Hola from Argentina

Parati - Curitiba - Santos - Curitiba -  Paranagua - Ilha do Mel  - Curitiba - Foz du Igaucu - Puerto Igaucu 

Camburi

Hi All,

sorry its taken me a wee while to update the blog. I`ve been a busy bee the past week or so and managed to cover a fair bit of ground since my last entry. I stayed in Parati for 2 days, its a beautiful little town, massive cobblestone streets and a really nice feel to it. Unfortunately for me it rained for the 2 days I was there which hindered my sightseeing of the place. You could catch boats out to the many surrounding islands in the area but I wasn't up for that in the lashing rain. It was good to have a day or two of doing nothing to be honest, so I just kicked back and watched a couple of movies and planned the next stage of the trip. We decided to leave Parati and head south to a little surf town called Camburi via Sao Sebastao and Mersasis Beaches. A couple of hours into the journey and we could see the rain subsiding which brought smiles all round. We arrived in Camburi not knowing where the hostel was so we wandered into to town, down dirt tracks which were filled with massive pot holes of rain from the previous days. We stopped a lady and asked in our best Portuguese where the youth hostel was, and she immediately replied ` I speaka no English, but my son does` with that she got on the phone to her son and he spoke to us regarding the hostel. He said he would call the hostel for us and within a few minutes he was back on the phone to his mum telling her that a lady from the hostel would pick us up in fifteen minutes. I thought to myself how nice was that, Brazilian hospitality at its best!! The lady from the hostel arrived and we headed into the jungle, the hostel was great, there was only six others staying and we had a huge room to ourselves. The next day we walked into town some 5km away which was nice. We didn't escape the rain that day either, so we had a beer to wait for the rain to stop, it was St Patrick's day after all! That night we went to a local bar with a couple of Aussie lads, drank beer and played pool badly, quite quiet Paddy's day for me but really cool. We decided to stay another day in Camburi when we saw the blue skies that greeted us the next morning, we trekked to the waterfalls and back into town and then to the hostel, in all I think we covered about 10km that day, good for the fitness. We left Camburi and took a bus to Santos which was a two hour ride, the 10 O'Clock bus arrived at 11.30, very Irish I thought. In Santos we transfered onto a bus for Curitiba which would take us there for 10.30 at night. We had heard there was a cheap hotel across from the bus station there so we opted for that. We somehow missed the 2pm bus to Paranagua which meant we would miss the last boat to IIha do Mel at 4.30 later that day. We were not really bothered as there was no real rush to get there. Paranagua was a sleepy town with nothing much to do, its used by Brazilians merely as a stopover and as a result there are lots of banks in the area for people stocking up before boating across to the island. We duly obliged with the cash machine and stocked up on food and refreshments as we had heard it would be quite expensive on the island with not much shops etc. The boat trip over was really nice and we were escorted in by half dozen dolphins which was amazing. Another school boy error on our behave then, we managed to get off on the opposite side of the island we were supposed to and had to grab a taxi boat back to where we should have been in the 1st place, all an adventure. The island was beautiful, a lot smaller than IIha Grande which added to its beauty. Our hostel was literally on the beach front and we immediately went for the beach nearby for a wee bit of a dip and chill out after our days of traveling! That night we noticed that a lot of Brazilians had come onto the island for the weekend and we were in for a party. So we got into it quickly and hooked up with a couple of American girls who kept informing me `Oh my god, can you believe your on an island in the middle of Brazil´ yes I can! We had a great night listening to some Brazilian reggae and dancing till the wee hours. The rest of the weekend was just chilling and hanging out. I tried my hand at surfing which was great, nice to be back on the board again even if it was only for a couple of hours.

Devils mouth, Igaucu falls

We left IIha do Mel feeling very refreshed and caught the bus for Curitiba for an over night stop before making our way the next day. I jumped on a bus to Foz du Igaucu while Joel took a bus back down the coast. My nine hour trip was grand, the buses here seem very executive compared to home, practically beds which makes for a very comfortable journey. I arrived in Foz quite late and checked into my hostel and hit the sack soon after. The next morning after a lay in I inquired at reception about trips to the falls that day, it was 8.50 and I was told there was a trip at 9. Quick dash back to the room and I was on the bus to the falls, managed to get the last seat too! At the falls, after much deliberation I opted for a Grand tour, which included a Jungle ride, speed boat up to the falls, showers under falls in the boat,  free trains within the park and a nice easy boat ride back down through the jungle at the end of the day. My first sight of the falls was on the speed boat. I don't think I can put it into words what it was like, in fact I don't think words would do it justice, you just have to see it to believe it. The roar and noise of the water is enough to set your heart racing and when you enter in a speed boat you get an instant adrenalin kick! I spent the rest of the day taking the various tracks around the falls and eventually coming  across Devils mouth which is undoubtedly the best of the falls. I took the leisurely boat ride with an Aussie couple which was great, away from the hustle and bustle of groups and we just chilled and took in the great scenery around us.

Igaucu Falls 1

I`m now in Puerto Igaucu which is a lovely town unlike its sister town of Foz which has lots of sky scrapers etc. I`m planning to go north a bit to a city called Corrientes and then onto Salta where I`m hopefully going to meet up with my friend and old house mate Arida which will be good fun. Shout out to me auld mucker who I know will be reading this! Great to hear from you all and I`ll be in touch soon!

Mark

Igaucu Falls 2

IIha do Mel