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Published: June 25th 2008
Water! We need it. Scientists now estimate that we could be up to 8% water or something. And it's scarce! That's right, go turn the tap off, we need it for things as vital and diverse as:
* Washing the cat
* Making milk out of milk powder
* Showering after getting covered in paint when painting the garage door (though you may want to use White Spirit first).
Yes, it´s important stuff alright, and it's running out. And here´s why: A dirty great hole in the very fabric of the earth's upper mantley crust in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay (it´s that big, folks) is leaking our water down to the centre of the earth, where it´s being boiled away, like so much soup on the hob of a particularly forgetful chef.
Yes, this is Iguazú! A temple to watery wastefulness. This week´s wiki-stats: 6500 m3 are pouring away every second at Iguazú. In turn, each cubic metre is gawped at by over 14,000 slack jawed tourists (such as yours truly) every minute. It´s a spectacle alright, and not a very subtle one. So much so I´m just going to let the photos do the talking and keep
my great big mouth shut.
Other than to say this. The main bit of the falls is called Garganta del Diablo, or the Devil's Throat. Which got me thinking about the Devil's Punchbowl back in Blighty. Which got me thinking that it terms of scale, Old Nick could probably fit the contents of his punchbowl down his throat in one go. Good lad!
It´s a long long ride to Puerto Iguazú (16 hours or so) from Buenos Aires. Fortunately we´d decided to go Super Bling class, which basically means you get a pretty much fully reclinable bed, generous portions of red wine and champers, and a parade of some of the worst straight to video movies played over the entertainment system. Want to know what The Rock did after 'The Scorpion King' bombed? We can tell you. Ever wondered what´d happen if Disney remade 'The Prince and the Pauper' with two chubby blonde child actors set in California? Well I´m not surprised, cos the movie sucked. Anyway, these terrible films can be somewhat mitigated by getting tanked on bad red wine and sleeping for 10 hours in your comfy comfy seat/bed thing.
On arrival we were somewhat
shocked to learn that Iguazú was freezing. This was supposedly our last sub tropical destination of the trip, and yet it was about 8 degrees. Less in our room. Foolishly we´d left our warm clothes in Buenos Aires for safe keeping. We were also crestfallen to discover a lack of hot water in our hotel. Young Natsterface then took the poor decision to walk round Iguazú in sandals, thus we had potential frostbite to deal with as well.
Brr.
Post falls: Get up too late to go to Brazil, back to Buenos, sack off Uruguay (I mean, whats there anyway? Name a famous Uruguayan), get fantastically posh bus to Bariloche, try to think in proper sentences.
Hasta Luego,
Si x x x
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