Firstly- I can´t believe Michael Jackson is dead...how crazy. I wonder if it will be one of those times you look back on and think about where you were when you heard. Well we were here in Hostel Natura and a jolly fine place it is to be too. Tomorrow we´re off to Buenos Aires but we will be very sad to leave as we´ve had an amazing time.

The Iguassu falls are set in sub-tropical rainforest on the border of Brazil and Argentina (and nearly Paraguay) and are formed by the mighty Rio Paraná falling over a series of steep cliffs. They are the biggest in the world and people from our hostel who had been to Niagara and Victoria said that they were more impressive. You can view the falls from both sides (Brazil and Argentina) so yesterday we got the bus to the Brazilian national park to see it from our side...

They have built amazing walkways that are really well done and you can see the falls from loads of different viewpoints. They really are absolutely amazing and even from 50 metres away you get soaked by spray. The volume of water coming over them is just unbelievable.

Not as soaked as we got today though....We set off this morning with 4 others from the hostel and through customs to go and see the Argentinian side. On the way we stopped at a bridge where you could see Argentina to your left, Brazil to your right and Paraguay right in front of you. This was a concept hard to explain to Barclays who keep cancelling my card for being in the wrong country!

Argentina have the largest part of the falls and when you walk through onto the walkways there you suddenly see another huge section that you couldn´t even view from Brazil. The walk through the jungle to get to the falls was lovely with monkeys in the trees and guinea pigs running along the floor. When you get there you do a big circuit- there are upper walkways and lower walkways all with stunning views where you can get really close to the absolute roar of the water. An amusing moment was when we sat down at the cafe suddenly about 50 raccoons appeared to take our lunch. They were unbelievable- jumping on the table, stealing things out of people´s bags and running off screaming with anything they could get their hands on!

The day ended with a speedboat ride down in the river at the bottom of the falls where we got absolutely soaking...suddenly we realised that the locals that had stripped down to their swimwear when we were all wearing three jumpers hadn´t been so stupid after all! The boat went right under the falls and gave a brilliant view up close. We climbed off the boat wet through and dripping and back into the van shivering (it is cold here- no I don´t want to hear how sunny it is in England!)

When we got back our lovely host had cooked an amazing barbecue for our last night which we have just enjoyed immensely- the most delicious home made koftes and sausages with a massive chocolate cake for pudding! Off now to sit around the campfire and enjoy the peace an quiet before hectic BA....