Wednesday 21st: We arrived in Iguazu at 12.30pm and went into the tourist info place at the bus station and booked into a hostel....with a swimming pool - result!! Everything just suddenly got cheaper too - the hostel is just R$24 per night instead of the R$36 in Rio.
We dumped our bags and went for lunch and then headed for the falls.....WOW, they are amazing!!
We spent a couple of hours walking around looking at them and then it started raining. We saw some huge spiders, loads of butterflies and some Coaties (pronounced kwatties) which are sooo cute. On the way in we saw that they offered helecopter rides over the falls and we all decided it`d be a great thing to do, but thought it`d probably be cheaper on the Argie side so we decided to wait.
That evening we bought some food from the supermarket and cooked pasta and veg for dinner and had a couple of bottles of wine at the hostel.

The next day we went to see the dam and we also decided to pop into Paraguay. Paraguay and Brazil are devided by a river here so we just hopped on a bus which took us over the bridge to get there. The town over the bridge probably isn`t typical of the rest of Paraguay, it was a bit dirty and shabby and just had loads of market stalls selling all sorts of stuff - trainers, bags, mobile phone stuff - the usual type of market thing. We stayed for an hour or so and then walked back over the bridge. Neither immigration nor customs were remotely interested in us.

Then we headed for Itaipu dam - it is the largest hydro-electric dam in the world. It generates over 90% of the electricity used by Paraguay and 25% of the electricity used by Brazil. The tour thing was free which was good, but it had to be really because they had totally used it just to take the opportunity to say `look at out lovely dam, didn`t we do well and aren`t we fab`! We were shown a video to begin with which was quite funny - total propaganda!! Anyway, that aside, it is quite an impressive dam and the tour was fun. We also got to go on a tour of the ecological park and saw some animals which had been rescued from trafficers (is that how you spell it?!).

We got back from the dam absolutely ravenous as we`d missed lunch but we had arranged to move hostels over the the Argentinian side so we munched on a couple of crackers and peanut butter that Noelle had and jumped in a taxi to take us over the border.
We arrived at the Hostel Inn on the Argentinian side at around 8pm, the border crossing was really quick and easy and we waved goodbye to Brazil.
Well, the Hostel inn.....I only took one piccy, but check it out on the internet - it`s like a holiday resort!! Swimming pool, pool tables, table tennis, internet, bar and the accommodation is little cottages....lush!!

We had a bit of a nightmare checking in tho`- we didn`t have enough Argentinian currency between us and although they accept dollars and Brazillian Reais they didn`t have enough change so we couldn`t check in!! It`s absolutely bonkers - everywhere you go in Brazil and Argentina they hate big notes - if you try to pay for stuff with any note bigger than a 20 they always ask if you have smaller and sometimes even refuse to take it!! ....but the cash machines always give out huge notes.....hmmmm

Anyway, we dumped our baggage in the storage room and jumped back in a taxi and went to the town to find a bank. The taxi driver was a friendly chap and after some discussion with him we established that there are no helecopter rides from the Argie side!! He offered to take us back over to the Brazillian side the following day for free to take the helecopter and then drop us at the entrance to the Argentinian side of the falls - nice :o)

We got some cash, checked in, I bought a 'Hostel Inn' card for 43 pesos which gives me discount on all hostel inn accomodation and tours across Argentina, then we went for a swim, had some crisps and a long awaited beer (you can buy 1 litre bottles here for around a pound!!).

Then we sampled some red wine and decided to get dinner.....it was 10.05pm by this time.....dinner was finished being served at 10pm!! The hostel is a cab ride from the town and after all our faffing about earlier none of us could face it!! ...so dinner ended up being more red wine, crisps and ice cream by the pool.

Fri 23rd - The cabbie picked us up at 9am and took us back over the border to Brazil to the helepad. We paid our 180R$ (around 45 GBP) and waited in line watching people getting on and off the helecopters ahead of us. What an amazing ride!! It was my first time in a helecopter, so the ride was as exciting as the view - we could see miles across the forests and up the river and the falls looked amazing. The pilot did a few turns and hovered a bit too which is such a weird sensation. Absolutely worth every penny!!

The cabbie then took us back over the border and dropped us at the Argie side of the falls - the walkways are a bit better on the Argie side and you get a totally different perspective of the falls from the Brazillian side - you can see from the photos how close the walkways get to the water - just incredible!
The others took a boat ride which went under one of the waterfalls - I looked after belongings and took photos....they got drenched!!
There was a little train that took us around some of the park, but mainly we walked all around until around 5pm and then we headed back to the hostel - totally satisfied that we`d properly `done` Iguazu falls!
We went into Puerto Iguazu for dinner - we sat outside the restaurant but suddenly the heavens opened and everyone dashed to tables inside and watched the rain bucket down - when it rains, it really rains!!

Sat 24th - I went to town with Saralyn first thing to buy a bus ticket to Buenos Aires and use the internet, we stayed for lunch and returned to the hostel in time to have a quick dip in the pool and collect our belongings. We said farewell to Saralyn and waited for our buses. Chris and Noelle were getting the bus 10minutes after me because they were a little more organised and booked their tickets on Friday! The bus was very posh - (bus co was Via Bariloche) reclining armchairs, a hot meal, breakfast......and all for just 160pèsos (25GBP). My bus left at 4.30pm (they are always on time in Argentina it seems).....the 17hour journey just flashed by :o)