Hi Guys,

As you can see I am now in Brazil which I am sad to announce is my final country before flying home in just 12 days, I can not believe how quickly the last 8 months have flown by. Anyway, I am currently staying in a great camp site in Foz do Iguacu, which is of course the site of the famous Iguacu Falls. Here is a summary of my past week...

You may recall from my previous journal from Buenos Aires that I was due to spend last Wednesday at some sort of Tango night. It is fair to say it was a very strange show, a kind of mix between stomp, Tango, not surprisingly and a Benny Hill inspired slap stick 2 hours. Both myself and Amy, who has quickly become a good friend, did on the whole enjoy the experience but were in parts frowning at the ridiculousness of the show, in particular when the MC spent 20 minutes applauding the many nationalities of the audience which only added to the overall cheesiness!

The following day, Thursday, I think, we left BA and headed north as far as we could go before setting up at another bush camp in a rather bland town. We then continued the following day our journey to Carlos Peregrine (know idea how this is spelt) which has been likened to the Brazilian Pantanal, for those who have no idea what I am whittering on about, think of a great big swamp land with lots of interesting wildlife. That evening after 2 long drives, Dan who is our leader was keen to have a few beers, which of course turned into another drunken evening with lots of drinking games and drunken debates. At one stage we even played.... strip - rock, Paper, Scissors, dear o dear! Anyway, the following day a few of us went on a bit of a boat ride into the swamp for a bit of wildlife spotting, which basically included spotting about a hundred Caimans and lots of these giant rat like creatures, to be honest I found this a little dull, but I am a firm believer of when in Rome style of traveling, so it had to be done.

On Sunday we had our longest drive yet, starting at 8.30am and finally arriving at 2.00am at the Argentinean side of the Iguacu Falls. Despite being so tired from such a long day in the truck, it was all worth it the following day as both myself and Amy set off to explore the great falls. With lots of interesting trails leading to many stunning viewpoints it is fair to say my camera got a bit of wear and tear, it was spectacular! Later that afternoon we crossed into Brazil to spend a few more days at the Falls from the Brazilian side, staying in a great campsite with all the facilities that you could wish for.

Our first day of sightseeing here we went straight to the falls itself again and we found that even though it was still spectacular you kind of notice the hundreds of other tourists all pushing and shoving for the ultimate photo, which gets a tad annoying after a while. Still I was one of them so cant really grumble too much.

Yesterday, once again myself and Amy set off earlyish to see the bird park. Now, I am not really a fan of birds as a whole, maybe it is because after seeing Hitchcock's "The Birds" film I am not really keen on anything with a big beak, lets say, but regardless I was keen to check it out. Actually we spent about 3 hours here wandering around, admiring the many different beautiful birds, which was great. We even braved it for the Macaw enclosure where there are numerous birds flying around your head, naturally we only lasted about 2 seconds here before retreating fast.

Last night the group all went off for a fantastic "all you can eat" buffet/cabaret evening which was so much fun. Firstly the food was amazing with every kind of different dish you could dream of and then the show itself which covered traditional dances and performances from various countries in the continent, was fantastic!

Which kind of leads me to today, now I realize that I must have lost a day somewhere here as today is Thursday, so who knows were that went, I decided to check out the city of Foz itself for a bit of shopping and general wandering.

Tomorow after 4 nights we are leaving Foz in the general direction of the coast where we are all praying and keeping everything crossed for some warmer weather. Seriously the last few months have been so cold here that I am deeply concerned that I will be arriving back home a pasty ghost, so there is a definite need for some serious beach time!

Anyway that is enough from me, I hope everyone reading this is well and for those of you back home I will look forward to seeing you all soon.

Take Care,
Jon