...Anyway, we bought the really disgusting meat and returned to the hostel to (attempt to) cook it. It just smelled awful and we hid the smell with tons of garlic and black pepper. I would like to thank the invention of hot oil for killing the unknown bacteria in that meat and not getting food poisoning. In short, after two hours of failed cooking and really good laughs, the lessons learned are:

a) Don't buy meat that is not meant for human consumption
b) Don't let people who don't cook convince you that it is OK to throw a whole tomato into meat that is cooking
c) Too many cooks in the kitchen can be a really bad thing
d) In times like these, it's probably best to go across the street to buy something that won't kill you.


After lunch, we wanted to try to go to Paraguay, but apparently after 15:00 (seriously, 3pm?! ), all the stores close and it is very dangerous there. So instead, we walked around in the center of Puerto Iguazu, when we learned that the point where Brasil, Argentina, and Paraguay was only a ten minute walk away. We walked over to the river, and watched the sun set over the Paraguayan side.


On Sunday, we woke up early and took a bus to the Argentine side of the waterfalls. There isn't too much to say about the waterfalls, except that they were absolutely divine. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, so here are pictures describing our day at "Las Cataratas del Iguazú"(It's better if you view them in a large screen!).

At the top of La Garganta del Diablo

View from the upper passage

Rainbow in the lower passage

View from the lower passage

View of La Garganta del Diablo from a distance

La Garganta del Diablo

La Garganta del Diablo

On Monday, it was pouring buckets, but we still had to visit the Brasilian side of the waterfalls and Paraguay. However, Ruhy and I had to catch a flight to Rio de Janeiro at 18:00, meaning that we could only do one. Instead of going to the Brazilian side of the falls, for some reason, we decided to go to Paraguay. That made no sense as the Brazilian falls were about a five minute drive from the airport and we had to cross the entire city of Foz do Iguaçu to reach Paraguay. We still ventured on and took a bus to the border where Paraguay and Brasil meet. Then we went by foot across the 'Puente de la Amizade," which is possibly the ugliest bridge ever. I think it may also be representative of Brasil's relationship with Paraguay.

After crossing the bridge, we were on the Paraguay side, in the city of Ciudad del Este. Ciudad del Este and Paraguay as a whole is a place where you can buy cheap (replica) items. And it appeared like Chinatown or any city in Asia. However, once comparing the prices with the US, the prices were the same or even more. For example, a sweatshirt from Aeropostle cost $75. The sad thing is that we hiked in the rain all the way to Paraguay for cheap shopping but didn't even buy anything, except lunch.

Overall, Ciudad del Este was an strange experience. Paraguay is a Spanish-speaking country, but they spoke to us first in Portuguese, then in Spanish. Our lunch there was also interesting since it was a Brazilian restaurant, serving Brazilian food and accepting payment in reales. Secondly, it was funny to see globalization at work. We all bought different types of Coca-Cola, and they were all processed in different countries. My 150ml bottle of Coca-Cola was produced in Brasil; Natalia's can of Coca-Cola Zero was produced in Paraguay; Ruhy's can of Coke was produced in Argentina.

After Paraguay, we returned to the airport, and Ruhy and I headed to Rio de Janeiro. Natalia and Daniel took the next flight to Rio and were going to meet us there on Tuesday afternoon.