After our Bird Park visit, we headed back to the B&B and checked out. We still had 7 hours until our flight left Foz do Iguaçu, so the B&B employees were nice enough to hold our bags while we spent the afternoon walking around Centro / city center / downtown Foz do Iguaçu. In case you are curious where we stayed in Foz do Iguaçu, we stayed at Iguassu Charm Suites / Pousada Caroline. Paul selected it mostly based on the name, Caroline. It was listed as a B&B, but was more like a motel. It had everything we needed, clean room, private bathroom, air conditioning, and breakfast included. Safe to say we were the only US Americans staying there at the time, and the only English speakers, so we didn't have any interaction with the other guests. Foz do Iguaçu is so close to Argentina and Paraguay, you can take a public bus across the border. For US Citizens, there is a visa fee that is paid online. Argentina has a computer at the border so that US Citizens who have not already paid the visa fee can do so on the computer at the border station.
We met an American from Houston, Texas who visited both Paraguay and Argentina. She mentioned Paraguay did not even look at her passport when she crossed the border, so she did not pay the visa fee for Paraguay.
Foz do Iguaçu Centro was not nearly as touristed as Iguaçu National Park. There were only a few souvenir shops we encountered along our walk in the city. One of the few places we found was a combination souvenir and fabric supplies shop, Bazar Setti.I purchased a patch of the Brazilian flag which I later sewed into a Christmas ornament for my mother-in-law (left).
We spent the afternoon walking around the city, snacking at little cafes and drinking açai beverages.
After our stroll, we headed back to our B&B and they allowed us to use their common shower for R$5 per person. The price was actually R$10 per person, but we brought our own towels, so they gave us a R$5 discount. After our shower, it was time to head to the airport. The B&B offered us a lift for R$45, so we decided to take our chances flagging down a cab. Almost immediately, a cab pulled up and whisked us to the airport. We paid R$35 (including tip) for our taxi ride to the airport. The Foz do Iguaçu airport is fairly small. So small, that our flight was never assigned a gate number as it was the only flight arriving or leaving the airport within a 2 hour time frame. We flew GOL Airlines back to Rio, then we had a 1-hour layover before our direct flight back to Atlanta. This seemed like a good idea when we booked it; I would not recommend having such a short layover in GIG as we literally ran from the baggage claim of one terminal to the Delta check-in desk at another terminal. Delta just moved locations in the airport, so we had to ask for directions from airport personnel to get us there. Fortunately, we made our flight back to Atlanta and arrived in Atlanta safe and sound. There were very few tourists (if any) on our flight back to ATL. Everyone was either visiting family (in US or Brazil), or US citizens working in Brazil. The funniest part was when we got off the plane in ATL. We looked ridiculous as we were all wearing summer clothes (shorts and t-shirts) in 34º F weather. All in all, it was a wonderful trip to Brazil and we can't wait to go back!
