Race Night in Foz

Foz Iguacu, Brazil

Today was supposed to be kind of my day off. Not a real day off, mind you, there are still incessant

The Devil's Throat

questions and usual dramas to sort out, but I didn’t have much to do and I had planned to spend most of the day next to the pool. Unfortunately, like most days I think that I’ll have off, something came up. Leigh, Kate and Naomi all found that they had lost their entry visas that they were given when they entered the country.

So to get them new entry visas we had to go to the federal building, wait in line and then wait for them to print up new ones, which took forever and then we had to go to the bank, wait in line and pay for the new visas. The whole thing took about 4 hours and cost them 165 reals or about 80 dollars. Eventually, we did get back to the hostel and I did have most of the afternoon to hang out in the sun.

That night was race night. Nearby, in town, is an excellent outdoor race track. Usually, we split the pax up into teams and have 3 different races or so and have individual competitions as well as team competitions. This keeps everybody interested even when they aren’t racing. This time, however, we only had about 8 racers and so we just had one race.

One of the racers is one of my fellow tour guides, Andy. Though Andy is his real name, everybody just calls him Mr. Bean. Mr. Bean is one of the nicest guys in the world, but is also one of those hapless individuals who always seem to get themselves into a mess. You want a reality show, just follow this guy around for a couple of weeks and you’ll get pure comedy. For example, one day he is mucking around in one of the self locking lockers on his truck, but when he goes to shut it somehow he ends up locking his keys in the locker…with them still attached to the cord around his neck. Don’t ask me how he did it, but now so much of the cord is locked in the locker that he can’t move. He ends up having to sit there for over 20 minutes, practically hanging himself, until his driver happens to walk by to open the locker for him. So putting that kind of karma into the seat of a large and very fast go-kart was probably not a noble prize winning idea. But the kid wants to go, so what are you going to do. They even gave him the fastest (what was the fastest) cart in the park. Mr. Bean strikes again. On the first lap he manages to hit the straightaway concrete wall so hard that he not only breaks the cart but puts a large hole in the wall. Brilliant. Funny side note: because he is the way he is, he seems to get a lot of people who try to rob him. Unfortunately for the crooks, he happens to have a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and he ends up kicking the crap out of them. What a character.

Due to the fact that I had a fast cart and had raced on the track about 15 times more than anybody else, I won. It did feel good to beat Steve who had beat me last time and is a professional driver, after all.

After the go carting, we headed back to the hostel where there was a pre-carnaval party happening. In the last couple of days, with all the trucks around who are going into Canaval, it’s been a bit of a sore spot that we’re the only ones not going in. Anyway, we dance to the samba band, drink capirinhas and enjoy ourselves just the same.

Capirinha – (Kyp-er-een-ya) The Brazilian drink of choice. Made with Cachasa, a sugar cane alcohol, lime and sugar. I’m not a big fan.

Earlier in the afternoon, we had a vote to see if they wanted to stay another day. It’s only a short drive over the border to Puerto Iguazu, Argentina and we could easily wait until the next day to do it. The vote fails and it’s decided that we’ll leave the next day. Though more than a few change their mind, it’s set.