So Long and thanks for all the fish

---

Day 16-21st September

First of all, happy birthday to Claire and Ella! Hope you guys had a great day. xxx

Meh, hung over and tired... but intrigued as to what all this Paraguay malarkey is we got up at 06:30 in time for breakfast. We had the usual and hung around for a bit till 08:00 when our cab turned up.
It was a rainy day but we decided to go anyway, we are in no particular rush but couldn’t really justify another night in the same hostel, plus a little rain never did anyone any harm and might add to the whole jungle experience.
One of the guys working at the hostel called Miguel came along too, partly as an interpreter and guide but mostly because he hadn’t been on the tour yet himself, I doubt many patrons of the hostel actually take that tour since its one of the more expensive ones.

We got to the boat yard and met with our guide, took a very steep walk down to the River and waited for our boat for about 10 mins, it was called the Iguacu Explorer and had a deck set up for sunbathing and drinking caiparinias... well we weren’t going to get much in the way of sunbathing in such weather and it was still only about 09:00 so booze was also out of the question, instead we took our seats and took in our surroundings. We went through a corner of the river where we were right on the border of Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina and we saw border police a few times on their boat with a bloomin’ great machine gun on the front! They were not interested in us thank goodness and even gave us a wave as they went by; they were on the lookout for traffickers taking drugs or other goods across the river on small rowing boats... which we also saw, though I doubt the people rowing across actually had drugs or anything particularly bad the most common thing was electrical goods that they can buy cheaper in Paraguay and take back to Brazil tax free.

After a 30min or so on the boat we arrived at our destination, we were now in Paraguay! Another steep walk up some more sand and over some rocks and we were in the Forest.
We walked through the forest with Miguel and our guide spotting a couple of small waterfalls and crossing a stream using a small bridge, there was not much in the way of wildlife (probably due to the rain) but we did notice some Victorian street lamps which was a little unexpected, the guide asked us if we wanted to see the museum of Moises S. Bertoni on our walk to which we agreed, neither of us had heard of him before but we may as well see all we can and learn who this man was.

We walked up a steep row of steps and came to a Blair Witch looking house that looked down on to the River, spooky as it looked we went inside. There was no electricity so the guide used his torch to light the plaques and exhibits which added to the eerie feel some rooms were full of animal skulls and jars with dead snakes as well as glass cases containing his camera and writing equipment, it turns out that he was a Swiss feller and it was his family house and he set up a mission to educate the local Gurani Indians in the ways of Christianity and science, once we’d walked around this spooky house in the middle of the jungle for a while the guide asked if we wanted to see his grave!? Tentatively we agreed and went there only to find that he and many of his family were buried there including some very small graves, one of which was as recent as 1992.

We went back to the house and some Gurani (a woman carrying a very small child, and two more older children as well as two men to escort them) had braved the rain to bring some of their handywork, they had layed it out round the back of the house where it would not get wet, this included carvings of some of the local wildlife, beads, bows and arrows, blow pipes and Rosary’s.
Liz bought a carving of a Toucan and I bought some beads and a Rosary, Miguel bought a Blowpipe and proceeded to walk around shooting it at trees and puddles, he seemed very pleased with it.

Once we had obtained our trinkets we started up another hilly road through the forest toward the Gurani Village, on the way the guide pointed out another graveyard, again he asked if we wanted to see, I was a little unsure as it all seemed a little personal and I didn’t fancy the idea of trampling around all over people who have passed away but Miguel was very keen so in we went, I just tried my best to keep my distance and not knock anything over. The graves had crosses and offerings of flowers and items dear to the deceased kept together by tiny picket fences, I tried to get some photo’s but the light was so low I was not particularly successful.

We hung around for about ten minutes and carried on toward the village, when we got there I was surprised at how small it was, just three small huts and a recently built schoolhouse with some chickens and geese running around free, this was where the Gurani lived that we had bought our beads, toucan and blowpipe from, perhaps there were more huts further along the road but we did not go any further than that.
I went with the guide towards the ladies house to get a picture of her, her baby and her young daughter on the way I stepped on a plastic bottle and realised that they were using them to nurse cuttings of a fruit bearing plant, I felt very guilty and I hope the lady doesn’t hate me and my clumsy feet too much! I gestured at her with the camera and she nodded so I took a couple of pictures and gave her R$2 on the way back down to meet Liz and Miguel we saw a blond Doll hanging up by its hair on the washing line, for my clumsy feet I thought it might just be me in a minute!
On the way back down the path toward the spooky house Miguel suddenly ran off down a small path, he had done this a few times on the trip and the Guide said “I don’t follow we wait” why? Asked Liz what’s down there?, “More graves but path too dangerous. Many many snakes” he replied. Miguel was wearing proper boots but with shorts so I Hollered that I was not going to suck the poison out if he got bitten on the arse and that he should come back, a minute or so later he came bounding back with a grin on his face and we ribbed him for it for the rest of the day.
We eventually got back to the landing for the boat which had waited for us, we boarded and were offered beers, caiparinias and some fruit below deck, Miguel ate some fruit and crashed out, I had a beer and Lizzy had a caiparinia. When we got back to the boat yard the walk back up the steep hill felt 100 times steeper as we were all pretty knackered by then but we knew what was coming next and we were all really looking forward to it... yep you guessed it, all you can eat!

This was a seafood restaurant, well not really seafood as all the fish was pulled from the river we had just been on which technically is fresh water but let’s not split hairs eh? The food was amazing, in the same style as the Barbeque place we’d been to the waiter came round with various titbits of fish which was absolutely delish! Once we were all stuffed to the brim the tour was over and we got back in our cab. Whiles waiting for the cab we noticed one of those massive blue butterflies, I tried to get a picture of it with its wings open while kit ate some poo but the slr battery had died by then and the point and shoot has a short delay.

When we got back we crashed out for a bit, went downstairs for a beer in the evening to wait for our friend Mark but he didn’t show so we had an early night... our last night at the Katarina house.

Ellz xxx

---