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We left salto, eventually! really nothing to do there, went to another zoo which just as bad as the last. theyre like private pet collections gone a bit mad.
anyway, got a taxio across the border back into to argentina to the bus terminal, ready to get the night bus up to Iguassu Falls. it was about a 14 hour journey but these buses are like business class on an airoplane. big reclioning comfy seat, blankets, pillows, movie, and we even got food and drink. there was a bustess. pretty skilled since there are so many pot holes in the roads. i tihnk the odd cup of wine might have gone flying if it was me.
got there and then left argentina again to go to the brazilian side, in the township where we were staying. finally, some sun. the weather was really nice so everyone cracked the shorts out asap.
we went and did a helicopter ride over the falls that afternoon. nice helicopter ride but was hard to appreciate the falls properly cos your not close enough.
the next day we did the brazilian side. this is where you can see it in full, good for the panoramic views etc. as your kind of on thge pother side of the river. there is a platform at one end to walk out to where all the spray is and the rainbow etc. its hard to put it into words. they are just stunning. its hundreds and hundreds of waterfalls in one big copllection with rock and vegetations breaking it up. Andrews fact of the day - enough water falls over in one day to supply london for a year. and thats not remortely suprising when you see it. the power of it is incredible. and thats just from teh brazilian side.
that afternoon we went rafting. they said grade 3 so knew it wouldnt be that rough but my god it was two little bits of rapids and that was it. we had to wait about an hour in the boast before we set of, waiting for the safety boat then that was it. total anticlimax but it was worth it. we had to go down a big spiral staircase downt eh cliff face to get to the raft, had a good laugh waiting with two dutch girls and the brazilian leader who made us practice of over and over again 'i we tip di boach, hope di roach' i think we were supposed to hold the rope if the boat tipped.
that afternoon back at the hotel bumped into Katy who i worked with at deloitte. e'd talked before we left and didnt think we ewre going to cross paths so that was a suprise.
the day we went back into argentina to see thew falls from that side. first we did a little boat trip?along the top where its all calm, saw some wildlife, a few toucans, some caimans in teh grasses, turtles. i wonder how many go over the edge. then we did a 1km boardwalk to the edge of the walls (thats how wide trhe river is to get to the falls) it was so impressive from this angle, looking straight down over into the falls, the spray is so strong you cant see teh bottom, at all. you can just see the masses opf water dropping down into a white cloud. really breathtaking from here, dont appreciate just how poerfull it is until you get to the argentinian side.
then we got a jeep ride down to the river with a guide that thought everything good was made or inventied in argentina. got in a jet boat to take us back up teh rfiver to see the falls from there and then it drives you as far up into teh spray and falls as it can. everyone gets soaked basically. but since its finally warm we didnt mind. then it dropped us off again and the wlak back up tot eh top talks you past various sections of the falls, each view just as good as the last. probably the most impressive thing ive seen travelling, certainly rivals new zealands beauty. it gets a bit ridiculous though, every trime you turn it looks a bit different and you want to capture it so ive basically got abnout 150 photos just of the falls. and im not the only one.
that night we went out for some food and some drinks. left the bar and decided that the garage looked pretty livelyt. they were selling beer and had tables outside so was good enough for us so stayed there a couple of hours longer. got up the next moring to leave for Ihla Grande. we were supposed to be going to Parati but there are strikes on and all the hotels cancelled our booking apparantly!
first though we went into paraguay to shop fora bit. there is this one borner between brazil that isnt guarded so you dont even need a passport for some reason. its manic. the town itself is typical third world with street sellers and bootleg stuff. but its also the cheapest place to buy electrricals, there are proper shops with phones, i pods, cameras, laptops and such like. shame i didnrt really need any of it. not that i can afford. the border is basically a bridge that crosses the river. there are some federal police on the brazilian side stopping people bringing goods across. so to get round this, they package everything up in big boxes and then when ther policre arent looking, leg it down the bridge, chuck the box over the side down to the brazilian river bank where someone picks it up, chucks it ont here back and runs off on the pre beaten track. all seems a bit pointless having the police at all, it wouldnt be hard to stop that, surely youd just put police at the bottome as well!
then we went to pretty impressive bird park for the afternoon before we got teh bus
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