Day 7

Today was pretty much uneventful, after waking up and checking out we headed to Sao Paulo. Here we had a chance to get food, after a string of unlucky events involing food the short story is the resultant factor of me hating Sao Paulo bus station but I won't go into that!

Here we got the first night bus of the trip, I was really impressed with this though! Reclined almost 180 degrees and really comfy! So Faye and I settled down with a film and then fell asleep. The only problem was how cold it got! For some reason they put the aircon on full and I was soooo cold, Faye was snuggled up in North Face gear that she brought for her trek and she was still cold! We knew never to underdress again for a night bus!

Day 8

We arrived at around 9am at Foz du Igassu, the main city just outside the Igassu Falls (the largest waterfalls in the world!). At 12 we all met refreshed and ready for the day. The first stop was the helicopter ride option, after been perseuded I went for it. So in we got and went off for about 15 - 20mins. As it was my first time in a helicopter I loved it! Taking off and turning from side to side, in this journey I pretty much decided I need to become a helicopter pilot! We headed over the jungle and saw the river then followed it to the falls. When we first saw it, it was amazing and we literally were speachless, there was just so much water and power! After taking all the photos we could and flying around for many different angles we headed back for the landing. After this we were offered a video of the flight which involved a 30second shot of us getting onto the helicopter then random videos and photos of the falls that we could get off the interenet at anytime...although they had a beautiful backing track we all declined and we headed off to the national park on the Brazillian side of the falls!

Here we were warned about the racoons, especially if we had food in our bags. So I left all my belongings on the bus...did not want an encounter with a wild racoon! We walked around the falls stopping at different view points, we were really lucky with the weather which create the rainbows that were really pretty! At this point we bumped into 'Bear' at one of the viewpoints, I don't know if I've mentioned him before but he became abit of a legend in our group. The two girls from Norway had met him in Rio a few nights before our trip began, and coincidently, we thought, they bumped into him on the island (Ilha Grande) we went to first! After joining us on the first night there we bumped into him again on the first day and he treked with us to Lopez Mendez. After this it was getting weird and we all began to joke about him stalking the girls! It also got more interesting as he shared some of his travelling stories...snake bite alone in the jungle, robbed and managed to survive with nothing and more along this line and thus giving him the name of Bear after Bear Grylls. This then was an ongoing joke such as when we saw a canoe 'Oh there's Bear catching his dinner etc' and in times of need 'What would Bear do?'. So when we bumped into him hear, over 21 hours away we very shocked and abit more suspicious! And obviously after he joined the group! Once we'd walked the whole side we got some lunch then headed back to the bus. To do this we had to get a lift, and this is the first time I had the chance to speak to him, he started to explain to the group that he was stuck in Brazil for now but when he leaves he can never return as he crossed over the boarder without a stamp as he was on a canoe...within a lift journey he managed to get in another ridiculous adventure tale so we all couldn't help but laugh! After we left him and as we were walking Faye was asking if I was disappointed to not have seen a racoon and at that moment one was walking across the road to our group, everyone got the cameras and then we looked up and there was around 30! At that point it got abit to much and I jumped back on the bus!

That night we were pretty exhausted so we stayed in and got some food from the supermarket and organised some of our stuff (sewing and washing!) while watchin TV. Luckily friends was on in English however not so luckily it was the last ever one and in my exhaustion it got a bit much, the combinatin of stll not been over that it has finished with the memories of me finishing uni leaving home and getting old (my 21st birthday breakdown) got to me and had a little cry but at least I had Faye who was sympathetic as always!

Day 9

Today it was the Argentinian side of the falls, which were alot bigger. After walking around we managed to see the falls from every angle, at every side and had 50 million photos...it was safe to say by this point I had seen enough waterfalls for the near future! But we did enjoy it and the best view for me was the 'Devil's Throat', which Faye miss heard as the 'Table's Goat' with the spanish accent...but here you were at the closest point to the mouth of the waterfall. After numerous close calls with the b****** racoons we made it back to the bus.

The next day was Jenny's Birthday (one of the girls on the trip) but as we were on another night bus Cecillia, our leader, decided to throw a surprise party tonight. We met at 7ish and headed down to one of her friends hostels where he had prepared a BBQ with all you can eat and drink Caiphrihinas and beer. So as we were walking down, it was around 10 blocks away from our hotel and further out of the city, we were more than surprised to see the man himself, Bear, walking towards us! There was noone else around at all and we managed to find him again! At this point we all just burst out laughing and surprisingly enough he headed to the BBQ too, a surprise celeb guest for the birthday bash I guess! Here there was balloons and we all had hats with 'Jenny <3' written on in tipex by Cecillia, so cute! Here we had lots and food and drinks and got out the kareoke, played pool and some people decided to get in the swimming pool! This is also when I experienced some of the Scandinavian culture. The two Norweigen girls were having what looked like tabaco, and offered it to me and Jenny. It's totally legal, buy it in all stores and they all do it before exams to calm the nerves etc so we thought why not! You put it on your gum and leave it there for a while until it starts to sting. But it did not make me and Jenny relaxed, we went super dizzy and found everything hilarious. It only lasted about 10mins but was pretty funny! After a cake at midnight and more drinks we headed back to the hotel. Here there were a few other guests in reception drinking beer but we just headed up and all went to our rooms, after a few prank calls with phone remaining off the hook we all fell asleep. In the morning we got all packed and headed downstairs ready to meet for our shopping trip to Paraguay (the biggest black market in South America - perfect for new headphones, mobile and sunglasses!). When we got downstairs we also informed of the events of the previous night. When we were upstairs one of the guys had followed Jenny into her room (she had left the door unlocked for her room mate to come in when she got home later) and was checking she was ok...bulls***! But anyway when her room mate got back she obviously told him to get out as Jenny was already asleep after too many birthday drinks! And off he went but after watching the CCTV apparently he saw the room open and was helping out reception but no no, that was not the case! But as Jenny said, it couldn't of been a night without some drama!

Day 10

After the mornings drama we all got on the bus and headed to the boarder with Paraguay and went shopping. On the bridge separating the countries you could see many locals carrying TV's and other electrical equipment either on foot or the motorbike taxis! Once through we headed to the markets. There was literally s*** everywhere, fake watches and all the usual s***e that I don't understand who buys but this time with the added bonus of tazers! So with a constant risk of been electricuted we went shopping. Once deeper in the markets it was also lovely to have men's electrical razors turned on and shoved in your face, one: becarful of my hair and two: insinuating I need male products is also not going to get you a sale...they need some instruction on target market! After surviving that constant nagging we also all obviously needed memory sticks and thousands of men's sports socks! But after resisiting that temptation I managed to purchase a lovely pair of fake Ray Bans to replace my stolen ones, Faye got headphones and I managed to get myself an unlocked phone! Finally! So surprisingly leaving happy and unharmed we headed back to the bus ready to get our second night bus to Salto, Urguay. Although the market was not my ideal shopping place it was interesting to see and it is a major area of trade in electricals for South Americans as it is so much cheaper through the black market. We all headed to the bus station and got the bus, this time totally prepared! I had nearly every item of clothing ready to put on once entering the bus's artic micro climate! Once settled we all slept and were ready to be awoke at 5:30 am when we were arriving.