June 8th or: game over

Sunday morning, 10am and no bags packed yet – it was about time. We did that and then tried to get some Cachaca to bring home (because the Cachaca in Germany is abysmal compared to the original brazilian one). This actually wasn't too easy, because apparently everybody's favorite activity on a sunday is supermarket shopping. Two bottles should be sufficient though.

We arrived at the airport in time to shoot another video and to check in everything without stress whatsoever. Following this was an absolutely calm overnight flight to Paris.

Now we're sitting in Paris, waiting for the plane to Munich. And then this trip will finally be over. I'm really looking forward to being in Germany again, but it'll also be sad to leave these awesome four weeks behind. 

June 7th or: back to the urban jungle

When we got up, we discovered that there isn't much else to do in Iguazú. There is a mine, which is according to Tripadvisor a ripoff, and a power plant, which is apparently really interesting, but has to be booked in advance. So we decided on a late checkout and just relaxed a little at the hostel. 

For lunch, we had another classical argentinian thing: "empanadas". They are basically puff pastries (ger. Blätterteig) filled with various things: beef, chicken, ham & cheese, corn or vegetables. That's what a great snack looks like. After hustling back through the rain that accompanied us through our whole stay here, we met up with Carlos one last time to go to the airport.

There, things got a little close, because the security and check-in line was really long, but we caught our plane to Sao Paulo CGH just in time. CGH (Congonhas) is an airport located in the city, which enabled us to save lots of taxi money. 

Japanese Rodízio was the last supper for us in Brazil. All you can eat sushi and other japanese food certainly isn't bad, although we weren't quite satisfied. Well, at least we got a discount. The three Germans of us went for another Caipirinha afterwards, in a restaurant with two great live musicians. One of them managed to play the guitar and drums at the same time -- don't ask how. 

And well, that's it. I'm sitting here typing this with our plane to Germany leaving in 5 hours. I will write a wrapup of the stay tomorrow, until now I can just say: I have no regrets. It was an absolutely great decision to come here and I'd do it again anytime!  

June 6th or: just another waterfall

We woke up to rain knocking on our windows. Not the best weather to do some outside sightseeing, but hell, we're only in Iguazú once. Carlos picked us up to go to the argentinian side of the falls, where we booked not only the entry to the park, but also two boat rides. One on the river in the hope of seeing some rare animals, the other to go straight below the waterfall.

First of all, we went to see the "garganta del diablo" though. It is a 150m wide, 700m long canyon with insane amounts of water flowing down. Standing right above it is pretty terrifying and fascinating at the same time. Definitely worth going there, it'll be difficult to see anything comparable again.

Then we took the raft ride down the river. We didn't see any real animals, but learned a couple interesting facts about the falls. The water level varies with each day, and sometimes it goes up so high that the normal walking trails cannot be used anymore (which is impressive because they are 2m above water level and the river already carried more water than normally). Moreover, the water going down the falls used to be crystal clear, but due to deforestation lots of soil erodes, thus coloring the water brown. And of course the myth about the creation of the falls was important aswell: the guarani god Boi demanded the sacrifice of a virgin every year. Once, the virgin fled with her beloved one down the Iguacu river. The god spotted her and smashed her, thus creating the falls of Iguacu. The virgin turned into a stone, her lover into a tree on the other side of the river, and they were separated forever.

Enough with the tales now. We wanted to do some real life business. So we took a speedboat ride right next to the waterfalls. Needless to say, we were soaked completely. And by completely, I mean every single centimeter of the body. The rain had stopped by now, but it wouldn't have mattered anyway. We then took another trail, looked at more stunningly beautiful waterfalls, but it basically was an overload of great panoramic views. They were "just another waterfall". Aaaaand another one, and so on. You get the idea. 

After getting somewhat dry and warm, we wanted to enjoy some more argentinian beef. We ordered a barbecue plate and 600g of finest steak, indulging ourselves into great meat. Oh man, I could eat this every day. Great finish for a great day.

Sadly I don't have any pictures for you today. I didn't bring my camera or phone, because it just would have gotten destroyed. Yesterday should be sufficient to give you a first impression though.

June 5th or: Puerto Iguazú

Since we went to bed at 9, we only got 2 hours of sleep. That was more than sufficient though. Carlos picked us up and took us across the border we had crossed just a couple of hours before, back to Brazil. Today, we wanted to take a look at the brazilian side of the Iguacu Waterfalls. 

What are the Iguacu Waterfalls? 20 large and up to 255 smaller waterfalls, where up to 7000m³ water go down -- every second. Forget everything you have learned about Niagara Falls, this is the real deal. They lie at the border of Argentina and Brazil with one town nearby on each side of the border: Foz do Iguacu in Brazil and Puerto Iguazú in Argentina, where we were accomodated. They are provided with water by the River Iguazú, which is impressively large. 

We entered the park, took a bus to the trail and this is what we saw: 

first view of the falls

I really do not wanna write much about all this, you just have to see for yourself. It is truly amazing, and makes you wonder how nature can create something this phenomenal. The falls are considered one of the new 7 wonders of the world for a reason. The brute force of nature just keeps going, and you know that whenever you come back, the falls will still be there, grinding away rocks and moving insane amounts of water. 

taking a selfie of people taking a selfie (it was a little foggy at times)

finally found the end of the rainbow

We went very close to one of the falls and thoroughly got soaked before going back to dry. Getting dry was quite a challenge, since it was raining and heating doesn't exist here (my shoes are still soaked two days later, can't do nothing about it). We finished the day with great argentinian beef paired with great red wine. Funny thing to note: I was startled when "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" started playing. But then I realized that it's actually winter. That was a weird moment though. 

Even though we were just across the border, you can notice that Puerto Iguazú is in a different country. It is a small town where I feel completely safe. There isn't much to do besides looking at waterfalls, but the food is better (because there are vegetables) and it's easier for us to communicate. Frankly, I understand the south american spanish better than the spanish spanish. 

June 4th or: the best day ever

http://youtu.be/_pGaz_qN0cw

What in the world is this, you ask? Our wakeup song. Quite extraordinary, but it worked well, even at 6am. We had a long day ahead of us, 27 hours to be accurate. 

First of all, we ran down and back the whole Copacabana beach at sunrise. Going back and seeing the sun rise above the sugar loaf (Pao de Acucar) was a breathtaking sight. To all of you who doubt if it's the right time to go running: it always is. We almost didn't go, and we would've missed something I will remember for a long time. Jumping into the waves right after definitely was the right thing to do aswell. We stayed a little too long, so we were behind of our schedule, but screw schedules -- if you can do great things, just do them. You can always worry about other stuff later. 

A shower and an excessive breakfast later, we dropped off our baggage at Tino's, checked out and headed to the metro in order to pay a visit to Jesus. By that, I do not mean going to church. You can always see churches in Europe. By that I mean Cristo at Corcovado, the statue of Christ looking all above Rio de Janeiro. That's him:

Jesus is the guy in the middle .. no, not the one with the camera

We went up there by metro, public bus, private van and another private van. It took a while, but it included a stop at a platform with a view all across Rio before heading up to the Cristo himself, where the view was great too, but it was a little too crowded. Río de Janeiro from above is simply beautiful, seeing landmarks, beaches and favelas. Take a look yourself: 

all of Rio in one picture

Pao de Acucar

a surprisingly large lagoon right in the city

On the way back we accidentally took the wrong bus, but luckily it went by a metro station so we could back in time. Because the sun sets so early, time was limited and we wanted to spend that at the beach. Everything took forever (getting back, getting dressed, getting food), but eventually we set out once more for Ipanema beach, hoping to catch the sunset this time. We did, and it was great. Crashing the waves with the sun going down between the "dois irmaos" (two brothers, they are two mountains next to each other) was beautiful. 

sunset at Ipanema beach

Going back, we grabbed a slice of pizza with catupiry-filled crust. Catupiry is a local "cheese", but to me its looks and consistency are more like mashed potatoes. The taste is cheesy indeed though. Since our flight to Iguazú left at 5am, we still had plenty of time left, so we decided to check out the real Río nightlife. 

First of all, we went to a really small bar, where you could just help yourself at the fridge and then pay to the owner who was playing cards outside. Live music was starting later aswell. That's also where we met Roxi and her two friends, who would spend the rest of the night with us. And no, Roxi wasn't -- contrary to her name -- a stripper, but a really nice girl from Ecuador. 

that's how it's done!

We took the metro to Lapa, which is sort of the Ehrenfeld of Río de Janeiro. It used to be sort of a favela, but became gentrified. To me, it looked sketchy, but it was totally safe. A guy on the street was selling caipirinhas, and for 5R$ we just couldn't say no. He told us that he's been doing this for 10 years now, and that he drinks a couple of them every night as well. Yeah, that's that. They tasted great anyway. Afterwards, we enjoyed some Funk and Samba music at different bars and had an amazing time. 

Normally, you don't want to end amazing nights, but tonight we had to -- we had a plane to catch. Taxi back to Tino's, get luggage, go to the airport. We arrived way too early of course, so we had a decent chat with the employees of the airline who didn't have anything to do either. Pretty cool. Eventually, the plane to Iguazú arrived.

Next thing I can recall is the landing above Iguazú. Trees everywhere, everything looked the same. Oh god, where are we, there is NOTHING here. I started to feel sad to have left Rio, this city still has so much to offer. The airport itself was probably the smallest airport I have seen so far, even smaller than Kigali International Airport in Rwanda. The average train station of a small town in Germany is bigger. 

After getting our passport checked (which took forever, because one of the employees there decided to not wanna work today), we went to the city with Carlos, our taxi driver, who would accompany us on later trips as well. All we wanted was a bed. We had already booked the hostel and were able to get a room right away, so it wasn't a problem. The hostel itself is very basic, but our three bed room is clean, quiet and has an own bathroom. Can't ask for much more.

June 3rd or: Río de Janeiro

6am sharp the alarm went off once again. We got up, jammed some breakfast into our stomachs and set off to the "Rodaviária", the bus station. It took us about two hours to get to downtown Río de Janeiro, where we were able to catch the metro. The metro is considered safe even by the most careful people and meets european standards (mostly because of the impending world cup). Line 1 is supposed to be finished by now and way longer, but of course isn't yet. Maybe for the olympics in 2016. 

could also be in Europe: Cardeal Arcoverde

Our hotel was right at the Copacabana beach, a beach we were told that would be crowded by visitors and junk-salesmen. Well, take a look yourself:

the crowded Copacabana beach

What I also thought was really awesome were the ubiquitous fitness stations, where you can do basically any bodyweight exercise: pullups narrow/medium/wide, dips, tricep dips, core exercises. You could easily find one within 200m from anywhere on that beach. Not just that, but soccer and volleyball pitches everywhere. I know what I'd be doing if I lived there. Generally it was noticeable that people in Rio do more sports and thus look better than in Sao Paulo. But then again, it's easier to disguise a belly below a dress / suit than below bathing clothes. It is said that the "Paulistanos" (inhibitants of Sao Paulo) work hard, whereas the "cariocas" (people of Rio) aren't too much about work, but about hanging out at the beach and relaxing; basically lazy. 

We however weren't. We dropped our bags at the hotel, then got some skewers right at the beach. Not a lot of food, but good. But we still lacked the basic equipment for a good time at the beach: flip flops and a bikini. Buying flip flops in Copacabana is basically like buying beer in Germany -- you can get them anywhere and you have lots of choices aaaand they're cheap. I paid 4€ for a high quality pair. I might get another one. 

Ipanema beach after sunset

Equipped properly, we checked in at the hotel quickly and set off to a walk down the beach of Copacabana. Our goal was to observe the sunset at the neighboring Ipanema beach, but we were a little late -- the sun just goes down so early here since it's winter. Yet it was a nice, almost 7km walk to Leblon, a quarter where the "young and beautiful" people are supposed to be at night. All I can say is: nope, not true. We found a place with customized salads and great passion fruit juice, and it was the best dinner ever. We haven't had real vitamins for 3 weeks straight now, and that really felt good. We even raised our vitamin C consumption with two caipirinhas at a comfortable, classy bar with live music. There, we met Tino, a friend and fellow Enactee from Munich who is spending a semester abroad in Rio. I'm a little jealous. Daniel tried a beer with salt, tabasco, "english sauce" and limes. Sounds good? No. It was absolutely terrible and tasted like freshly thrown-up, chilled puke. But then again, if you always try everything, you will eventually find something that isn't good. That's part of the game.

I'm really starting to like the idea of getting up early. So we set the alarm for 6am sharp again. We can sleep when we are dead (or in Germany).

PS: Whenever something is crowded in Brazil (or anybody talks about something being crowded), they have this gesture where they put their thumb and their four other fingers together pointing upwards. Took me some time to understand that.

June 2nd or: Petrópolis

Today actually started off yesterday. At 11pm at night, we caught a bus to Petrópolis, which wasn't too easy. First, you have to book online, then pick up your ticket, then weigh your luggage at the gate .. it's basically an airport for buses. Considering it has around 75 gates with buses leaving at any time of the day to any target you wish in Brazil or even Argentina/Chile/Paraguay, it probably serves more people than the average airport. Really interesting, but then again very important here in Brazil because there are no trains.

We were told taking the bus would be terribly uncomfortable, but actually it was more comfortable than equivalent buses in Germany. We even were able to catch some sleep.

Once we got to Petrópolis, we were picked up by our charming host Filomena. We caught a first glimpse of the city, which was the summer residence of the portuguese king during colonial times, because Rio de Janeiro simply was too hot. Petrópolis lies a little more inside of the country and inside the mountains, so the climate is more "european". The center of the city is baffling. Beautiful cathedral, lots of colonial houses along a promade that resembles the "champs elysées" in Paris. 

First of all, we wanted to sleep some more though. From our house, you were able to enjoy a breathtaking view out of a panoramic window of the whole Petrópolis area. Absolutely incredible. Subtropical jungle paired with colonial houses, really really pretty. 

breathtaking views

After breakfast, we set out to discover the city. The weather was indeed very european, mainly cloudy, not really warm and with the possibility of rain starting any minute. After we first took a wrong turn, we went to take a look at the king's residence (which was closed), mastered a challenge (finding a bathroom in a public library) and saw the cathedral. We went for a beer in a really pretty bar inside of a colonial house and got locked in there because it started raining heavily. Dinner was supposed to be at the local brewery (arguably the best beer in Brazil, which I agree with; it's called "Bohemia" and of course of german origin), but it was closed. Monday seems to be the sunday of Petrópolis because nothing really is open. 

Petrópolis cathedral at night

We ended up in a nice restaurant eating classic brazilian food: meat, sausage, bacon, rice, fries, sand (yeah, you notice the lack of vitamins). Still good though, I'm not going to complain. Then we got back and planned our trip to Rio, which will start tomorrow early in the morning. The weather is supposed to be great, we have a nice hotel right at Copacabana beach and good plans to do in our two days there. This will be exciting!