Barra da Hippies e prawns

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So......... where we left off, we were starting surfing lessons. We were under the expert tuition of Evandro Santos (some ex-"PRO" surfer from the town we stayed at). His tagline was that if you didn´t stand on the first lesson, you got your money back. Unfortunatly for us, this turned out to be in his favour, and we stood up on the second attempt. Now surfing is normally paddle paddle paddle, catch the wave, and jump to your feet. As a beginner, it went more like, lie on board and not fall off, wait for wave, Evandro gave us a push, then STAND UP. Nice way to get a feel for the board and how it all works, but not quite how we had imagined it, but it was the first lesson. Andy was having trouble getting it up (as it where) but was spured on by Evandros words of encouragement "Fast like the Ninja Andy!", enough to make a surfer of anyone 😊 We both enjoyed the lesson and returned of another 2, pretty much the same deal, push and stand, but it was fun. What was not fun, was the englishmans sunburn that we both got. Dispite using factor 50 cream, 2 more lobster were now resident in Barra da Lagoa, doh!

Apart from surfing the island had a pretty laid back vibe. A lot of surfers and young people just hanging out and enjoying the beautiful beaches. If you did not have a tatoo you were the odd one out. Piercings were very fashionable too and of course rastas. All completely different from the jam packed Rio. Josie got in touch with HC (Hospitality Club) member Tamara who was so kind to show us around and join us for dinners with her boyfriend Manuel. Thanks to them we (Tamara, Manuel and Christie from LA) went on a great trip around the lagoon. Caught a boat to some remote villages only accessible by boat and had the signature dish of the island Sequencia de Camerao. This dish is basically PRAWNS, steamed, fried, breaded and some fried fish with prawn sauce. After we were PRAWENED OUT we walked through the car free villages to a waterfall. Manual went to the top for a nice shower and did not realise how slippy the slime covered stones were and slided on his backside half the way down the fall *ouch* !!! Imagine sliding down about 20 steps with rocky edges, it looked sooooooo painfull. Andy atempted a shower but after that performance decided not to 😊 However, he was identified by some locals as novelty. They actually seriously asked him if he has some whitening cream on, hahaha 😊 And then one of the women was quite confused when she found out that Andy speaks a different language and therefore he will not be able to understand her. Also, she couldn´t believe that she could not understand Andy either.

After those few very hot days we decided to make our way to see the Iguazu Falls. As always, we left everything to the last minute and so we took the slightly less comfortable bus for 15 hours. We also decided to stay on the Argentinian side of the Falls as everything appeared much cheaper. More from Puerto Iguazu to follow.

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