Iguazu Falls is rather massive. And wet. But very very pretty.

Trick to keeping your lunch when racoons are around.. SHOW NO FEAR!

As predicted, the waterproofs did get another outing at the argentinian side of Iguazu!! We arrived at the national park where the falls are located to find it was gloriously sunny which made a change from the rather chilly overcast weather the day before. We set off on one of the trails leading to the waterfalls only to find.... more racoons. Lots more racoons. Honestly,theyre completely terrifying! Some japanese tourists in front of us decided it would be a great idea to get out huge cameras and shove htem in the racoons faces while eating some kind of food. The racoons did not enjoy this and honestly about 15 of them suddenly came creeping out of the bushes at the side of the trail literally blocking the way along it unless you were willing to walk right through them. We weren´t. So, predictably, Ben gets out hte camera (chief photographer of racoon related incidents...officially) and starts snapping away again, Rich runs around SHOWING FEAR (note,if ever accosted by a racoon SHOW NO FEAR.. they can smell it) and running towards me. I was unimpressed and tried to climb up on this little ledgey platform thing only for a racoon to LEAP UP. Apparently they can jump pretty high. And they look properly evil.... arg. Anyway, luckily we escaped with all our lunches intact (rich was pretty pleased about this) and we semi mastered the art of SHOWING NO FEAR.

We spent the day walking along the edge/over/under the waterfalls from every angle possible. It sounds rather boring but it genuinely wasnt because they are just so so impressive. I was half expecting them to be a bit disappointing and over hyped, plus it had been a mission to get there but it was 100% worth it. Every view was more impressive than the last... they really are incredible. The sheer volume of water pouring over is just mind boggling.... I was rather taken with them and kept wittering on about how I could watch them forever... what a loser. Theres one walkway where you literally walk along the top of the river above the falls and end up literally at the very very edge of the biggest part of the waterfall. To one side there´s the river, and to the other is just this huge huge drop. You can´t even see the bottom beacuse its so misty and there´s so much water being thrown up (we got rather wet. I got shouted at by some man in spanish when I was trying to take photos because water kept being thrown over like from a bucket and he was telling me to put the camera away when it did... err like I could predict when that would happen?!? I just smiled and nodded). We found the most impressive views rather by accident, when we took a bit of a wrong turning on the way to the SPEEDBOAT RIDE (more on this later) and it was literally postcard perfect. THere was a huge huge rainbow, palm trees and other foliage framing the shot, the waterfalls, really blue sky with cotton wool clouds (as if a 7 year old had drawn them) and then the river which was kind of brown. I decided it was like something from charlie and the chocolate factory,like willy wonkas river (the chocolate one)... it looked fake because it was so perfect and beautiful. Cue excessive photo taking. Again!

The speedboat ride we did was seriously fun... I had a long debate before we got on as to exactly how naked i should get in the interest of keeping clothes dry (bikini only?bikini top but keep skirt on? it was a tough one....prob the most mental stimulation my brains had for about 3 weeks!). in the end I stayed fully clothed with my waterproof which did me proud and hardly let any water in despite the fact that the speedboat went basically right under the waterfall. It was wetter than being in a shower. It was seriously good fun... I couldnt actually look up into the waterfall due to contact lense losing issues, but apparently we were actually under it! When we´d bought the tickets for the boat, the man had joked that it would be ´shower time´and we´d all just chuckled politely thinking he was exaggerating but we were proved wrong! Iona had made the error of wearing leggings on the boat which ended up basically stuck to her legs, so we constructed a towel changing room and she did a sneaky clothes change... cheeky!Rich was so wet, and in swimming shorts anyway, that he decided the only sensible thing to be done was to go and stand on a bit of the walkway which was basically half in the waterfall and pose for photos... he got a bit of a round of applause from the waterproof jacket clad people standing beside him. Good times had by all really!

We finished our day of getting rather wet by going in the pool at the hostel... a fitting end to the day,topped off by a steak bbq dinner. yum yum yum.

24 hour buses can be fun... honest....

Before mentioning the bus ride... I should announce that we have 2 new members in our group.

- New Member Number 1- Hegg the squeaky chicken. Rich bought him in Rio for reasons that I cant now remember. It cost him about 3 pounds (quite a lot really). Its yellow and plastic. When you squeeze it it makes a funny noise. We named it Hegg in honour of Hegg from San Diego. Not sure why really. Hes quite creepy... but not as creepy as...
- New Member Number 2- Ramon the racoon. Purchased at the gift shop at Iguazu for Rich (bday present) in honour of the racoons love for rich. He´s a hand puppet and genuinley quite terrifying. Iona in particular is rather scared of him... cue excessive prank playing by rich and ben... he´s been found in iona´s bag, hanging under her bed etc etc. He really is quite scary though.


Back to the bus journey...
We then headed on our second 24 hr bus to Salta, a town in the north of Argentina, near ish the border with Bolivia.

We were rather gutted to find out that there were no ´cama´tickets left (you basically have a bed. on the bus.get in!) but instead only semi cama (a semi bed)... sad times. It turned out that semi cama was actually still pretty fit- we got breakfast.lunch and dinner (but not a hot dinner as I thought the ticket selling man told me... apparently my spanish is still rather lacking!), films (angels and demons and a dodgy russian gangster film which was brilliant comedy value) and pretty comfy seats. There´s something quite nice about having nothing to do except read a book, watch a film, listen to music and chat. The only real thing you have to worry about is whether you´re going to read one more chapter, or listen to some music then read another chapter. Life is tough out here, honestly.

We made it to Salta, and went to our hostel, aka heaven on earth. We had splurged (not really... it cost a fiver a night!) and got double rooms... with REAL BEDS (not creaky wobbly bunk beds), with REAL SHEETS, and REAL TOWELS (not the stupid travel towels which basically dont dry but make you more wet), and CABLE TV. Aaaaaah. Simple pleasures.

Salta itself is very pretty - it reminds me a lot of Antigua in Guatemala where I spent a month 3 years ago. cobbled streets, low pretty painted houses, lots of churches which are white and orange and pink, a lovely square, palm trees... its exceedingly pleasant.

We went out for cocktails on our first night at a simpsons themed bar (random)... it was happy hour until half past midnght... 2 for 1 cocktails... obviously we felt the need to try half the menu,as they cost less than a pound each. Yum. the peach margharita was my personal favourite.

But... the best thing about salta has been... and I warn you, this is very sad... (but bear in mind we´ve been travelling for 8 weeks)... the morning after our night out. Iona and I have christened it the Best Morning Ever. We brought ourselves breakfast in bed... breakfast itself was freshly squeezed orange juice, cereal, coffee and pastries (HELLO YUM HOSTEL BREAKFAST!) and ate it in our DOUBLE BED, and watched films on our CABLE TV (can you tell we enjoyed this hostel at all?!). We worked our we havent really watched tv, or had a lie in in a proper bed for 8 weeks now. It was HEAVEN. Morning of dreams, honestly. Aaaaahh.

Later that day we had our last Argentinian steak (sad times).... the restaurant we went to was lovely, and gave us free champagne when we arrived (well done iona´s guidebook!) and we were presented with honestly the biggest hunk of meat Ive ever seen on a plate in front of me. For about 4 pounds. It was basically the size of my two hands, placed side by side, and about 2-3 inches thick. Rich reckons they weighed about a kilo. Madness. But yum. I managed just over a half (not a bad effort really!), ben finished his, iona basically finished hers (CARNI!!) and rich managed about 2/3. Mmmm. Sadly no more steak for us as we had into bolivia but it was a fitting end to our time in Argentina.

Tonight... on to Bolivia... coats at the ready! I feel the real travelling might now begin... the buses will get dodgy, (no more semi cama for us!) but on the plus side we´ve been promised that it will be v v cheap. Im sure we´ll be fine as long as we buy some more warm clothing. Eek!

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