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It poured with rain today, then it stopped, then it poured again and then it bucketed. We still had a great time though.
This morning we had in mind to get the bus to Assucao, the capital of Paraguay, tomorrow night. Then we saw a sign for cheap coach rides to Buenos Aires and thought that was a good idea, as Spanish lessons will be difficult to find in Paraguay, as untravelled and tourist-centred as it is. Anyway, we decided against both of those things, as they sidetracked from our trtekking plans in Peru and Bolvia too much (Buenos Aires is about 1300 miles south of our plans for christ's sake!), and will get a coach to the Pantanal area tomorrow instead - the Pantanal is the largest wetlands in the world, on the border of Brazil and Bolivia.

Anyway, what did we do today?
Well first thing we got up and ate breakfast, as you do. It was rubbish - the place we[re staying in is excellent; it's a hostel that also organises trips and sells cheap tickets for flights and coaches - very informative english-speaking staff. Unfortunately they seem to have problems keeping wasps away from the jam, and about 20 invaded a bowl near us.
After that we went shopping for a while without actually buiying anything, and then headed out to the Iguacu national park again, with the intention or revisiting the falls and doing things we didn't have time for yesterday. In the end we spent the whole day in the parque des aves (bird park), staring and weird and wonderful exotic flying things. It was a lot of fun, and really interesting. The whole park is set in beautiful rain forest (and it did indeed rain). We saw a huge rodent, not part of the show, running around; as well as aligators and anacondas, flamingoes and toucans by the dozen. The most entertaining bit, however, was when we went in the parrot and macaw enclosure (those things are HUGE!). We messed around in there for a while taking pictures, and then one of the cheeky chappy Macaws swoops down behind us. I thought its wing had hit me, but when I looked behind me it had actually landed on my back! I got Laura to take some photos, but right now we're having trouble locating the cable to upload them. At first it was a bit frightening having it tug on my necklaces and strangle me, then it became funny for a while, and then slowly it became irritating, as it just wouldn't get off me (and they're not light). It nearly bit through my necklaces, and tried to rip apart my jumper, barking at me when I tried to intervene. Eventually I managed to shake it off and we left rather sharpish.

The rest of the day was spent buying Laura a coat (for a mere 12 english pounds), and eating a meal in... Pizza hut... trust us, Brazilian food is rubbish - all they eat is pastries and chocolate! We really splashed out, and ate until fit to burst. After that splurge of almost 15 quid(!) it was bedtime. We're off to Argentina for the day tomorrow, then getting the bus if all goes to plan (ie if we get up in time to book it). Stay tuned for loads and loads more pictures, though we[re not sure when we'll be able to update again.

Dom and Laura

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