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Traveling on the Kumuka overland tour, we arrived in our final destination, Buenos Aires on st. Patricks day.
Before this, starting in Rio de Janeiro we left on the truck, our home for the next 3 weeks with the first stop Paraty. Paraty is a historical town on the coast, south of Rio. It has beautiful beaches and lakes to swim in, including a natural water slide on one of the lakes which I visited on the second day there.
From Paraty we had to travel for 3 days to reach the pantanal, a huge wildlife area in the south-east of Brazil. There we experienced the intense heat, plus horse ridding, Parana fishing, which I chickend out of, I was paranoid the fish were eating my toes. The fish which was caught by the rest of the group we ate for dinner that night. It was delicious. At the pantanal we saw a lot of Caymen, I thought that they might attack us, but they seemed to be more scared of us. It was a lovely experience being so close to nature, the lake in front of our acomadation contained a lot of Caymens amongst other animals. But it was a bit secluded for me, and the heat was so intense, thankfully we had a pool to cool off in.
From Pantanal we visited Bonito, a small town with one main road surronded by dirt trak, when we arrived at the acomadation here, excited to be getting back to civalisation, we were a little put off at the hostel was still on a dirt trak, but just a short walk led to the main street with bars and resturants. The area was surronded by crystal clear rivers and lakes, which we enjoyed with a rafting expeirence.
Leaving Bonito, we travelled to Foz do Iguazu, the Brazilian side of Igusu falls. We stayed in a huge hostel which was really nice as all the other tours following roughtly the same route joined us there. There were a lot of us by the bar, dancing samba and with people getting chucked into the pool fully clothed!
From Foz do Iguazu we visited the falls, an amazing sight, it's one of those times, I have to remind myself how lucky I am to visit such a place I have wanted to visit for a long time. The falls were huge, lots of waterfalls over a large exspance. I was very impressed, and thought it was much better than Niagra falls as it isn't so comercial.
The following day we went into Paraguay for the day to shop for electronics. I couldn't resist buying a mini laptop, which I now love and am on the internet all the time now I have my computer.
We then unfortunatly had to leave Brazil, I had become very fond of the contry, and felt sad to be leaving, but hopefully I will return, there is still so much to see. We entered Argentina and visited the Argentinian side of the falls. This sidde is said to be better than the Brazillian side as it has more access to the falls. I did enjoy this side, and we were able to spend more time walking the trails, and also riddding on a boat under the falls where they drive right under the falls, we got absolutly drenched!
Then after breifly visiting Jesuit ruines and bush camping in Argentina we headed to Uruguay, here we stayed in Salto where there are hot springs. We didn't have long to enjoy these before we left for Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. I was surprised how European the city was and the people. The buildings reminded me of an eastern European contry, yet stil in the heart of South America. We also visited Conlonia a beautiful historical city. From here we travelled by ferry over to Buenos Aires.
Buenos Aires, known as the Paris of the South, also reminded me of Europe. But as I hoped had tango influences everywhere from the old town, La Bloca, where tango was created, to outside the shops on Florida Ave. On the second night we went to watch a tango show and had a breif tango lesson before.
I had an amazing experience travelling overland from Rio to BA, saw many things I have wanted to see for a long time while also meeting lots of wonderful people.
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