Greetings from Argentina! We've spent the last few days in the Brazilian town of Foz do Iguacu, a big town close to the Brazil-Argentinian border. The journey was supposed to take 2 days, with one night bush camping on the way, but we made good time and decided to just carry on until we got there. It meant arriving at midnight after leaving at 7am but we were all sooooo happy to avoid bush camping, we didn't care what time we got there!! It was tough putting up our tent in the dark when we were half asleep, and as a result our tour leader had to adjust it in the morning as we hadn't done it right, its nice how the group look out for each other. Most of the others decided to upgrade to a dorm as we got there so late but we decided to save our pennies and stick it out, as we had expensive plans for the next day! The next morning we did one of the activities we've been most excited about: the helicopter ride over Iguazu Falls! Iguazu Falls has 275 waterfalls, the most anywhere in the world. We saw them from the Brazilian side....in style!! It was amazing to get our first sight of the falls from above, but we decided it wasn't enough! We had seen them from the top, but we wanted to see them from the bottom as well. We bought a package which included a truck ride through the surrounding woodland with a guide, a short walk and best of all, a speedboat which went into some of the falls themselves! This was definitely one of the highlights so far! We got absolutely drenched, being sat right at the front of the boat, not even on proper seats , though it did mean we got the best view. After this adrenaline rush we thought we'd make the most of the national park, and our tickets, by taking a walk through some of the trails. We had some encounters with coatis, raccoon like animals. They are usually friendly apart from when you have food, but they can carry rabies so we avoided posing for photos with them! It was then a mad dash to get the free bus to the entrance to the park, which we got, but it went slowly and we missed our ride home in the truck so we were forced to make our own way back! We got back just in time to save our tent, Dirty Harry. It was lightly raining and we were inside the tent when we saw a drip. After investigation we found....a hole!! By this time it was raining extremely heavily, so it was a frantic rush to try to find someone with tape to fix it. Unfortunately no one did, so we improvised by stuffing the hole with a bin bag and hoping for the best! Some of our stuff was damp but nothing was ruined, and thankfully it hasn't rained since! The next day was quieter, we had a lie in and finally uploaded our photos, we failed miserably at a game of pool, then the truck manager Bill was driving into town so we grabbed a lift with him. The town didn't have much to offer in terms of shops, so we had an ice cream then headed off to the bowling alley! Our bowling skills were slightly better than our pool skills, but as there were no bumpers neither of us got a strike :p One pizza later we headed back to the hostel with Bill. It was a poor nights sleep as a very drunk girl from another group decided to climb (or actually crash) into our tent at 4am. It took a long time to get her out so we weren't best pleased, but we laughed about it in the morning! This morning we crossed the border to Argentina, which was thankfully a lot easier than we had been expecting. We went to the Argentinian side of Iguazu Falls. It was different as you could see more from the top of the falls, whereas on the Brazilian side it was more from the bottom. It was amazing to see and hear the power of the falls, and we had stunning views of Devil's throat, where 12 waterfalls come together to make a massive wall of water falling down. Unfortunately we couldn't get pictures as the spray absolutely soaked us! We then returned to check into our hostel, which is the best one yet! It has a huge pool and good facilities, even better....we're sleeping in a dorm tonight! We are soooo excited as it's the first bed we will have seen in 2 weeks, and although we're back to camping tomorrow, it will be really nice to have one night of 'luxury'! Off out in town later, so adios!
Xxxxxxxx