Hey Everyone,

Well, once again i´m cheating. I´m not writing this from Iguassu but just didn´t get chance to update it from there. When I last left you, I was at the airport ready to fly to Iguassu. We´d arranged to meet Suzy (for those of you who don´t know her, her nickname is Poo) and Stu (who is spending 2 weeks in Patagonia and Antarctica so decided to meet up with us) at the hostel in Iguassu. Weirdly enough, we were sitting at the airport waiting for our flight when we bumped into Stu who had been in Buenos Aires for 24 hours and was also waiting for a flight to Iguassu. Bit of a coincidence but he was on a flight leaving just after ours. We got the flight OK. As we were landing, you could actually see Iguassu which was amazing. Saves money on a helicopter ride!!

We arrived at the hostel and Poo was there to meet us. The hostel was really cool, probably the best we´ve stayed in so far and most importantly, it had a swimming pool. Did I mention that the temperature when we landed was 33 degrees?!?!? It was hugs all round and then straight to the air conditioned room to get ready. Claire and I had lunch and then it was straight in the pool to cool off. (Claire is still suffering from the sunburn so went for an afternoon nap instead) The pool was so warm, possibly too warm to be honest but very nice too.

After a full afternoon sunbathing, we went to Iguassu town for food. I had possibly the best steak i´ve ever, ever had. If you like steak, you have to come to Argentina! Had a fairly early night as had to be up early to do the falls.

Got up the next morning for our transfer to the Argentinian side of the falls. It was only a 10 minute ride from the hostel. It was sooo hot, I can´t even describe it. Poor Claire had to cover up too so as not to get sunburnt again. I felt so sorry for her. Anyway, the national park is huge. I´d always kind of pictured a road, then walking up to the falls, having a quick look and then that´s it but it is absoloutely huge. They say it takes 8 hours to do it properly. They give you a suggested route around the park so we decided to do that. There are trains, food courts and loads of other stuff too. We started off doing a mini walk and then got the train to Devils Throat which is the name of the most impressive part of the falls. When you get off the train, you have a bit of a walk along a walkway to the actual falls. The scenery was pretty amazing just from the walk.

When you got about 200 feet away, you could actually feel the spray, that´s how powerful it was.

WARNING - CHEESY AMERICANISMS COMING UP:

Finally, we got to the edge and looked into the falls and it was AWESOME!!! I know it sounds cheesy but it actually took your breath away. The sound is just crazy, you can hardly hear the person next to you talking over the roar of the water, not that we could speak for a good minute or 2. It was absoloutely amazing. People had umbrella´s up because the spray is so powerful. It´s also difficult to get good photo´s as the lens just gets drenched!! It´s mad.There are loads of rainbows in the water too which amazingly came out on camera. If you look to the right, you can see Paraguay and if you look left, you can see Brazil as the falls border all 3 countries. They have an argentinian flag on the argentinian side and if you look across to the Brazillian viewing platform, they have a brazillian flag.

We stood watching for about 30 minutes. Then it was off to get lunch and do some more trails. There are stacks of trails that you can do and all lead to amazing waterfalls and views although Devils Throat is by far the best! Just when you think you´re all ´waterfalled out`, you see something else amazing.

Right at the end we did a boat trip under the falls that we had booked. You are given life jackets and a waterproof bag to put your stuff in and then you get taken in a boat for a close up view of the falls. It is so good seeing Devils Throat from a different angle. You get chance to take photo´s and then they take you right underneath the falls. To say you get drenched is a big understatement. Think 10 men on top of a hill with fire hoses spraying you with water. My denim skirt was still wet 4 hours later. Was definitely one of the highlights of the day though and very worth it. It literally did take all day and we still didn´t get to see everything. We didn´t get to do the Brazillian side either but apparently they are not as good and i´ll probably do them again when Shell comes out. So if i´ve inspired anyone...you have to come out in January!!

After the falls it was dinner and bed and then up the next day for our 25 (yes you read that correctly - 25;!) hour bus journey to Rio. A nightmare but it actually went quite quickly. The buses here are so comfortable and we were well prepared with our sleeping bags, eye patches, ear plugs, socks,snacks, water, books, Ipods - (big thanks to all you lonsdale people, it was a life saver!!) and I actually managed 10 hours sleep overnight which is pretty impressive. Shell, if you´re reading this in horror, you´d better get practicing as you´ll probably have to do a few of those too - sorry.

Anyway, better sign off but will update you all from Rio soon.

Love

Lisa

xx