Yes, Iguacu Falls really was that amazing! The photos dont do it justice, I took about 5,000 pictures and they could all be postcards. The helicopter was fantastic and well worth the splurge. Iguacu is made up of over 60 seperate falls and from the ground, its hard to get a feel for the whole thing, as youre looking at sections of it. From the air, you can see all of the Falls at one time and it is a truely awesome sight! Iguacu may not be the tallest falls or the widest falls, fact fans!, but it has the largest volume of water. The main section is called the Devils Throat (thats whats in the picture above) and your teeth rattle when you stand beside it with the sheer force of the water! I had a look at it from the Brazilian and the Argie side and even from the ground its spectular, spectular. Because theres so many different waterfalls, every time you look at it, you can see something different. I just loved it and it has been the highlight so far.
My last few days in Brazil were a riot. We were in Foz De Iguazu, which, as the name suggests, is the closest town to the falls! It was Bazzas birthday on the Saturday night when we arrived and we headed to the local hotspot, Club Ono. It was really dancy when we got there but a 70s tribute band, in full afro, appeared on stage shortly after. As long as I live, I will never forget the dance off with the locals! I dropped out when all my Saturday Night Fever moves were exhausted but Baz stayed til the death, bless him! His neck will never be the same after attempting a headspin.. We also went to this cheesy cabaret night, youve got to love it! They had dance from all of the different countries in South America and most of it was actually fantastic, although I did take a pass on the DVD! Id like to say I was there for the culture but really I was there for the food! We have been eating really well on this trip (except when my team cooks!) but I have never seen anything like the spread they put on at the Refain Show. There was everything you could imagine and we decended on it like locusts, trampling Japanese tourists en route. The joys of not having to cook something ourselves! I clocked the desserts early on, a whole help yourself ice cream counter and about 40 different cakes- it was like Christmas!- so I tried to eat as few carbs as possible to leave enough space and gorged on Sushi but everyone else at the table had full-on meat sweats for the entire show..
Then, joy of joys, it was back on Moose for a two day drive to Buenos Aires. When theres a two day drive, we have whats called freecamping. In my innocence, I thought this would mean finding a quiet field near a clean stream or maybe a camping area at a nice beauty spot but it actually means rocking up to a servo (petrol station with a toilet) and camping behind it- the glamour! Baby-wipe baths will only get you so far and I have never been as filthy dirty in my life as I was for those two days. It was so hot, one of my flip flops melted to my foot and I had a pretty decent tan….until I hit the showers in BA!
It was a happy bunch of campers that arrived in BA yesterday morning, especially as we were staying in a hotel, its probably a dump but to me, its the Ritz! After getting back on good terms with hot water, I headed off on a city tour. This city is really beautiful, I dont know why Im so surprised. It has a real European feel to it and its laid out really well with wide streets and lots of parks. I love the La Boca area, with all its multicoloured buildings but it is still a really poor neighbourhood and youd want to have your wits about you walking around it. The rest of the city feels really wealthy and cosmopolitan and apparently theres a Starbucks somewhere but I have yet to find it. After three weeks of expresso, Im dreaming about pints of coffee…
BA is the birth place of the Tango and theres a big tango festival on this weekend. Were off to a tango show in the Cafe Tortonni tonight and Im really excited about it. Im thinking of going for a tango lesson this afternoon but Im afraid the poor teacher was defeated by my two left feet. If it takes him about twenty minutes to realise that the rhythm was never going to get me, I wonder will he let me spend the rest of the lesson trying on the shoes and dresses, best 30 pesos Ill ever spend- soooo much fun! Im here til Monday, so Im going to the antique market, hippie fair and Recolletta Cemetry tomorrow (where Evita is buried) and Im going to do the cultural things on Monday, museums and churches and maybe a steak, if Im feeling brave!
posted Saturday February xxxx