Life in São Paulo and travel throughout South America
Brasil Anniversary
Exactly one year after arriving in Brasil, I traveled to Argentina to complete the arduous work visa process.
The only person more excited than me is the husband. Yay for contributing to financial security & well being!
The month of July was consumed with a memorable visit with my sister. So instead of writing random blog posts,
I actually left the apartment and did stuff. Bear with me as I work backwards here.
We coordinated our flights on August 1st so we would take off within an hour of each other.
Before going through security we said a quick goodbye (just in case), but assumed the terminals would be connected.
For future reference, they are not. We spent a couple of minutes attempting real goodbyes by speaking loudly
through the glass partition, mouth to ear. But we had to quit after a few minutes because we were attracting a lot of attention.
My late flight had me arriving at the hotel around 2:30 am. Exhausted and disoriented, I checked in at the front desk.
Focused on my room number I turned around and immediately tumbled into the lobby’s recessed seating
almost breaking the glass table with my backpack. Worst. Location. Ever.
Fours hours later my alarm went off. My portion of the visa paperwork was complete by 10am so the remainder
of my time was spent visiting Foz do Iguazú & Parque das Aves. I had not anticipated the ability to sightsee, so I spent the day
surrounded by the most spectacular scenery taking pictures with my cell phone instead of my national geographic camera.
This poor guy was stalked by these animals for a solid ten minutes.
I can only imagine that he was rethinking the whole picnic lunch idea.
These little guys are named Coatis and are members of the raccoon family. They are also known as
the Brazilian aardvark, hog-nosed coon, pizotes, crackoons and snookum bears. Exactly.
Behind me is La Garganta del Diablo, the largest waterfall in the park. On the train taking us to the trail,
a group of full grown adults were chanting “GAR-GAN-TA, GAR-GAN-TA!”
This sounds significantly cooler than it’s direct translation “THROAT, THROAT!”
By the end of the day my driver had grown increasingly frustrated with my inability to say Parque das Aves.
In my head I had memorized avos, which translates to Park of Grandparents.
An unexpectedly fabulous trip to Puerto Iguazú … Not only did my visa come through without a hitch,
it doubled as a brief vacation before I buckle down here and get back to business on Monday.
Parque Nacional Iguazú
admission: AR$70
8:00 am – 6:00 pm
Parque das Aves
admission: R$22
8:30 am – 5:30 pm
The waterfalls are flippin’ amazing! How I wish that I could see them!
Just got to read this in full. So hilarious. That seating in the lobby is HORRIBLE! You cannot be the first person who has done that. The reception staff probably love to watch people fall in there. Glad the rest of the trip was a success & hope you’re enjoying being a working woman again!!
I just stumbled upon this blog because I actually googled “american expats in Brazil”. I am soon to be one myself and I am interested in hearing stories from fellow Americans living here as well. I too am in São Paulo, so we can relate to a lot of the same things in the same city. I would actually be interested in talking more and finding out how you two went about doing some of the necessary things to live here. I am lucky in that I will be married by the end of the year to a Brazilian man, so getting a visa will be a little different than yours. But I have to ask, what do you plan to do here as a job and how is your portuguese? both you and your husband? It is a very tough language to figure out. And by the way, I am from northern Illinois, so I can totally relate on the weather issue. Looking forward to hearing from you.
Amanda
Congrats on your Brasilversary!