Foz do Iguaçu

   With an extended holiday weekend in Brazil the next chapter of my journey would take me to Foz do Iguaçu, home of Iguaçu falls!

   First for this trip I would pick up a new traveling partner, Kaily.  As another American intern studying abroad she was an awesome travel partner!

   As you might have noticed we are sitting on a bus.  It was a long trip (about 10 hours), but the scenery was beautiful and we got to see some rural areas as well as tiny villages.

   
   When we finally did get to the town of Foz do Iguaçu we took a cab to where we thought the hostel was.  We ended up close but still pretty far away and ended up asking a stranger for directions.  It wasn't smooth, but we got there!

Looking for the Hostel

   When we finally did make it to the Hostel we were warmly welcomed by a bunch of other foreign exchange students studying in Brazil.  They included students from Mexico, Columbia, Italy, France and Spain so we were a very diverse group!  They would end up taking us under there wing and we had a blast all weekend.  Here is a picture of the group in Argentina before we would take on the town, followed by a group picture at some Buddhist Temple. 

   
   Our first stop was the Itaipu Dam on the border between Paraguay and Brazil.  As a massive engineering feat, it produces 75% of the electricity used in Paraguay and 17% of the electricity used in Brazil.  It was a ton of fun and our tour guide took some awesome pictures! (the last 2 are his... the others are mine.)

   Later, we explored the Brazilian side of Iguaçu Falls and the next day the Argentinian side.  Pictures don't come close to capturing the majestic beauty of it, but I will give it my best try...

   
   And not necessarily of the falls, but just some fun pictures that I wanted to share...  First those raccoon looking things?  There called Coati and although they look cute they are vicious!  They have no boundaries and will attack to get food. (Saw it happen twice in the time I spent there.)  The last two pics are of the Argentine peso which is right now 13.75 to 1 in favor of the US dollar.  I was super rich there!  To put it in perspective part of our group went out for dinner and with food and drinks it cost about 9 US dollars per person.