Wednesday 1st September Buenos Aires - Puerto Igauzu

We enjoyed the tango and music last night - lots of high leg kicking and close face proximity seem to sum up the dance . We were amused by the statuesque man with the fake cigarette sitting beside us in the cafe before the show - he only seemed to move when it was time for him to leave! Sue had another bad night´s sleep as the antibiotics hadn´t kicked in yet. Finally we had a day to ourselves to do what we wanted to do. As we stepped out of the train station to walk in a picturesque park it had started to rain - so we stepped into a cafe to stay dry. We ended up staying a long time (at least the 80´s hits playing on the radio kept us sane) and the rain got heavier. We watched people with brollies and skilled car drivers go past the window - ´lane discipline´and indicators are not required here - you just move the direction you want and you´ll get there! We changed cafe locations but the rain kept pouring. Back at the hotel we ordered a taxi and waited patiently. It didn´t show and we had half an hour to get to the bus station - we wandered out onto the streets to hail one instead - it was raining just after 6pm on a weekday and despite flagging about 50 taxis not one stopped - we were panic-stricken and had visions of sleeping on the streets! Finally we jumped into one and he zipped us up there in about 5 minutes - just in time really . The bus had fully reclining leather seats (3 per row) and blankets. The TV only had ´Bad Boys II´on the video so we read our books instead. Dinner was served with wine and champagne afterwards - Sue couldn´t have any unfortunately due to her antibiotics.

Thursday 2nd September - Peurto Igauzu
The radio was on nice and early on the bus at 6.30am and breakfast was served at 7.30 - the journey overnight had been restful for a bus if not quite full-on sleep. We arrived in Peurto Igauzu about 11.30am after a 16.5 hour bus ride covering half the length of Argentina. The first thing that hit us was the heat and then the humidity - it hadn´t been like this since we left Singapore in May. We walked to a hotel around the corner and took it straight away if only to save ourselves from the trouble with the heat - the room was cool and that was enough for us. We grabbed some lunch in a local cafe and headed to the main tourist office for some ideas. The girl there didn´t seem too concerned with giving us much help and was more interested in reading her book . Luckily we stopped at a travel agent who turned out to be much more helpful so we booked ourselves a falls trip for tommorrow. We walked down a town street to the place where you can see 2 rivers (the Parana and the Igauzu) and 3 countries (Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil) - we saw what looked like cotton trees growing on trees but we weren´t sure. Peurto Igauzu is a very sleepy little town with lots of unfinished building work and overgrown gardens - still after almost a month of city living it´s nice to get somewhere peaceful for a while.

Friday 3rd September
After a week of ham, cheese and bread for breakfast we kept it simple this morning with orange juice and water melon slices. Caught the 8 o´clock bus from the station to the Igauzu National Park. Once we got there we spotted our tour company and were soon aboard a ´safari jeep´ and driving through local jungle terrain - we didn´t spot any pumas or jaguars but they are around we´re told! We were shown the psalm trees that the locals like to chop down and rip the heart out of so that they can make salad out of it - Psalm´s Heart it´s called . We shared our trip with 4 Catalan girls from Barcelona - we were surprised when on the speed-boat (that was next up) they were getting prepared with swimming costumes. We hadn´t brought anything as we thought the worst we´d encounter would be some light spray from the falls - how wrong we were!! In minutes we were right up next to one if not quite underneath it and we were soaking! The ride had been great fun though. So it was 9.30 in the morning and we were wet if not too cold as the morning was heating up. We had no option but to strip to our underwear and hang our clothes out to dry for a while - we found out later that other English/non Spanish speakers also ended up like us on the rocky beach hanging their clothes out - it would´ve been nice if the English version of the brochure had mentioned it! Igauzu falls themselves are the largest falls on earth (nearly 3km wide) so we spent much of the rest of the afternoon getting up close and seeing them from the many different walkways (´catwalks´) provided. They really were spectacular and put ´Niagra falls in the shade´ according to some people we met who´d visited both . The final part of our tour we´d started earlier was a ´nature cruise´ back down the river and we did spot alligators (small ones), monkeys, macaws, kingfishers and tucans. By the time we got back we were hot and sweaty and decided to make the break for Rio on Sunday.

Saturday 4th September
We decided we needed today to relax as we´ll be on a long bus journey to Brazil tomorrow after one a couple of days ago, not to mention Sue´s lack of sleep because of her ongoing ear infection. Last night seemed to bring our health to the fore as Sue had a headache from the heat and her ankle seized up a couple of time when she was walking around. Meanwhile Derek developed a rash in a sensitive area and had trouble walking for a bit! But we´re feeling better all round today. Our hotel is picture postcard on the brochure but has a rather vile grubby brown carpet in the corridor. The key lock is ropey and the windows have no locks but we do like the kidney-shaped swimming pool outside. The weather at the moment is unseasonally hot and humid so we took refuge from it in an internet cafe for the afternoon .

Sunday 5th September
Another very bad night´s sleep for Sue with her ongoing infection - it´s taking much longer to clear than we hoped. Derek went to get some cash to settle the hotel bill - they don´t take credit cards. At the ATM the locals were miffed as it turned out both cash machines in town were out of cash! So the hotel ordered a taxi to take Derek to the casino on the other side of town which had the only other ATM for miles around - luckily it worked otherwise we might´ve been sweeping the floors in lieu of payment! At the bus station we saw a girl and her Dad catching a wild pigeon in a cage for their dinner so we gladly gave them our left-over pizza we were going to bin (as we found out we´d get lunch on the bus). It took about an hour to get through customs but we made it. Then it was a long 20-hour journey to Rio - it doesn´t seem such a long journey as it sounds once you´ve got your brain buried in a good book. We were surprised to find ourselves stopping to get off the bus for dinner as we were told it was included on board the bus. So we asked was there a bank to get some Brazilian cash and the bus driver said no - 20 minutes later we discovered there was one but it was too late to get anything to eat - good job we weren´t hungry - the savoury biscuits we´d bought earlier kept us going.