Campo Grande and 225 pictures!

Hi all,

So Iguacu was indescribable, my pictures don´t do it justice. Speaking of, I will post a link to these at the bottom (they are uploading as I type onto Photobucket as everything else takes too long). I saw the Brazilian side yesterday before grabbing anoher overnight bus to Campo Grande. What an eventful few hours.


My Grand Adventure
I spent about 3 hours at the Brazilian side fo the falls and headed back by bus to Foz do Iguacu. There are two bus stations at Foz and I needed to get tothe other one. I am trying to budget and didn´t want a taxi so I asked at information and then hopped onto a bus to the other station, with about two hours to go until my bus departs. The bus is packed. Half an hour later I spot ¨Rodovaria¨ (bus station) from a distance and so think we will stop there soon. But we don´t. As the bus keeps going in one direction I get the sinking feeling we aren´t going to stop. A few mins later I ask the conductor and he thinks for a second before saying ¨we go back¨and making circle actions with his hands. So I chill out a bit. 20 mins later we are still going in the same direction, and a little while later (an hour to go) everyone gets off and we pull up at a bus depot in the middle of freaking nowhere. There are fields as far as the eye can see and a couple of houses dotted here and there. The place is deserted. Noone. Anywhere. I ask the conductor ¨are we going back?¨ and he says, ¨yes, in about half an hour¨ and just walks off the bus, leaving me sitting there. I despair, cursing that the conductor didnt let me off closer to the station so I could grab a taxi/bus.
I´m not having any of this. I walk into the empty bus station and find a nice young man and demand that I get a taxi. He understands, calls, and tells me to wait. 10 mins and the taxi hasn´t arrived, so he says ¨I will take you¨, runs out, starts one of the out of service buses and lets me on. He then takes me to the bus station, sitting there, just us on a bus. We rush past bus stops and he ignores them, chatting away normally One of the most weird experiences of my life.

I made the bus. Just. Almost wish I didn´t, was an awful bus. It had no heating so I was sat there in the following:
2 pairs of socks
1 jumper
1 coat with hood up
1 sleeping bag liner
2 towels as blankets
1 scarf as a blanket

and my feet were still cold.

But I made it to Campo Grande, and have booked a tour of the Pantanal for 3 days with Ecological Adventures, including a free night in Campo Grande. Depart tomorrow at 9am, with no internet access. Just me, the spiders, and the anaconda. Oh yes.

Pictures: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v211/StephieB/travel/ (password: CampoGrande)

Love to all and see you on the other side of the Pantanal when I hopefully head to Bonito. xxxxx

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Part of trip: South America 09

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