23/01/2020 – Puerto Iguazu, Argentina, to Foz de Iguacu, Brasil

Bit of a weird nights sleep as the mattress has a big old dip which meant that Josh and I ended up in a pile in the middle! We had a coffee then got up and packed our bags before making ourselves some breakfast. We dropped the keys in to the lady on the till in the minimarket opposite, as was instructed via Whatsapp via our air bnb host. We walked to the bus terminal and used up some of the last of our Argentinian pesos to buy our tickets (about £2 each) across the border to Brasil. Whilst we waited for the bus to turn up Josh and I did a temporary fix of my bags shoulder strap with a knot and some mini cable ties. It should do for now but am in the process of contacting Osprey. Eventually the bus came, it was a run down little public bus that shuttles between the two towns across the Argentina/Brasil border. We drove for about 20 minutes and then were instructed to all get out. We were at the exit Argentina migration control. The border was not busy, just our busload of people and we moved through quickly. Josh didn’t get his stamp in the right place so he got a little bit anxious about it! Through the first bit of the border and we all got on the bus again, and over a bridge over the Iguacu river and to the enter Brasil migration control. This time we were shooed off the bus and it drove off into the distance, seemingly with people who couldn’t be bothered to get their migration stamps. I had read about people doing the crossing daily who don’t bother to get the stamps, and some of the bus drivers don’t mind. I guess that is a bonus for those people who are supposed to pay for Visas, until they get caught! We got our Brasil stamp (in the right part of the page this time) and went back to the bus stop. We had to wait for the next bus from the same company, which seemed to take forever. It is grey and drizzly and actually quite cold today, Josh even had to dig a jumper out from the bottom of his bag. Eventually we were back on the bus and it was only about 10 minutes until we got off and used Mapps.me to get us to the door of our apartment. We are not in the town centre but closer to both the falls and the airport. We signed in. It is Portugese now and not Spanish, so it feels almost as if we are back to square one! It seems that they do understand some Spanish so hopefully we can muddle through. We signed in and got shown to our basic double room where we dropped our stuff and joined the WiFi. Then Josh found us a lunch place called ‘Cantina de Bea’ just one block up the road. We were served a pot of hot chicken pieces in a peanut sauce to share accompanied by a buffet of different cold dishes, served with fresh juice. It was incredible food and really cheap, £4 each, all in, and totally deserves its rave reviews on Google! After lunch we walked down to the supermarket and to the ATM to withdraw some Brazilian Real, R10 = £1.83. We haven’t used an ATM for months as it is to be avoided at all costs in Argentina, so it was a bit funny doing it again! We bought some groceries, to make the most of the self-catering in our apartment. Then we walked home and unpacked our stuff and got settled in to our room.