Phew

  Iguacu, Argentina
Thursday, February 24, 2005

Whoaaa

Its been a while but itīs all been happening.
We left Bonito and headed into the Pantanal, with promises of wildlife, bush camping, canoeing, horse riding, hamocks. It sounded great, what it turned about to be...

BLOOOMIN HOT HOT HOT
Iīve never sweated so much in my life and the mosquitoes practically ate me whole.

The first night we slept in hommocks, which was hot and sweaty and quite an effort to turn over.
Conclusion: Hammocks are good for naps in the cool shade.


The morning and evening savana walks went something like this:
"Here is the home of armadillo, but itīs not there.
Here is the nest of a marcaw, but itīs not there.
Hear that noise, thats a monkey."
Okay so donīt get me wrong, a little HOT but we did see lots of caymen. Infact our local guides took us all out one night borrowed some belts and went crashing into the swamps, only to emerge with a real live caymen mouth tied up with the belt.


The canoeing and bush camping, hmmmm.
Off we were sent in the most unstable canoes Iīve ever come across, loaded to the max with our own stuff, food and tents, to padle up stream to find a bush camp.

All sounds good, eh. One canoe did actually sink and the three occupants had to swim back to shore with all their stuff, one lost tent and caymen keeping them company.
They were infact the lucky ones as they got to enjoy a night in camp with a cool beer.
The rest of us bush camped. Three to a two man tent sweating and sweating and being eaten by mossies.
Even the guides said it was a hot night. Big understatment to us Brits.

Despite an enjoyable horse ride, I will not be heading back to the Pantanal for any amount of $$$$.

Groovy amentities though:


After 3 days of that we heading to Corumba, a little town. The local guides as featured above escorted those that were willing to a local Samba club in a combi van.
The club resembled a large gravel back yard featuring a band, a few beers later and we were well and truely Sambaring on down with the locas.

We then had a couple of long day truck drives and made it to Iguacu falls.
The long truck drives have certainly developed into a pattern at about 4.00pm after exhausting all games and childish antics the beer comes out. We arrived at one campsite with Auld Lang Syne in full flow. Classy eh.

We spent two days at the falls one day on the brazilian side then crossed over to the Argentinian side.
The falls are absolutely amazing. They are massive with lots of little falls everywhere.
Truely Awesome
I wont tell you too much as Iīve video footage. Yep. You heard me, we popped to Paraguay for cheap electrical goods and this camcorder leapt into my hands and said "buy me buy me"

Just wait for the Karoke, muder mystery, drunkeness to be recorded in full glory. Something to show the Grand Children....

Have to mention one awesome hostel we stayed on the argentinian side. It was meant to be a casino but they run out of money, lovely pool, lovely rooms, lovely bar with fairy lights and free pool. Cool


Iīd love to say I photographed this toucan in the wild but he was in a bird sanctury.