I´m in the Top-Rated Place on the Recommended List – Ta-Da!
January 3, 2012 by rtwsenior
I just received the regular newsletter of Bootsnall.com, the foremost around-the-world backpackers website and noticed an article recommending new and lesser-known Must-See Places in the world. Imagine my surprise to learn that I am, as we speak, at Number 1 – Iguazu Falls. Somehow, I´m finding it impossible to link this page tonight and my brain tells me to stop trying. In the morning, I shall attempt it again. You´ll just have to take my word for it for the moment.
So far though, I haven´t gotten to the Falls. I spent yesterday and today taking it easy recovering from the overnight bus trip from central Brazil. The Klein Hostel is comfortable and a great place to catch up on neglected forward planning, so I´ve been trying to decide which route toward Chile to select. The one which is apparently winning is the one I never thought I´d want to do…..busing directly across Paraguay in a five-hour shot, and staying in a fancy hotel in Asuncion, the capital. Do I usually stay in expensive digs? Never! But this one is sort-of appealing. More about that later, as things jell.
One of these days, when Montezuma leaves, I´ll spend probably three days thoroughly exploring these famous Falls, especially now that my respect-o-meter has just ratcheted up some extra notches. There is also the world´s largest dam(???) which I can extensively tour, as well, and I shall.
Oddly, the last two months spent in Abadiania, Brazil, could have just as well been spent in an alien space ship, according to the reactions of all these local Brazilians and the world backpackers here. No one…..absolutely no one….has ever heard of it or of John of God and the Healing Casa. Admittedly, this is far away in another State of Brazil, sort of like people in Florida having never heard of a small, spiritual, world-wide-attended Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. Okay, that´s not a good analogy, but people in this hostel are talking all around me so I can´t think too well.
My point is, that now I realize that Abadiania doesn´t even exist as far as maps, guide books, and computer hostel or hotel guides go. It´s just not on anyone´s radar, unless you already know about it. Even driving by on the major highway, you wouldn´t know that it was just down the street a few blocks. Will that ever show up on somebody´s eleven places to visit before you die? Who knows? But, I doubt it.
However, crowds of thousands flock to it from all over Brazil, South America, and the world and it´s only advertising is word of mouth. And it all relies on one single man to keep on living forever. That´s the thought in my mind the whole time I was there. What happens to all of this on the day that John of God dies? But for now, it´s doing great and spiritual things for people whom doctors have given up on. That sort of news always spreads to the people who need to hear about it. And, somehow, they will find a way to get there.
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