Bit of a delay from the last entry, I am now on my 6 week organised tour of South America and just over a week in. Internet access has been patchy at best, so I am taking advantage of a rare free afternoon to sit in an air conditioned Tourist Information Office in Asunsion the capital of Paraguay. Can't upload photos from here though, so may have to find somewhere else later!! My tour started on 9th December in Buenos Aires, I had a free day so walked around the city seeing the sights. I went to Recoleta cemetery, as this is where Eva Peron is buried. It is the most amazing place, rows and rows of marble mausoleums in various states of repair. They all go underground too so there is often a shrine in the top part, with maybe a couple of coffins, and then down a tiny staircase you can see more coffins on racks. Quite morbid, and I did scare myself a couple of times peering through the cobwebbed windows down onto ancient dead people!

The next day I met my tour group, there were 15 of us (now 20 in Paraguay) and all pretty normal - thank god. My biggest fear was that there was going to be some really annoying idiot and I would have to grit my teeth for 6 weeks. Those of you that know me well will know that I would not managed it ; ) . Anyway we all went out for dinner which was nice, but managed to coincide witha massive protest against the government. The streets were packed full of people with drums, flags, fire crackers (in my mind thats what the louds bangs were, not gun shots). Of course our restaurant was right next to Plaza de Mayo, where Eva Peron did her famous balcony speech from, and where the current president was now talking to the protesters. It was crazy and a bit scary, but we all got there and back in one piece.

Monday was the day we set off - our vehicle is a converted Mercedes Benz truck, so kind of like a coach up top with loads of storage underneath. The best news was that it had no air conditioning - yes that's right, we are travelling through incredibly hot humid countries with no ac. This was supposed to be the expensive tour!! We set off at 8am and within 2 hours had issues with the truck, there was something wrong with the fuel system as when we got up to a certain speed the engine would start to cut out. As you imagine we were very impressed by this. Anyway having stopped at what was very loosely described as a mechanics on the side of the road (it was a barn with some tyres outside) we were told that although the mechanic was there, he was having a siesta and would not come out for another 3 hours. Plan B was to limp along to the nearest town to find another mechanic, this one at least was by a service station so we could buy drinks and sit in the shade. It finally got fixed around 4.30 and we still had another 500km to go. After various incorrect time guesstimations from the tour leader we arrived at 11.45pm. Without dinner, oh but she had offered to call ahead and get some food delivered. So it's all going well so far!!!

Next day was better, there had been a huge storm the night before so we had to take 4x4s to the next hotel, it was 2 hours along dirt tracks that had turned into swamps, really cool. We stayed in a beautiful lodge in Carlos Pelligrini in the middle of the Ibera wetlands. We had 2 tours through the wetlands one in the day and one at sunset. It was beautiful, there were caiman crocodiles, capyvara which are the worlds biggest rodents, deer and so, so many birds, oh and a huge anaconda. After 2 nights there we headed on , this involved another 4x 4 adventure because there had been another storm, and this time we had 4 hours of sliding around in the mud!

Spent another day and night at some Jesuit ruins place, can you tell that it didn't excite me much... Then on to Iguazu to see the falls.

Spent a day on the Argentinian side of the waterfalls, which are stretched out over 3 km. You go on walkways right over the top of them. We also went on the boat trip 'under' the falls. I had been warned about this trip, so I stripped right down to my bikini, and then looked very fetching with my life jacket of top. The boat takes you right up to the falls and then turns so that they land in the boat, getting wet is an understatement really as someone might as well have just thrown us in the river. It was really fab, and you hardly breath when you are in so much spray.

That night we crossed the border in to Brazil and then spent the next day at a bird park and then experienced the falls from the other side. Very spectacular vistas but more from a distance. In the afternoon a few of us did a canopy walk - thsi was not quite the same as Costa Rica. It involved being hooked to a safety cable them making our across all manner of precarious wires, hanging logs, climbing walls etc all hanging high up in the trees. It was pretty hairy, but I made it without falling off. The finale was climbing the equivalent of a telegraph pole, standing on a small platform just bigger than your feet, and then launching yourself into space to try to catch a trapeze!! I managed the flinging myself into space bit but didn´t quite manage the trapeze bit. Unfortunately my sim card filled at this moment, but there is a video that I will hope fully get hold of and upload.

Anyway that brings me pretty much up to date, I am now in another internet cafe having trecked around in 100% humidity to find it. We arrived in Paraguay yesterday, had a nice tour today, and leave tomorrow. Back to Argentina once more.....