Foz do Iguacu or Iguazu falls

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Lou and I take a headphone each from my Ipod and listen to Madvillan. We share a beer, three sips then pass from a can of Brahma Chopp beer and watch Brazil go by.

It gets very cold on the bus. I am wearing a vest, T-shirt, fleace, jacket and Beany and I am still cold. It is very hard to sleep. I grab three hours sleep, perhaps four before we arrive at Iguazu falls twenty three hours later. There is just time for a shower and lunch before we visit the Brazilian side of the falls.

Our guide is called Edson. He is thirty eight and grew up in Iguazu seeing it change dramatically from his childhood when the Itaipu dam was being built. Back then the town was booming and full of young men visiting red light districts. The government built three estates for the workers. An estate with basic housing for the manual labourers, another with comfortable housing for the office workers and delux housing on an estate for the engineers and management. Now that the dam is complete most of the workers have left leaving many of the houses empty. This makes it very difficult to sell property in Iguazu. Edson also tells us that Iguazu has a drug problem with dealers bringing in cocaine and marijuana from neighbouring Paraguay. There is alot of petty crime comitted in Iguazu by drug addicts. But, Edson tells us, it is better to have a drug dealer as a neighbour as they keep petty crime away not wanting to have it attract the unwanted attention of the police.

We drive through Iguazu National park passing some kind of hawk eating fresh road kill on the grass verge. There are three walks around the falls and three differnet levels on the Brazillian side enabeling us to see the falls and many different angles. The water falls are spectacular. Intimidatingly powerful from below and scarily high from above. The noise of the water crashing down makes it difficult to talk as the spray soaks us.

On day two we visit the Argentinian side of the falls. On the way we visit a fork in the Parana river which is the third largest river in the world after the Congo in African and the Amazon. Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina can all be seen at the fork in the Parana river each one showing it´s colours on a plinth.

There is much more walking on the Argentinian side. Around every corner there is another spectacular view. Notably at the top of the ´Devils throat´where swifts fly into the falling water to nest in the rocks behind. The tour ends with a boat ride right to the foaming foot of the falls into the spray and white out. We emerge drentched, soaked to the skin. We then zoom off down the rapids and disembark. We get onto a truck that takes us through the jungle back to our car.

That night we go to the eighteenth floor of our hotel to eat at the French resturaunt there with panoramic views of the city of Iguazu lit up at night.

On our final day we visit the Itaipu dam, the soon to be second largest dam in the world after one is completed in China. It produces over twenty percent of Brazils electricity and ninety percent of Paraguays. It is a massive construction and although it is an increadible feat of engineering it´s not much to look at all grey concreat with twenty white pipes through which water rushes.

After the tour Edson drives us back to the bus depot. He talks about Brazil. He is optimistic about the long term future but concerned about the short term with a world recession looming and Obama promoting US manufacturing over foreign imports. He is frustrated that the South American continent that is so rich in natural resources cannot work more efficenty and effectivly together to better the advancement for all.

The return bus journey seems to pass by quickly. One of the passengers has several pirate DVDs that the driver plays for us in the bus TVs. The quality is low and we don´t always get to see the end of each gliche film but they help pass the time.

At one am we the bus is stopped at a police check point and searched. The police are dressed in knee high leather boots with tight grey trousers tucked into them. They have gun belts and leather jackets and wear peaked leather caps. They look like they have walked off the set of Flash Gordon and might burst into YMCA at any moment.

Twenty three hours later we arrive back in Rio where we catch up on sleep before flying to Mexico.

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