Samba time

Journey's end approaches, and it's time to go country and border crazy.

Wednesday wake up in Salto, Uruguay (find out there's really nothing to do here). Late afternoon, cross into Argentina (get stamp) for night bus to Foz de Iguassu.

Thursday morning cross from Argentina into Brazil (get stamp), see Iguassu on the Brazilian side.

Friday cross from Brazil into Argentina (get stamp), see Iguassu on the Argie side, cross back.

Saturday cross from Brazil into Paraguay (get stamp), buy some DVDs for the bus. Back into Brazil.

So 3 countries in less than 24 hours, 4 in under 70, 6 border crossings, a load more stamps in my now very full looking 1 year old passport and Paraguay marking my 49th country, by Stanford reckoning.

All these stats and a visit to one of the (unofficial) wonders of the world. Iguassu rocks.

There's really nothing of interest to note between Montevideo and the falls, so let's get there.

Brazilian Iguassu
I was sufficiently buzzing about Iguassu to throw caution to the wind, laugh in the face of death and take a scenic helicopter flight. As anyone who knows me will know, I do not consider helicopters to be safe-in layman's terms, if the rotors stop, you're fucked.

At 70 units of septic currency, it wasn't cheap for 10 mins, but it was a great way to start, getting a thorough overview of the falls. We flew over a lot of jungle to reach the falls, which are immense. Unlike Vic falls, this is more like a network of falls spread over a few miles (not sure on the numbers, as I couldn't get any stats). There's maybe a dozen falls, which are worth travelling for. Put them all together and it's beyond words. You need to come here.

Got some video and photos too.






In all I took something like 200 pics at Iguassu. I'll try to pick a select subset to post.

The rest of the day was spent walking round, being frequently stunned turning a corner before being more stunned turning the next corner. All the time we were bumping into coati.



Without wanting to put too fine a point on it, here are some photos of water falling off a shelf of rock.







Argentinian Iguassu
If the Brazilian side gives the overview and the panoramas, then Argentina provides the detail. It's time to get up close and personal.

We started off walking through the forest and over the river to get proper close to the Devil's throat. This is definitely the big daddy of the various falls




I got told off for my precarious perch above the raging torrent. Seeing as it by a professional photographer I ignored him.

We'd taken a little train to get to the devil, but we moved on by 4x4. The jungle drive and boat ride were OK, but I've done some slightly better wildlife watching the past year. The boat trip to the falls was a wholly different matter.

This was probably the highlight of the 2 days-I believe Laura described it as 'the shit'. The trip was in 2 parts. You start at the level of the lower river and navigate upstream. The change in perspective that you get with the falls now above is awe inspiring. Quite literally awesome in fact. It's not safe to go up to the Devil's Throat, but even 700m away, the power of the falls you can see is beyond imagination.




Secondly they drive the boat into a massive waterfall (still one of the smaller ones).

You get drenched.

Then they hit a second waterfall.

By now you're as wet as if you'd been in the river.

Just for good measure, they do it baby one more time.

Now there's a river running down the boat. Taking photos wasn't entirely practical.




Having walked up to the level of the falls, we've actually dried off quite a lot by this point.

I'm thinking Iguassu is probably the highlight of mainland South America. I must find the stats on it to compare to Niagara (puny I reckon), Vic and Angel.

Paraguay
Paraguay was a bit of a cheat-I was there for less than 3 hours and Ciudad del Este is nothing more than a big shopping centre for tourists and Brazilians to get cheap stuff. The timing was good tho-as we had a night bus and given that the Brazilians are so obsessed with soccer that they showed Man U Wigan live rather than England Australia, I had an afternoon watching Rugby. England Australia was shown 'as live', 4 hours late. I'm not a fan of 'as live'-there are those who would claim you see the same thing, so there's no difference. I call these people non-sport fans. Psychologically I know the game's over and millions of people know the result, so 'as live' doesn't cut it. Given the closeness of the contest, we still managed to get quite stuck in.

Then I got to laugh at the Kiwis going out to France. After the attitude, the arrogance, about their team that I experienced while I was there, I've no sympathy at all. I found it funnier that back in NZ they'd have been up in the middle of the night crying into their Steinlagers. I assume the Great Redeemer is now on the dole.

All this while munching a tasty pizza for my (slight) hangover. Pretty good day and a proud day for my hemisphere. Have you noticed how only golf makes people cheer for Europe, while it takes Rugby to get people behind a hemisphere?

It all put a spring in my stride for the near 24 journey to the beaches of Paraty.