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Ola Chicos/Chicas,
First off, thank you all so much for your messages and emails. It's a really boost to log on an dknow that people are still thinking of us and wishing us well (although we'll see how thick and fast they come after a 6 months! ha).
Anyway, last time we wrote we were about to leave the gorgeous little beach town that is Paraty and head off to Foz do Iguazu to see the worlds largest water falls (by volume of water) on the boarder of Brazil and Argentina. To get there we had to catch a bus from Paraty to Sao Paul, then a bus from Sao Paulo to Foz. This was to take around 20-23 hours so we decided to hit the beach in the morning as our bus wasn't until 2pm. We hit the rays when me and Alex (the Colonel) realised that we hadn't taken advantage of the the free kayaks they had on offer at the hostel. The bay was calm and there was a small number of jungle islands about 1km off shore that we wanted to explore. Lee didn't fancy the deep water and being 1km from shore so she decided to stay tanning herself. It di'dn't take me and the Colonel that long to hit land but we decided to got on for a bit longer as the water was so calm, the sun was beaming and we could hear (but not see!) monkeys in the trees. We glided along until we was some rocks that we could land our vessels on and explore the unexplored! I paddeled staright up, landed my craft and was land bound. The Colonal (Alex) decided he was going to wobble around before he could get on the rocks and fell in the water. All was good until he came up for air and bllod was streaming from his hand! The burk hadn't seen the razor like shells clinging to the rocks at water level. Now this wasn't a little cut, this was a full on razor slash about 4 inches across his palm! Great! I made sure he got himself together, tied a t-shirt around his hand and planned how to get to shore. Now Alex couldn't row (obviously) so I tied the two kayaks together with one of the life jackets and begain paddling back to shore, all 1 km of it!! It was pretty hard work and it made it worse as he was dripping blood and all I could hear in my head was the sodding Jaws theme tune! Anyway, cut a long story short(ish), we made it to the beach, Alex went to the hospital (big bandage, no stitches!), I reached for the inhaler and we all made it to the 2pm bus to Sao Paulo.
The bus to Sao Paulo was around 6 hours long which meant that we had around 30 minutes to get our connecting bus to Foz (bearing in mind that Sao Paulo bus station is the 2nd biggest in the world)! We reached Sao Paulo about 30 minutes late as there was a big car crash on one of the mountain roads which closed it off for a while and caused what must of been a 10 km tail back. We rushed and found our check in desk for the Foz bus and the lady said what we thought to be was that we had just missed it! That meant that we would be spending the night in a pretty hostile bus station whilst we wait for the next one and about 7 hours! Whilst me and Lee were debating what to do (not that there was much we could of) that lady behind the desk pointed at her screen and said (in some crazy language) that the bus was waiting for us! The joy!1 We paid the lady who then called the driver to tell him to wait whilst we ran for our lives with our big back packs to get this bus that was waiting about 300m away.
We got on the bus and it pulled away as soon as we were on. The journey was pretty crap, 16 hours of a crying baby, cramped seats (we couldn't sit together as we were so late and tickets are allocated), a cheesy smelling man (Lee) and a sniffing man (me). It was and experiance but next time it think we'll pay the bit extra and get the posh bus that serves free drinks, food and has fully reclining seats and blankets!
Once we arrived in Foz we sat on the bus station curb, got our guide books out (which are crap by the way as they tell you jack. Rock on Lonely Planet!) and hitched 2 local buses to a hostel which was recommended but a nice tourist officer. The hostel was more like a summer camp. It had a sports court, flower gardens, hammoks everywhere and a dinner hall. We opted to treat ourselves after the long journey and had a double room with hot water. Once we setted in we went to reception to inquire about the best way to visit the falls. Whilst sitting down waiting for our turn we noticed that the girl that was being seen was Karen, one of the girls we had met 1000km away in Ilha Grande (this happens often apparently!) Karen is travelling South America alone so after the hugs and kisses we decided to go to the Argentinian side of the falls together the next day.
The Falls! well amazing is not the word. it was incredible. They stretch out about 2km and consist of 270 seperate falls, although most of these combine durning the wet season (which it is here). You can't describe the power, the sound or the marval of them, you can stick your Niagra up your behind because this is the real deal. A well as the falls there are copious amounts of jungle trails you can walk, all with sign posts about big cat, snake and spider warnings! We took most of them but all we came across was a hordes of massive butterflies, extremely large leaf cutter ants and the best of all, WILD TOUCANS which were so cool, although for some reason we felt like a Guiness when we saw them! Next we are to pay a vist to the Brazilian side of the falls (which is a completely different experience we are told) and then onto Paraguay (more on that later).
So much to talk about so little time, and lets not even mention the photos (we have about 400 now that we can't get on the sight. We WILL find a way).
Ciao for now peeps and we'll discuss the weird land of Paraguay in the next couple of days.
Love Rob & Lee xxxx
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