Travel Log 04 - 09 Iguazu falls Argentina

So after leaving Sao Paulo we arrived to Fozo do Iguazu the border town between argentina, paraguay in the brazilian side, we met up with our friends from norway we met up in the bus and went out to look for a cheap hostel for the night, we found one on the downtonish area of the town was good enough we got a room with 6 beds for each one of us. We hanged out during the day looking for an adapter for my camera and went to this churrasqueria buffet for all you can eat for 10 reais where we met this really cool colombian guy that was big otaku about japanese manga he gave us some free drinks and cheap discounts at the restaurant.. The following day we decided we wanted to experience the falls from the argentinian side since the brazilian side is mostly just a big panoramic view and you can't really immerse yourself in the falls as the argentinian side is.. We arrived to Puerto Iguazu across the border and our driver left us in the hostel area kind of away from all other hotels we were out on the search for a bed but there was nothing must of them were full and actually few of them were i think too sketched out by our looks that they told us they didn't have any beds available when i know they did because i saw other people coming in taking rooms but anyways we continued our search until we actually found the perfect one, with a great pool and shanti vibe it reminded me of a european lodge..

Had pizza for lunch/dinner and sleep well! Next day the great adventure began! We set out for some last minute snack shopping and while i was waiting outside this store this super cute street dog came in and share love, this dog has a great vibe! We were also on the hunt for some exchange places for Japanese - Reais and met up with this cute cat in the street ohww!!

All systems ready took the collective bus for 10 reais to the Falls and voallha! as soon as we arrived there we decided we wanted to check out the main attraction of the site the devil's throat We took the cute train and headed towards the massive mouth of the falls!! As you arrive in the train station you have to walk about 2 kilometers to the actually falls the road is cute full of wild life and great natural passageways unfortunately there is this metal road that connects the whole site so you are not really walking on the earth but on this fake road but i also understand it serves many purposes such as wheel chair access for elderly and people with disabilities so it was still fun! :) but many of my friends were complaining the whole time about it..

I took this really strong energy pill that anni gave me he got from the corner store and wow it was intense feeling, gave me a NITRO of adrenaline so i was walking on fire as i approached the falls i could hear the water whispering announcing its majestic splendor and wow it did!

This is what i found!

We snap a few pictures around the big fall recording few videos as well

We continued our trail towards the middle center of the falls, also a note to know the argentinian side of the falls contain more than 175 free falls so there is giant falls everywhere!! along the way we met up with our cute animal friends that welcomed us into their home.

We climbed the trail towards many lakes and natural formations the weather was perfect!

snap a few panoramic photos of this amazing place, this place is called the upper circuit which connects the lower top of the great falls.. this whole area had an estimate of 50 falls all around some of them massive scale some of them mini size all epic and beautiful!

Ran into this beautiful flying creature sporting the 88 infinity logo :)

Snap more pic along the way!

We set up for break and ate our sandwiches and drank some water and chilled for few minutes while the whole park was starting at wararu's finger shoes..

We continued our journey towards the boat area along the lower circuit of the falls and wow as we walked more and more it was becoming more and more epic!!

We finally reached the boat area as we descended towards the bottom of the lake side, we secure our water shields and all systems were ready to experience the falls from a closer perspective, at first i thought it was going to be a really cheese tourist trap but i went with the advise of the hostel owner telling me it was epic epic epic so i went ahed with her advise and wow as we got on the boat we speed up so fast we were all screaming as we approach the devils throat, the boat turned back on its side having the whole entire back area of the boat splashed by the waterfall was so fun!!!

El capitan looked so serious as he prepared to immerse us in the water experience i will never forget his look and his serious face as he prepared the boat to approach it towards the falls.. As soon as we got out of the falls one of the guides was recording the whole experience and was like you guys want more ?? we were like YEAHHH YEAHHH you guys want more??? YESS YESS!! So we went to the other side of the falls and FUCK!! we went inside the actually falls i couldn't believe it i was like o god damn it!!! wowwwwww!!!! you couldn't even breath of how powerful the water is we got completely cover in water the entire time i was screaming SUGOIIIII SUGOIII for cool in japanese jajajajaj i tried to snap a few pic but the whole thing was so intense my brain was too busy processing what was happening, as we were inside the falls there was a rainbow with us it was amazing!!! We dried out and walked the rest of the time towards the exit marking an unforgettable experience at the great iguazu falls!!!

Travel Log 01 to 04 Entering Brazil into Sao Paulo - Iguazu Falls!!

So is been what 3 or 4 months? since my last post? something like that! last time i hit the blog i was crossing into china by land via Vietnam and i actually wrote a post about it a really long one but was lost in the digital stream, so since then i cross china to beijing i was teaching a weekly workshop at CAFA China Academy OF FINE ARTS for the third year consecutive it was really fun and met wonderful students that impressed me so much with their abilities to showcase their work even when they are behind the great firewall of china. Rafa, Sandy and myself did a road trip around china we played in 5 parties and even organized a Psykovsky Party in Chonging i call it China's dirty secret its one of the biggest cities in the planet but is completely unknown to the outside world.. After the party and having great times in The Peoples Republic of China we then left towards Hong Kong with Vasily Psykovsky and spended a few days there sightseeing and admiring the must modern architecture on planet earth. I then left to Japan around november and i stayed there for two months played around in 9 parties all across Japan had a super super beautiful time there and made me rethink my choice of moving there, so with all that experience gather and been there 5 times before every year i decided i want to create a nest there at least for a few months a year while i am not traveling and leave my warehouse in oakland something extremely hard to do because i have a strong attachment to my nest in the bay area, but its 2012 and is a time of great innovations and opportunities and must keep the energies flowing!! I then returned to America around the last days of december and stayed for 2 weeks in Houston Visiting my family and spended Christmas there and left towards central america Guatemala i played in a beautiful new years eve party organized by Presi - Psy family crew had a blast there! and made very powerful connections specially the unforgettable trip to el mirador the greatest and biggest pyramid standing on planet Earth, we walked for 200 kilometers across the guatemalan jungle of peten it was an incredible experience! for 8 days submerged in El Mundo Maya while i was there i was writing and entry blog about the experience but then i decided i rather make it into a book so i been writing the experience for the past weeks non stop in detailed explanation about the experience to help travelers with tips and to share my psychedelic experience there, i also thought about making a guide called Backpackers guide to ancient sites, since i traveled to at least 70 World Heritage Sites and must of them unknown by mainstream media i decided to compile it all together and make a small guide that will be super cheap like 5 bucks and its pocket size so i been working on this project since.. After Guatemala upload i went back to the states back to Houston to spend another 2 weeks with my familia and was incredible experience to be back home after a year traveling non stop recharged energy and ate super great food cooked by mama, my japanese friends anni and wataru joined me there so we made team chill just hanging out surfing the web and the mind for 2 weeks, during this time our plan was to go around america and i was going to show them the underground experience there but then all the pieces started putting together by itself and there was a major call to do something greater and more deeper.. i got a booking at Zuvuya Festival an amazing festival happening in the amazons in the state of goiana brazil so all pieces started puzzling together and anni and wataru joined me in the adventure i then created a " purpose plan " that is to go from Sao Paulo to - Belo Horizonte to visit Magma Ohm and chill while we head towards the party the following week, then after the party the intention is to go to alto paraiso and enjoy a few days in the Garden of Eden to must likely go to Rio and then take a looong bus towards the border of Bolivia to meet up with Rafa, the plan is to continue heading north all across ancient sites i have a list of at least 25 ancient sites we need to visit including hiking the inks trail but the backside of it a 10 day walk towards their capital of Machu Pichu, more will evolve this next 2 months! My return ticket is on March 27th to San Francisco i will be there for a week figuring out my warehouse situation and celebrating my birthday april 3rd and then i have a flight back to Osaka Japan on April 5th, anni is organizing a party for full moon on the weekend so must be there by then.. life after april is full of surprises many travels ahead but best to leave it there for more to come! So to the Brazil experience!! The adventure began as we left the house and we looked at the moon and there was this giant circle all around it like jupiter rings it look amazing i snap this photo as we left the house at 2:30am

since our flights were departing @ 6:00AM my sister drove us to the airport and we dropped off anni, him and wateru are doing a layover in Mexico City so i hooked them up with my chilanga friend to take them around sand show them historic zocalo and don't know what else they got into.. i then was waiting at the airport and there was no one at the departing gate, to even the delta counter was open so i started suspecting something wrong was happening, i then continued chilling zombie style but something wrong a feeling of anxiety came and i went to check the monitor screen o fuck my plane was not even there i then recheck my boarding pass damn it! i am in the wrong airport!! i went to IAH and my Flight was from Hobby Airport an hour away regional airport, all kinds of thoughts came to my mind o no i am going to miss it o no but i remain chilled i ran to a taxi stand and all taxi drivers were sleeping i woke them up and i was like Chello! lets go jumped into the back to the van and we rushed as fast as we could to the other airport..

My driver was super efficient he is from india and we exchange few jokes around as he was surfing the highway like a bullet i got out of the cab and rushed as fast as i could to the gate, here is the thing my flight is on standby so i needed to get there early to make sure my seat is reserved before other passengers with other elite status arrive, but all was in harmony and i got my seat and i was able to board the craft, it felt so good to be on it

but my trip was not yet finish i needed to make a layover in Atlanta Georgia and my flight in Atlanta was also in standby so if all seats were booked i needed to stay an extra day there, i chilled at the airport while i was waiting for my good friend Cinder Vomit David he told me to check out the dinosaur download so i went ahead and admired the giant beast, it was incredible big and it was extremely surreal actually here is a million year old extinct animal hanging in the middle of this gigantic waiting room arena type of deal, it was an incredible sight and had a lot of mixed feelings about it i can't really describe, actually it made me feel or imagine if in the future if we humans continued our path of destruction the only remaining action on earth will be our artificial intelligence or possibly other extraterrestrial beings that will come in the not far future so it made me wonder if this will ever happen to us?

will our specie ever suffer the same path as the dinosaur will we be hanged in display for an extraterrestrial orbit station as a record of existence? what have we learned from this experience? anyways cinder picked me up with his wife and beautiful boy and we went to a Mexican restaurant near his home, had some all right fish tacos supposedly baja style but they were not even close but the food was yumie yumie, we chilled and share time together and headed back to his house

my good friend cinder is suffering from this intestinal disease and was going trough a lot so we talked and i gave him support and i prayed over his body to remind his spirit that is dreaming and to lucid dream and choose its own experience, i told him i was proud of his soul for showing us how beautiful life is and to make me appreciate my experience on earth that he was a brave being and a powerful warrior of the light, he is such an incredible guy full of life and joy to live and carrying for his family and his passion to psychedelic music, he showed me this new track he just finished is a goa gil remix of ohm nano narayan it sounded incredible, my spirit moved and shake as i listened to his 9 minute track, his music evolved so much in this past months he is one of my favorite psychedelic artist out there.. after spending all day at his house it was time to rush back to the airport i completely passed out in the car while his kid was watching me the whole time jejeje i kept waking up every 10 minutes and there he was gazing into my sleepy face it was really cute.. i then got to the airport went trough the second time of the day X Ray machine which i don't really like at all! but also i was in a rush and didn't have time to ask for a manual check up also those they get too intense as if they make it in purpose so we choose the easy way which is the machine, but actually when i was in the waiting room i saw on the news they are implementing a a type of fast pass for frequent travelers cue it works as same as global entry an id given by the department of homeland security in which you have to apply every year and you are interview by the fib to let them give u a background check once you are cleared then every time you come into the country you don't need to stand in line you can go from the airplane straight to customs without seeing an agent or anything so they are working on making the same idea for the cue at the airport line which i think its a good idea i guess… i then got to my gate and oh no! it seem like it was a full flight, i didn't see my name on the standby list but i was shanti and i waited until i got my boarding pass call and wow i looked at the seat number and was 6b and this means this was a front seat of the plane but wait which ones are the front seats on a massive boeing plane wow looks like i am heading to first class seat? my boarding pass didn't have a zone number so i went to the cue and thank you for boarding sir welcome aboard clearance ok cool i then see my seat o damn pimping first class double seat damn! excuse me sr do you want some champagne mmmmm i don't really drink but fuck yeah why not! yes please!!! followed by a plate of fresh cheese and fruits wow nice i was in heaven i looked at the window i am in the sky jejejej the trip was very nice the seat was killah! had massage and stuff and the food was incredible, then after a few hours they came and told me if i wanted to move to a more nicer seat i was like mmm? they moved me to the front and i had more leg room and was not as noisy from the regular cabin jejeje i was like ok cool! The funny thing was i had my backpack and it looked like a backpacker pack jejeje with my shoes hanging on the side and they were like excuse me sr is this your bag yes! i said can u help me move it so here i was in first class moving my backpack and my shoe fell on this guys head was pure chaos heheheh the society pressure was intense at this place, i wanted to go back to the getto cabin but the seat and the food was nice but there was this huge society pressure there how can this guys relax? must of them didn't even sleep they just stayed up watching stuff and they didn't looked relax at all! So after traveling for 24 hours i arrived to Sao Paulo guarulhos international airport @ 8:45AM immigration cue was quick like butter specially there was no line because i was on the first class so we were the first to go there, i then got out of gate and headed to customs nothing to declare and as the doors opened wow the heat came in welcome to brazil

I went to check up the monitor screens for the japanese arrivals and o well! 2 hours delayed the flight from Mexico City! o wait they arrive at 12:00 so that means i have to wait til 2:00PM thats 7 hours!! ghrrr so i went to find a chill spot to hang out and here is where i am :) waitting for this guys to show up and watching the slide show of beautiful woman's as they carrousel around the airport, brazil is the must diverse country on earth having dozens of nationalities interbreed creating a unique race, so you see so many genetic variations is incredible, so i am not that bored i am in how they say in mexico having a taco de ojo jejejej.. I still have 3 more hours to wait so i am going to watch a movie and relax till then next entry!!! AUM NAMO NARAYAN UPDATE So i am now in Iguazu Falls in the border between argentina and paraguay since my last post here is the japanese landing!

We left the airport towards the sao paolo center

we then arrive to this fancy hotel because all hostels were completely booked which sucked we ended up paying 50 reais per person but was worth it we had lots of chill time and good ass shawa!!! So after we chilled we headed towards the japanese district of Sao Paulo La liberdade and let me tell you that is the must elaborate tourist trap ever there are NO japanese people there and nothing there is japanese except this ugly cultural center that is just one room with some guy dressed in japanese kimono we were looking for some good japanese food but we ended up in this horrible restaurant and i had the must terrible ramen soup in the planet :( The distric

Heading towards liberdade!

The district has a cool urban vibe actually really cool vibe there

Must of the area is non japanese but koreans and chinese!!!

leaving liberdade! So after that night we went to the bus station and figured we were heading to magma ohm house for a party but seems like he was busy and was leaving to another city by emergency so we made a complete 360 degree change and we took the long route the other way around towards iguazu falls on a crazy 17 hour bus ride to the border of argentina / paraguay and brazil!!

The ride was nice we had a flat tire and we were stuck there for few hours meanwhile we were hanging out with this crew of chinese tourist while anni was doing fire dancing entertaining the whole crowd

we also met up with a group of Norwegian and we are now staying on the same hostel together, the views were nice amazing sunrise and we are now in standbye going to celebrate shamani birthday tonight so is going to be wild! then heading tomorrow to argentina to view the falls and hang out there for few days before heading to paraguay!

till then!!