Not exactly a shortcut

 This supposed to be a short trip from Buenos Aires to Misiones province, mainly to see famous Iguazu falls. It ended up being something slightly different. 

Iguazú falls are located where borders of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil meet. Temptation to visit these countries was simply too strong. I did return to Buenos Aires, but instead of retracing my original path I went there through Brazil and Uruguay, with a short visit to Paraguay. 

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Misiones

Misiones is a province in north-eastern Argentina known for one of the biggest waterfalls on earth and for being a host to a number of Jesuit missions.

Jesuits have been very successful in building their position, economical position included, in South America. Successful enough to be expelled from the continent by the king of Spain in the eighteenth century because economically they were becoming stronger than Spanish Crown in this part of the world.

Ruins of their missions are what's left of their presence. Most of them significantly destroyed over the centuries.

While Jesuit missions are on the UNESCO World Heritage list, that's not the main thing that draws people to this part of Argentina. 

The real draw are Iguazú Falls. Waterfalls twice as wide and almost twice as wide as Niagara.

Being in the tropics, the area also provides many opportunities to spot animals, which got used to human presence over many years. Iguazú is on the UNESCO list since 1984

On top of all this, it consists of more than 200 separate waterfalls, the one called Devil's Throat being the biggest. As I was to discover later Devil's Throat is pretty popular name for monumental sites in Argentina.

Everything in the park is well prepared for visitors, including small train to quickly move between sites and many beautiful pathways. 

While monkeys have not been that surprising to see, these guys got me very interested. On the other hand they haven't been interested by humans at all, ignoring all the visitors completely.

Brazil

Now, after I saw all the waterfalls from the Argentinian side I jumped the border to see them from Brazil. Brazilians are known for their friendliness, and as it turns out local dogs also have very positive attitude towards strangers.

There's a long story explaning why there are no pictures of Iguazú from the Brazilian side, but I won't be going into details here. Third city of this border region is called Ciudad del Este on Paraguayan side  of the border. Clearly the least interesting of the three, it's full of shopping malls to where people from Argentina and Brazil drive (or in some cases even walk) across the border for a low-cost shopping experience.

Now that I decided to return via Brazil I took a night bus to Curitiba. I really wanted to see the city well known for it's sustainable solutions in the space of transport and urban planning along with it's cultural offer which, some say, is the best in Brazil. Monument-library dedicated to Khalil Gibran is a good starter.

Here comes a surprise for most of my Polish friends reading this. Not everyone knows that Curitiba had one of the largest Polish communities outside of Poland, which is visible even today, for example by the virtue of having Polish Open-Air museum in a park named after Polish pope John Paul II.

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Another cultural highlight is the Oscar Niemeyer museum. The place is spectacular, starting from the building itself. The "eye" is a huge exhibition hall housing the most important exhibitions in the museum.

Inside the "eye", during my visit there, was an exhibition displaying works of Osgemeos (two brothers mainly doing street art). Months later when I'm writing this post I'm recalling seeing these characteristic works in many other places in the world (anyone from Vancouver here? Manhattan?)

Streets in Curitiba are ready for very long pandemics

There was one more reason I wanted to see Curitiba. It's famous for its parks and for the fact that amount of green spaces in the city is unseen anywhere else on the continent. Parks, like the Botanical Garden seen here, are nice indeed, but I'm not sure if I'm seeing that much greenness in the city center outside of major parks.

After a couple of days in Curitiba I decided I've had enough of cities and it's time for something different. This is how I ended up in a small town on the coast close to Florianopolis. No, what you're seeing here are not bird nests.

With the east-facing beach, the town gives an opportunity to experience pretty unique sunrise. It was a half an hour walk there, but the views justify waking up before 5 AM.

These are very lazy days by my standards (aka chill). Hammock, cold drinks, weird fruits.

Chill continues with a locally-brewed, coffee-flavored beer. Different type of chill guaranteed as a result of reading the book describing behind-the-scenes of 2008 financial crisis.

Me being me, I couldn't spend too much time on the beach. Fortunately, not too far from where I was staying I spotted a hiking path, which turned out to be pretty long and offered lovely coastal vistas.

If I only needed a towel I'd surely find something interesting.

I left Brazil via Porto Alegre, where I was forced to spend one night and if I had any other choice I'd rather not. Leaving Porto Alegre as soon as it was possible, one night and a thousand kilometers later I was welcomed by a magnificent sunset from my friend's apartment in Montevideo in Uruguay.

One of the big mysteries of Uruguay is the question of very old, usually very small cars. They are everywhere and it doesn't feel like people drive them because they have to but rather because they want to.

Okay, in some cases they don't drive them anymore, but they still seem to love them and repurpose them as flower pots.

Last stop of this part of the trip is Colonia de Sacramento, cute little town across the bay from Buenos Aires to where I'll be taking a ferry. The place is very relaxed, green and has a vibe of small Spanish town.

They also have old cars, obviously. Time to go, see you again in Argentina!