Oh, an action-packed day. I’m so tired. Today was a really long day.
I did a lot of stuff and finally found my way to Brasília today. Today started off really early. I got up early—it couldn’t be anywhere past nine o’clock. These mosquitoes might have been biting me up a little bit. Being so close to the water, I think that it’s easier for the mosquitoes to congregate. I don’t know what it is, but my blood is sweet, and they want it, they definitely want it. I got up, I took a nice walk and saw a sign, made me reminisce. I think that I told you guys about the 25 de Mayo, and I had a great experience with Ana.
Here in Puerto, somebody’s selling locro, and they were selling it for only $70, so I had to take a picture of that. That was a really cool community moment, but I want to say that I got to visit Tres Fronteras which is the meeting point between Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, was it? So when you go to Tres Fronteras what you see is it’s literally just a very big river, or what’s the name? It’s the Iguazu river… but it is the specific border, or it’s not a land border but more of a water border between these three countries. You could stand there, and you could see where the all three countries—and their territories, start. It’s really cool being up there, there was a little bit of a fountain water show.
It wasn’t such great weather to be out in, but you know that not every day is going to be a sunny day, it’s fine. Right after that, I got on the bus. I found my way with a taxi to where the bus was, and I took the bus and crossed the border over into Brazil.
Crossing over into Brazil was interesting, because it’s really a very quick process, it’s maybe 30 minutes at most. So you get on this bus, you wait at the bus stop, you get on the bus, you go to the station where it’s the border, and you hand them your paperwork. You also need to make sure you have your yellow fever vaccine, it’s a card certificate that you need to enter Brazil.
You don’t need it for Argentina, but while doing my research on Despargas, I also found out that that’s something that you need to enter Brazil—so I made sure to get it ahead of time. The process otherwise is very simple. I got the exit stamp from Argentina, I got the entrance stamp into Brazil, and then I got back on the bus. The bus meets you on the other side like you know they empty out the bus, you go through this processing line and on the other side you get back on the bus. Then they take you to where you need to go. Where it took me… I actually took a cab from the bus station to my Airbnb because I wanted to stay at Airbnb again. This time I’m staying at an Airbnb with someone else. I did not know that.
This is also one of the things about Airbnb as a platform, you could rent a full house by yourself or an apartment, or a hotel room accommodation. You can also opt to rent something that is in somebody’s house, like you’ll rent a room, and they’ll be there with you. They might be able to give you tips, they might be able to tell you what’s going on and just generally take you around, which is what happened this evening.
I got an opportunity to go with the lady that was staying in the Airbnb. She showed me around. She took me to a supermarket. She said: “you know, I’m, going out, would you like to come?” and I said: “of course”. I went to the supermarket with her and right by the supermarket, there was this truck. In the back of the truck, they were—or the lady excuse me—was grilling meat. she got her little table set out and everything selling drinks out of the back of the truck. So we sat down and we had dinner. It’s one of the great experiences to be able to engage in this thrill of the moment kind of thing when traveling because sometimes you don’t get the opportunity to do that. You really don’t.
You’ll be sitting when you’re in the office asking: “what can I do?” When you’re out, the opportunities basically present themselves. You don’t have to try very hard or try very much to experience some of these things because they’re just happening around you and all you have to do is say yes. So what did I say? I said yes.
Do you want to go out there? Yes. Yes, I do. Yes, I would like to go.
So we went out and now it’s time for bed because after this long day of traveling to Brazil, walking to find the Airbnb. It was up a hill, around a corner—and not where the address was that the cab driver dropped me off. I am ready for bed and ready to hit the other side of tres Fronteras tomorrow. The Brazil side to see the Parque Iguazao because over here it’s not Iguazu, it’s Iguazao. So going to bed and signing off. This is the Tall Black Nomad signing off for the day.
Oh, before I sign off, I have to tell you the one thing that you notice as soon as you enter Brazil and as soon as you’re on Brazilian territory is there’s agua de coco. There’s coconut water everywhere. Everyone’s selling coconut water. There’s also jugo de cana, which is sugar cane juice or sugar cane water pressed. It’s such a refreshing drink. Sometimes they put a little lime in it for you. Brazil, I’m here for it, which is also what I had tonight with the lady.
She had coconut water there and also me. Anybody that knows me knows that I love me some coconut water. And that’s it.
We’ll talk. We’ll see you tomorrow. This is Tall Black Nomad signing off.
-Tall Black Nomad