So after an emotional goodbye with my wonderful momma, Ceca and I headed east to see what the rest of Brazil has to offer. We were on our way to Foz de Iguaçu, a town right next to the famous waterfalls and the borders with Argentina and Paraguay.

Our bus was 24 hours long, which seemed a little daunting at first, but the bus was absolutely incredible. So far, Monika and I had been extremely happy with the bus quality during the journey, but this bus was out of this world. It was just the most comfortable bus I’ve ever experienced and more comfortable than most of the beds I’ve slept in over the past 6 months (granted that isn’t saying much but still- it was amazing.) Ceca, like myself, has experienced the poor excuse for a bus system we have in Serbia and Bosnia, so our amazement at the quality of bus in Brazil was amplified by this comparison and we spent a good chunk of our journey slagging off our buses and admiring the Brazilian ones.

Luckily for us the scenery was amazing too. The earth in western Brazil is very fertile and full of minerals. It has high levels of iron which make it this beautiful deep orange colour, which contrasts beautifully with the blue skies and green fields.

Our hostel, despite being the cheapest hostel in Foz de Iguaçu, was really homey and sweet and to Ceca’s great delight had two dogs living there as well. The people in our room were super friendly as well, except for this one random polish vagabond who has started following us around Brazil….I’m kidding obviously….in Foz de Iguaçu I finally reunited with Monika, who arrived half dead after God knows how many hours of hitchhiking and spent the next few days with us in Foz before going off to Paraguay.

The only thing I didn’t like about the east was the accent. Being a linguist these things are very important to me and the eastern Brazilians don’t roll their Rs like they do in the south, or do the funny throatal R like they do in Rio, but instead they pronounce their Rs just like gringos do when they can’t speak Spanish properly. It’s really annoying, it means that the whole time that they are speaking Portuguese, it sounds like gringos speaking Spanish with an awful gringo accent. If you’re into languages check it out it’s fascinating. If you’re not a language nerd which is probably 99% of my readers (basically everyone minus Monika and I) then I apologise for the random rant. Maybe Alba will appreciate it too 😉

Anyway, we had a great time in Foz de Iguaçu, and although it can’t compare to Rio, it was nice to see a different side to Brazil and Brazilians, and it made us appreciate our eastern Brazil even more!

He two happiest little travellers this bus has ever driven.

Just look at the legroom!

I promise these colours are natural, nothing to do with my camera

Approaching Foz de Iguaçu

Easy boys, form an orderly queue

In eastern Brazil they have a lot of influences from Argentina and Paraguay and they drink a lot of tereré (cold maté usually drunk with a cold juice like orange or lemon juice)

Tasting local delicacies- Brazilian hotdog with Brazilian beer. They love their hotdogs in Latin America, especially in Chile it's like the national dish

Me and my sauces

Ceca's first hammock experience in our hostel

Our hosts