ja to no brasil

Our arrival in Brasil was kinda crazy. We arrived on Saturday morning and had been to three different countries in 24 hours (Uruguay, Paraguay and Brasil). We got to our hotel in Puerto Iguazu on the Brasilian side of the border early in the morning. We dropped off our bags in the hotel and headed to Paraguay for a few hours of shopping. It is famous for cheap electronics and just cheap shopping in general. I felt like I was back in Mexico with people all in the streets trying to sell you crap and putting fake Adidas socks and sunglasses in your face. I bought a five dollar watch so that I could lay off asking Valentina or others for the time for a day or so and what I think were legit Pringles, but may have been immitation for a snack. It was too hot and muggy outside to wander and inside was mainly electronics (like Vaio computers for $650).

Valentina and I were over it after about an hour of avoiding tripping on people and ignoring salespeople. So, we sat down and watched everyone and tried to figure out why they were buying huge fleece blankets when it´s about 90 degrees outside and only getting to get hotter. Or why they were wearing some of the interesting and definitely unique outfits...

We headed back to Brasil, crossed the border from Paraguay that was really a carbon copy of the TJ border...aka people walking back with lots of cheap crap, tons of traffic and people selling stuff between the cars.

We came back to Brasil and went for a delish feijoada. It was essentially a buffet of a bunch of different meat stews, beans, rice, salad, etc etc. It was yummy! We also had caipirinhas and Vale and I had caiprifrutas. It was awesome. There were 15 of us at the meal, we each had the buffet, minus one veggie, and at least one drink each. The total bill for 15 people? $160 US. Amazing.
AT THE FEIJOADA:

Our tour leader, Carlos, arranged for us to have a party at one of his friend´s houses on our first night in Brasil. It was such a great party. There is another GAP tour currently in Iguazu, so they were also there. We had a huge BBQ with the best steak and sausage and beers and caipirinhas and music and dancing and good conversation all night. It was great. After, of course, we hit up the local club. It was definitely interesting since it was ¨ladies night¨and they decided to have some random strippers dance for all the women. It was pretty ridiculous and should´ve ended an hour before it began. After though, we danced the night away...

In front of the club:
(Jugo, Felix, Charley, Carly, Me, Vale, Carlos)

I love Brasil.