Again we have rather a lot to update, so we will keep it brief! After Paraty we took a six hour bus ride to Sao Paulo immediately followed by a 16 hour bus journey to Foz do Iguaçu to see the falls. The falls are amazing! We did a two hour walk through the national park and saw lots of butterflies, monkeys and racoons! The next day we went to the Argentinian side which we´d heard was better but had no idea how impressive it actually was. The park was way bigger and had loads of walks which you could do and see the falls from different angles. You also get to see the biggest waterfall called ´The Devils Throat´´ which was shockingly big. The highlight, however, was the boat ride which actually took us under several of the falls. This was one of those its so unbelievable its hilarious moments!
We left Peurto Iguazu and headed to San Ignacio. It wasn´t mentioned much in the guide book but we spent some of our favourite days there. San Ignacio is known for its Jesuit ruins which are still well preserved. On our second day there we went kayaking on the Rio Parana - it was just us and a guide and we were the only people on the whole river. We were even brave enough to get off our kayaks and go for a swim! The guide taught us a bit about the indigenous people, we went to stalk them but we didn´t see any! We did hear them singing though so we know they were there somewhere. We also walked through the jungle and saw a big spider. Because San Ignacio isn´t a major stopover on the gringo trail, the hostel was quite quiet but we ended up having a great time with the hostel guys who gave us lots of free beer and the local fave drink - Fernet Branco - in return for a little help with their english!
A nights stopover in Posadas was pretty disappointing - couldn´t find the museum we wanted to see and the other one had clearly shut down years ago despite still being on the tourist map. We also got chased by a weird little druggy with no teeth. Luckily we only had to stay there a night because the next day we got the bus to Corrientes and then on to Mercedes in our mission to get to Reserva Nacional del Ibera. From Mercedes we organised a tour to the national reserve which involved yet another three hour bus ride but this time we were in a minibus with a cracked windscreen and driving along a bumpy dirt track - less than ideal! However, the activities made up for it - went on a launch tour, a walk and a horseride through the park. The boat ride was amazing, we saw way more than we thought we would - capybaras (worlds largest rodent), caimans (crocodiles), deer, lots of birds, iguanas and feline things. The horseride was really fun too, very gaucho style. When we arrived back in Mercedes we were invited to á typical Argentinian party´which turned out to be some old guys birthday party where we were the only English speaking people! After a few glasses of wine, things began to look up and in the end we danced with some old sweaty men and went to Mercedes´only club where we got perved on endlessly and eventually escaped back to the hostel!
The following day we had to wait all day for our bus to Rosario which we thought would only be about four hours - turned out to be another overnight eleven hour journey instead which took us completely by surprise, much to the amusement of the ticket guy. We´re now in Rosario and have again attempted our museum mission which has so far failed miserably. Argentinians don´t appear to function on mondays so they are all shut until tomorrow. We´re not too upset though as feeling pretty rough today. Overall, we are really enjoying Argentina - everyone is really friendly and appreciates the poor effort we are making with our Spanish. Heading to BA on friday to start our teaching english on monday. Really excited, have heard good things from pretty much everyone who´s been there. Especially looking forward to the hiphop clubs! We promise to try and upload some photos soon. Lots of love xxxx