Hi everyone,
Well our VIP bus out of Buenos Aires was all that we had expected and more... Certainly the best and most pleasant bus trip of our journey so far!! We were greeted on board with coffee and sweets, our dinner was three courses and we were served wine and beer during the meal, after dinner we were served champers and whiskey and then we slept on a flat bed.. Pretty much business class bus travel similar to an aeroplane... we presume, having never flown business class! The bus arrived on time in Puerto Iguacu and we checked in to our accommodation. We headed out for a walk along the river and saw the famous three frontiers. Standing on Argentine soil and looking across to Brasil and Paraguay. Pretty amazing.
The following day we caught an early bus to the Iguacu Falls Park where we paid a large entrance fee and caught a tourist train to the ´Devil´s Throat´ part of the falls... This is where the two rivers meet and create an almighty roar of water... We got off the train a stop too early so decided to walk to the entrance of the Devil´s Throat.. We were so glad we did this because we saw about 15 monkeys in the trees above us...! They seemed pretty interested in our picnic lunch so we quickly moved on but we were so happy to see monkeys in the wild!! To get to the Devil´s Throat you walk along a catwalk suspended above the river which is impressive in itself until you see and hear the falls.. Defeaning!! Oh and very wet! It´s really one of the most incredible natural wonders we have seen this trip.. Tonnes of tourists too though!
From the Devil´s Throat we walked to the Upper and Lower lookouts where you can get an overview of the falls and also get up close and personal, oh and very wet, with one of the falls....
Quite a day!
The following day we caught a bus to the border of Brasil and then spent the day at the Brasilian side of the falls. This side is about 1/3 of the size of the Argentine side but has a better panoramic view of the falls. You can also walk on a walkway out to the edge of one of the waterfalls and we got soaked! Better than a theme park ride any day!
In the evening we caught a bus from Foz do Iguacu to Sao Jose Dos Campos, a journey intended to take 18hrs but took 20 after about 20 stops, a flat tyre and 15 police checks. At one point the locals on board started collecting money... we didn´t know why, perhaps to tip the driver? Anyway they didn´t bother us and it turned out it was to pay the police at one of the checkpoints to ´grease the wheels´ so that the bus and passengers weren´t searched! Very corrupt! When we arrived at Sao Jose (grateful we´d lived!) we had been told we could get a 1hr bus that same day to Parati, our final destination... However no buses were available for the rest of the day and also the journey took 4hrs 30 mins!! So we spent the night there, not sure they had really seen tourists before but for us it was a nice way to see real Brasilian life...
So the following day we caught a bus to Parati and started to see the coastline and turquoise sea again... Something we hadn´t seen for a while! In Parati, our host Simon collected us from the bus station and took us to the hostel. He is from Norwich and lives with his Brasilian wife and their son running the hostel overlooking the beach.. It´s a hard life and a far cry from Norwich!!
We spent three glorious days getting acquainted with Caipirinhas and Cerveja, Brasilian styleee! We went to the beach a bit and ate some great seafood and visited the old town which has beautiful colonial buildings and cobbled streets which look almost as they did 400 years ago.
On the 9th we caught a boat out to Ilha Grande which is a paradise island near Rio de Janeiro. The weather wasn´t so great on the first day but improved for the following two days so we swam and sunbathed a bit... The host of our hostel cooked cheap, home-made Brasilian food every night so we loved that and we also met some fellow travellers too...
On Friday we caught an express boat to Rio De Janeiro where we´ve been enjoying the sights...
The weather forecast hasn´t been good so yesterday we went to Christ the Redeemer and Sugar Loaf Mountain, both spectacular and the photos are great...
Today we visited Ipanema beach and the cafe where the famous song `Girl from Ipanema´ was written....
Tomorrow is wet so we´re heading to the museums and old part of town and then on Tuesday we´ll go on a Favela Tour which will be an experience...
Weds we fly to Miami where we´re expecting three days of thunderstorms due to the hurricanes off the coast of the States at the moment!!
Cannot believe we´re at the end of our South American adventure already!! Our biggest adventure still lies in London though when we arrive in the new Terminal 5 HRW and see if our bags come out the other end!!!
B and C xxx
