Brazil - Iguazu Falls & Rio De Janeiro

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We arrived in Brazil from Buenos Aires. We flew into Iguazu on the Argentinian side and then crossed the border to our hotel in the national park overlookinf Iguazu Falls, where we stayed for 2 nights.

On the first afternoon we took a boat to below the falls. Literally the only rain we saw when we were at Iguazu started just as we were getting on the boat .. lashing it down so we could hardly see a thing .. then they put the boat under the waterfalls so we got even wetter! It was a good fun trip though .. although it would have been better in the sunshine!

The hotel at Iguazu Falls .. Tropical Das Cataratas .. is in an old colonial buiding .. looks nice from the outside but has seen better days inside .. it had that old musty smell seeping from every wall! However the setting is stunning .. with views from outside the hotel to the falls. As I mentioned in my Argetnina blog .. the falls were amazing .. a definite must if you ever visit Argentina or Brazil.

After Iguazu we flew upto Rio which is where I am now. I have been here for nearly a week now. Mum & Dad left on monday and I´m going to stay here till Saturday before heading up North starting at Salvador. At the moment Antoni & Paul are here (friends from HK) so I will stay here till they go.

Rio is fantastic. It´s a beautiful city with beautiful people .. oh my god you should see the beaches! The beaches are pretty good too .. but the people watching is first class on them!!!

I had a great week in Rio, beaches, bit of sight seeing, good restaurants, good company and a couple of good nights out. After Mum & dad left I stayed another 4 days with Paul & Antoni, and also Jens & Johannes friends of Antoni´s from London.

Had a bit of a run in with some police when leaving a club one night .. the taxi drove us into a roadblock where we got thoroughly searched (about 3 times over!) .. but obviously had nothing illegal in our pockets so where sent on our way after about 10 minutes. Phew!

I probably could have stayed in Rio longer but as Jens & Johannes were heading upto Salvador I thought I´d head up there and have a couple of days with them there before heading further up north.

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