Iquazu Falls (AGAIN!) / Rinopolis (E' nop o lis)

Because of changes in plans and direction we were passing by Iguazu Falls.  Laura, my beautiful bride and I had already visited Iguazu a week earlier.  But, since we had the time, I thought it only right to stop and let Chuck see this magnificent work of nature.  Here are some pictures from that visit.

Looking into the Devils Throat

The Devils Throat from the power launch

Looking down river from the Devils Throat.  If you could see the boats would be down there.

Chuck getting ready to Jump???

From the Power Launch

Pretty isn't it?

These boats would actually drive right into the water fall, but those pictures don't usually turn out :-)

We crossed into Brasil, from Argentina with little trouble.  The border crossing guard did say that when we originally crossed into Brasil from Uraguay that they didn’t give us the right papers.  There should be four different sheets and not one, like what we had.  But that was quickly cleared up with no problem.  We are getting somewhat cavalier about crossing borders.  When we went into Iguazu we had to go from Paraguay, to Brasil, back into Argentina.  We didn’t even stop at the exit to Brasil and didn’t get much paperwork at the Argentina border.  This proved to be no problem, as the Brasilian police officer said; “we don’t care about that!” 

Rinopolis (pronounced “e” nopolis)

First let me say, that if you are traveling through Brasil, STOP IN RINOPOLIS.  It is a small town of about 10,000 people, who treated us like dignitaries.  We stopped in Rinopolis after a couple days travel into Brasil.  We were told of a nice hotel by the attendant at the gas station, but what we found looked like an alley entrance about 2 feet wide.  But, like so many South American surprises this small entrance opened into a very nicely remodeled hotel, which was just put in service, with nice rooms and facilities.  We did good!

The owners of the Central Hotel with the Bikes.  The Entrance is the tiny alley way under the Hotel Central sign.  

We talked briefly with the owner until he finally raised a finger and took off.  He was gone for five or ten minutes and returned with a young man named Eduardo.  Eduardo is the teacher for a locally operated English school in Rinopolis.  Eduardo was very bright and articulate young man who fortunately had a little time to spend with us Gringo’s because it was summer vacation. 

From L to R: me, Alan, Eduardo, Jorgie, a supervisor from Yamasa and Chuck

Eduardo told us Jorge (pronounced Jor’ gie) and Alan who wanted to do a story and pictures for city newspapers.  They apparently don’t get a lot of Gringos there.  We took photos and had conversation with Jorge and Alan while sitting and having a couple Cervaja (it’s Sir-Vay-Ja in Portuguese). 

That night we had dinner at a local restaurant called Cana’a, Brazilian for Canaan I believe.  While we were there a very nice man came in who spoke great English.  He talked a while and then paid for our dinner and invited us to drive around town with him.  Here is a sequence of e-mail from my phone that what I wrote to my wife about this:

From Joe to Laura;

We are being chauffeured around thus little town of Rainopolis Brazil by somebody named Joseph Robert.  Its been interesting so far.

Sent from my Motorola ATRIX™ 4G on AT&T

From Laura to Joe;

Hello? Imagine if you were me receiving this rather um, barely-intelligible message from South America.

What is your middle name?

La Senora no esta aqui, no tengo dinero ;)

From Joe to Laura;

Sorey

Sent from my Motorola ATRIX™ 4G on AT&T

From Joe to Laura;

Sorry, I must say I was a little bit nervous and typing on my phone in the back seat

as someone we didn't even know was driving us around in the dark.  I just wanted somebody to know where to start looking for the body.  All is well now; we are back in the room.

By the way your Spanish won't work very well in Brazil, it's Portuguese.

Sent from my Motorola ATRIX™ 4G on AT&T

It turns out that my fears were totally unfounded.  Joseph was the town welcoming agent, very friendly and known by everyone.  We had a very enjoyable tour with Joseph and invited him to join us the following day.  Turns out he had other commitments and could not make it, which I felt was very unfortunate.  I liked Joseph.

The next day we visited the Mayor and the vice Mayor, then a local egg farm, a company (Yamasa) which makes egg washing and sorting machines and sells them worldwide.  We then visited Eduardo’s Fisk language school, he was busy upgrading and adding additional capability for computer training.  Finally we were invited to a traditional Brasilian BBQ dinner at the home of one of the local families.   During dinner the mayor dropped by with his wife to deliver two shirts from the city.  Chuck and I stayed late and ended up leaving the shirts on the counter.  Eduardo promises to send them too us. 

L to R: The Mayor, Eduardo, Chuck, The Vice Mayor and me

L to R: Chuck, The Vice Mayor, The Mayor and me

Chuck and me in front of an Ariel picture of Rinopolis

One of what will 16 "chicken coups" that hold 160,000 chickens each

Alan pointing out one of Chucks relatives?

L to R: me, the owner of Yamasa and Chuck

Daughters, Son and a few of us at the home where the Brazilian BBQ was held.

Jorge was the organizer for all of this.  He was in touch with everyone, the Mayor and vice Mayor, Alan, the family who hosted the BBQ and Joseph.  Jorgie has a passion for Rinopolis.  It is nice to see someone who is so involved in promoting his community.  If anyone ever had a question about one person making a difference, needs to visit Rinopolis and meet Jorgie.   

*** If you pass by Rinopolis without spending a night at the Hotel Central, you are missing a great experience. ***