Wierd luck
I wanted to go back to argentina to do this nature trail but was told it wasn't worth crossing the border for. Today the germans were all going to this big dam, and the french girls were going to Paraguay. The tours of the dam don't start until the afternoon, and I need a fatter memory card for my camera, so I opted to tag along with the french kids.
Paraguay is....wierd. I wasn't anticipating having any problems crossing the border: unlike most americans (who need visas), I have a brazilian passport. But not only didn't we have problems, we weren't stopped at all. In either direction. The only cop I talked to at the border was one I sought out after crossing so I could register my camera; I didn't want anyone telling me I had to pay taxes on something I already owned.
After wandering around, we bought some knockoff MP3 players (mine doesn't work) and I got a card and tripod for my camera. The whole scene sketched us out, so we decided to go back to Brazil for lunch. We tried to find a place near the Bus terminal, and it started to rain. Basically as soon as we ducked into a restaurant, the rain turned into a flash flood. We didn't have anywhere we needed to be, so we chilled at the restaurant for a few hours.
The rain finally died down enough for us to brave it back to the bus station. The girls left for the rodoviario, and I went back to the hostel. I'd already done both sides of the falls and paraguay. I didn't really care to see the dam. There was no way I was hiking in this rain. I opted to leave.
I called the bus station, and they said there was room on all 3 buses to são paulo. My cab driver told me the trail totally would've been worth it. When I got to the rodoviario, all 3 buses were full. So i did the next best thing and bought a ticket to Curitiba, a coastal city where buses leave for São paulo every hour.
The bus didn't leave for another 4-5 hours. I passed the time over some coffee with the french girls until they left, when I ran into 2 of the germans who were on their way to Curitiba! Our buses were leaving at the same time, so we hung out over some beers and talked music until bus time.
I got on the wrong bus. My ticket was for 9:49. i thought it said 9:45. whoops. Luckily I still managed to get a seat, unluckily right in front of a group of kids loudly playing music and talking and kicking my chair and generally just being obnoxious.
Everyone going to curitiba had HUGE bags of crap they'd bought. I asked the guy sitting across from me how long the bus would be. He said 10 hours unless we were stopped by cops. I told him wiht my luck that day we would be.
We were. I don't know what they were looking for. Illegal immigrants. fugitives. drugs. untaxed goods from paraguay. whatever it was, i felt like i was probably one of the most suspicious people on the bus. I had two passports and spoke the antive language of one with a heavy accent. I had ton of electronics on me and only had documentation for the camera (having registered it befor crossing. no documentation for my Archos or the stuf i bought in paraguay). Whatever they wanted, they barely bothered me though, just checked my passport and poked around my bag.
I spend the bus ride writing about the day, which is probably why this post is so long.
