24 Dec 2013

Foz do Igaçu

Oi gente,

Here I'm again since a lot of time. But the last there wasn't anything special to talk about.
Now I want to tell you about my trip to the Iguassu Falls with Belo Brasil two weeks ago.

Tuesday (Day 1):
I started my journey on December 10th at the airport of Varginha. From there I went one hour to Campinas in the state of São Paulo.
There I met the first other exchange student who went to Foz too when I was waiting at the Gate for my second flight.
The two went very fast and on the way to Foz I had a TV in plane, so it was interesting.
I arrived in Foz do Igaçu at 3pm in the afternoon and went together with some other exchange students to our hotel.
The hotel was beautiful and had a big pool (which I've entered :( ).

The pool (it was raining bc of that it was empty
I shared a room with a girl from the Unit... Texas and another girl from Japan. I really enjoyed the time I had with them and we had so much fun!

Room girls <3 comment-3--="" i="" miss="" you="">
The first evening we had dinner at the hotel (the buffet there was amazing!) and then a little meeting about the rules and the program.
I've met some German exchange students I've already knew from my preparation weekend in Bad Hersfeld and some other AFSer from my first orientation here in Belo Horizonte.
Of course I got to know some other exchange students too and that was one of the greatest things of this trip.

Wednesday (Day 2):
After a very delicious breakfast we went to a bird park first. It was cool to see all this birds like parrots, toucans and all the other ones from just a very short distance. We could touch some too. It was an experience I'll never have again, I think.

I was a bit afraid of this bird, it was pushy ;)
After that we went to the waterfalls of Igaçu and it was just amazing. The waterfalls are so big and it's so unbelievabal to see them for real. I enjoyed the time there so much, for most getting wet, because this made this experience real for me.


After lunch at one of the park's restaurant I went on an optional Safari and boat tour. We had a short Safari trough the wood, a short walk and then a drive under one of the Iguassu falls. We got so wet there, but honestly I expected a bit more.
But hey, how many people can say that they had a shower below one of the waterfalls of Igaçu?


In the evening we stayed at the pool again until 11 o'clock and just talked to each other. And even I didn't sleep much because of this, I really enjoyed it. It was special this atmosphere there again which forms every time exchange students meet.

Thursday (Day 3):
This morning after breakfast we went to Paraguay by bus to go shopping. Ciudade del Este is really close to Brazil and it's duty free.
First we just stayed at two shopping centres, but then one of our stuff went to a shop of "Victoria Secret" with us.
I bought a little bag with some perfume, body lotion and shampoo there and later in another mal two more perfumes.


We had lunch in a shopping center in Foz do Igaçu back in Brazil where we had lots of restaurants to choose from. Shizuka (the Japanese girl I shared a room with) decided to eat some Sushi and I really liked it, even I can't eat with chopsticks :D
We had some time in the mall so I bought some little things.


Later this afternoon we went to "Itaipu Binacional", a hydroelectric dam (Info here). I was just tired and not that interested in that, but it was ok.


In the evening we went to a dance show which lots of dances from all over South America. It was great and the food we got was so delicious again (especially the dessert).
There were dances from Argentina, Peru, Paraguay, Mexico... and of course Brazil. I really like the Samba performance.
After the show they made a cake for Shizuka and Nick (German exchange student), because their birthdays were that day (Shizuka) and the day before (Nick).


Friday (Day 4):
This day we had to get up even earlier because we went to Argentina and they needed a lot of time at the frontier.
I slept when we waited for our stuff in the bus because I was really, really tired this morning.


After entering the new country we went to Iguassu National Park on the Argentinian side.
There we stood nearly over some of the waterfalls and it was really awesome. I couldn't believe that the things I saw are real.
We ate at a park restaurant where we had some problems with the currency first and thought everything was sooo expensive, even for real it wasn't.


Later we went to a view point from where we could see to Paraguay and Brazil while standing in Argentina.
After that we went to another duty free shop between the borders of Argentina and Brazil where I bought some new sneaker.



This night we stayed awake very long to enjoy the last time we had together. It just have been 3 days but I made some really good new friends and spent time with people I've already knew and liked. The Thais took plenty of photos as remembrances and other people had books and t-shirts to collect signatures and little texts.

Some of the exchange student had to go to the airport at 4am inclusive Shizuka. After about 3 hours of sleeping I woke up to say goodbye to here, even this scene feels like a dream when I try to remember it now.
She wrote me a really, really sweet letter and now I miss here so much. She's one of the nicest people I've ever met in life and I can't wait to see her again someday.

I got up at about 9am the next morning and because of the raining I couldn't go swimming like I'd imagined the day before.
I spent some time with Sarah (the Texan girl from my room) and some other exchange student before we got to the airport.
There I had to say goodbye a lot too soon and it was really sad.
This days in Foz have been one of the best I had here in Brazil and I enjoyed every single moment of this trip.

Todo mundo :)
After my flight to Campinas I had some time with my monitor there so went to a mall there where I had lunch at McDonald's and my best Brazilian ice cream. I also bought a present for my brother back in Germany and got some really cool sweets.

I arrived in Pouso Alegre at about 9pm where some family friends picked me up and got me back to Varginha.
The first night after the trip I spent "na Roça" with my family.

So this was a big post about one of my greatest memories here in Brazil.
Soon I'm going to tell you about the last week and the graduation of my older host sister and of course Christmas time here in Brazil.

Frohe Weihnachten, Feliz Natal & Merry Christmas,

Sandra

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am going to Brazil this year and really want to do this trip? How much money will I have to set aside to pay for it? Thank you :)

Anonymous said...

Hello, my name is Raquel, and I am from Australia. I will be going to Brazil for exchange this August! I was wondering if you would be able to tell me at what time of year the optional tours are (Amazon and the waterfall etc.) and how much they each cost! Thank you very much :)