May 2,

We were up and about by 0700. We readied, had our Javas and breakfast of oatmeal. We started packing our stuff when our driver texted us. He wanted to know if we could be ready by ten for a pick up…it was 0940! His reasoning for the early pickup was because of the roads being blocked off for the free Shakira concert tonight. We scrambled and left our place by 1005, and one of our bags’ extendable handle broke. Really?!! We had to walk to the driver because the street out front of our place was now blocked off, which it was not an hour ago! Anyway, we found him. There were so many people already meandering about. It surprised us. Glad we are leaving actually. We loaded up and took off, painfully slow. Traffic was bad right near our place – so much congestion due to the blocked off roads and the people milling around.

Finally, we broke free of that mess (first mess) and he drove us to the airport. Along the way we saw the Christ The Redeemer Statue! The air was mostly clear as we got our last views of it. We arrived at the airport by 1040, checked our bags, went through security, and entered a lounge by 1115. The lounge was not impressive and there was no wine. We had another lounge option, so we left that lounge for the other one, Premium Plaza. It had a long line to get in, but once we got in, it had a better selection of food and had wine. I had a nice bean salad and loved the cucumbers- like bread and butter pickles. I had an unknown veg in my bean salad and engaged the lady sitting across from us. She said it was like a pimento from Brazil. Later she pulled up a picture of it, which I took a picture of her picture. They are called Peppadew Piquanti PeppersCrazy technology. Anyway we talked a bit. She lived in Atlanta for a year, and some in Mississippi. She is from Brazil and she related that Rio is not a good representation of Brazilian culture. Jeff got a fresh-made pasta dish with white sauce, massa curta (short pasta), gorgonzola, ham, olives, onion, cherry tomatoes. Jeff waited a long time for his pasta and missed the whole conversation.

We left the lounge by 1315, boarded, and backed up by 1404, 11 minutes early! The plane had loaded in the front and back!! We took off at 1416. I looked but could not see the Christ statue from the plane as we ascended. Anyway, bye to Rio. We had some turbulence in the beginning. We had a snack and beverage service. I went to the bathroom and was just coming out when quite a bit more turbulence happened and a stewardess told me to sit and buckle up in an empty seat at the back. Then the plane started descending, so I could not go up with Jeff. That was not so good. But the views out the window of the serpentine river that feeds the Iguacu Falls…Spectacular! We could not see the falls. The plane touched down at 1608. I had to wait to get up to Jeff. He stayed in our row until I got there. We disembarked together. That was the second mess and thankfully the last. We went to the baggage claim, and collected our bags and Jeff E-hailed an Uber at 1633.

     Welcome to Foz do Iguacu, Brazil!!

We arrived at our accommodation by 1650. Our hosts met us by giving us the keys with a fob entry into the gate. We got into our place and unloaded/unpacked. We walked to a close-by grocery store and acquired our essentials. We will only be at the place for four nights, so we did not need much. Once back at our place we had pretzels (which we haven’t seen in quite some time), hummus, and cheese with a Malbec wine. Our place only has an AC in the bedroom- a thing we missed when we booked the place…so we’ll see how that plays out. Bed by 2130.