Brazil, it’s Now or Never
It all comes down to today. We’ve got a 4pm flight from the airport on the other side of the border to Rio de Janeiro, and no back up plan for what happens if things go south. Optimistic, we check out of our hotel with one last look out the floor to ceiling windows at Iguassu Falls. We noticed it yesterday, but there is definitely a change in amount of water. The sight is still impressive, but a little less so than when we first arrived. Most people, who just past through for a day or two would never notice, and we realize that we lucked out a bit seeing them in full display.
Since our plans today border a bit on the unusual, we have arranged for a car and driver to stick with us until we finish up with our visas (assuming all goes according to plan) and then take us all the way through to the airport on the Brazilian side of the border. At a few minutes before 8am, he pulls up in front of the consulate, where a few people are already milling about on the sidewalk. When the doors open, the little old man from Friday waves us to the front and starts a colleague in on our paperwork. It is a tense few minutes of flipping pages back and forth, but he hands us a receipt and tells us to come back a noon.
Four hours is a LOT of time to spend in Puerto Iguazu. Our driver does his best to show us the sight (yes, as far as I can tell there is only one), which is where Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay all meet. We take the obligatory picture, and then head to the center of town, where we spend the rest of our morning looking for gifts.
We have no use for Argentinian Pesos after today and can’t change them back to dollars (currency controls and all), and as it turns out, we guessed pretty well what we would end up using as we drain the last of our baggies of money and even convert a few more dollars to pay for the last of our mementos.
Promptly at noon, we are right back at the consulate, hoping to pick up our passports. At 12:15 we’re still there. Then 12:30, the occasional “5 more minutes” sign from the person at the desk the only things keeping us sane. At 12:40 (1:40 Brazil time) we’re finally rewarded with fresh visas, and a clear path to the final stop on our trip.
Our itinerary has us flying through Sao Paolo (which we have such fond memories of), changing airports there, and continuing on to Rio de Janeiro. But now things get a little weird. As we are checking in, the gate agent tells us there is a direct flight leaving earlier than our scheduled flight so would we like to change? Say what? Surely there must be a $100 change fee, or a standby fee of some sort? But no, just common sense courtesy from an airline. Twilight Zone kind of stuff.
The new schedule gets us into Rio at 5pm (instead of 10pm), so after cabbing it to the hotel, we have time to seek out our first churrascarria. It is on the bucket list to do here, and all in all we are happy with the meal, but big picture it is about the same price as we would find back home with fewer choices. We’re definitely not in the land of $8 steaks anymore.
It has definitely been a long day, and bordering now on a food coma, we head back to the hotel. We are right on the waterfront, and with the patio doors open, the sound of the waves crashing onto the beach, we are out in no time.