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Published: November 30th 2005
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Absolutely soaked at Iguazu (Argentinian side)
Surprisingly the camera stopped working from the wet right afterwards! Rick: Well i was pleased to arrive in Argentina for a bit of civilization after getting struck down by a bout of constant arse water, stomach cramps and flu from loads of dodgy eateries in Bolivia and I had to get it some time as done well until now. Crosssing into Argie from Bolivia was all a bit awful and I thought I was going to poo and vomit at the border control as we had to queue for ages whislt some guy in a shed took hours to simply stamp our passports. The contrast between Bolivia and the more civilized Argentina and Brazil is pretty damn apparent in terms of wealth, housing and cleanliness although Bolivia does have amazing scenary. If you havent had enough of me ramblings and want to send me a email you can contact me at rfgalbraith@hotmail.com for more of a personal communication.
Becky´s update on our latest intrepid adventures from Brazil......
We left Salta, our first stop in Argentina, which was a welcome hub of civilisation after the dodgy food and hygeine of Bolivia, for a long road trip across Argentina, which took two full days of driving. We stopped off a a
famous Jesuit missonary town, called San Ignatio, on the way to Iguazzu falls. The mission was established by Spanish God botherers in the 18th century, who offered the ´heathen´ locals the chance to live in the missionary town, become enlightened Catholics and to give up their way of life and religious beliefs, or to stay outside and get captured and shipped to Europe by slave traders. Nice. It is a good ruin though.
We then carried on to visit the falls. They are the largest (but not the highest) in the world, and span the borders of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. Sadly the bit by Paraguay is a bit poo so they lose out, and tourists go see the Argentinian side (where you can get right over the various waterfalls and get a more detailed view of the falls by doing various trails round them), and then go into Brazil to see the falls from the other side (which is more of a panoramic view of the whole shebang).
We had a wicked time on the Argie side, we did a boat trip that takes you right under some of the falls and we got completely drenched. All
good fun tho! There are also some spots where you can get right into the falls and again get rather wet - see photo.
We stayed on the Brazillian side of the falls for 3 days, visited the falls (which incidentally are at their highest ever level and had actually washed away some walkways!), and chilled by the pool. Went to a caberet night one night, which was not unlike a show at Butlins, mostly the entertainment was rubbish dancers but we saw some good capoera (the Brazillian dance where they are sort of fighting but never touch each other, its on one of the BBC link things between programmes). Got absolutely wasted and all got in the pool at 2am much to the delight of the security chaps.
We are now in Bonito, which is an eco resort on the outskirts of the Pantanal, a swamp the size of France which we are going to travel to tomorrow. They are MILLIONs of flying beasties here as it is really tropical.
Highlight of Bonito is that, due to the calcium and magnesium in the water, all the bits of sand etc get calcified and sink to thebottom,
so the rivers are completely clear. We snorkelled down the river, just floating and letting the current take us, and saw hundreds of really big fish, some in shoals etc, which was excellent. Got a bit scared of bits of the river which were full of tree roots and which werent penetrated by the sun, as that is where anacondas hang out! Also saw parrots (which were massive!) in the trees, and tucans too, which was cool.
As some of our pals from the trip left at Bonito, we saw them off with another drinking session and pool abuse, this time a security guard FIRED A GUN INTO THE AIR! Crazy South Americans!
After Bonito, we left for the Pantanal, a swamp the size of France, where we went on a night safari, piranha fishing and horse riding, and saw a baby jaguar, giant ant eaters, armadillos, wolves, caiman (small alligators) and MILLIONS OF FLYING BEASTIES. We got bitten millions of times, despite our factor 100 DEET. Well worth it though.
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Who's that......
Who's that dude on a horse and even worse...who's that girlguide " going snorkelling in the Bonito". P.s patio now finished and await the official ribbon cutting except that it's snowing and Glos came to an icy standstill !