'Real' nightmare...

Bank with Cooperative? Think twice before you travel to this part of the world....

From BA (where, on my last night, I fell of the wagon and ate the biggest juiciest steak imaginable) we got an exceedingly comfortable bus - with champagne - to Puerto Iguazu. The beauty of the falls defies description - suffice to say, I´ve never seen anything so astoundingly beautiful in my life. Apparently they make Niagra look like a ripple.

We ´did' the Brazilian side as soon as we got off the bus. The rain was relentless but we were gonna get wet anyway. A small bridge (with metal flooring you could see through) took you out over the heart of the falls where you could look down at certain death. A humbling, spiritual and quite terrifying moment for us both, I think.

The Argentinian side took the whole of the next day - many people say it´s better but it´s simply because there´s more of it. Waterfalls and rainbows as far as the eye can see. The wildlife was pretty impressive too - iridescent blue butterflies, blue jays and raccoons that scared the living daylights out of me as I was chased by a pack and had been told they carried rabies. It wasn´t until they ransacked my shoe bag with their sharp claws in search of food, that I realised it wasn´t my flesh they were after! We were on the lookout for toucans, pumas and jaguars too but, perhaps luckily, weren´t rewarded.

The highs of travelling come with lows and these came as soon as we crossed the border into Foz do Iguacu in search of a bus to take us to Rio. Foz isn´t very nice but the hostel was amazing - tennis courts, football pitch, swimming pool, beautifully kept tropical gardens and cute cabins. Or it would have been amazing if it hadn´t been bone-achingly cold, wet and deserted. The misery was consolidated by no heating and an open, now muddy restaurant in which I got food poisoning. I spent the day trying, unsuccessfully, to find a cash point that would let us withdraw reais (thanks to Cooperative banks´ over-scrupulous security policy) and the night sweating and starving out a fever. Weak and tired the next day, we discovered that we could only get a sleeper bus in Argentina! So here we are again. Back over the border in Puerto Iguazu with the buses to Rio fully booked till Monday. Realised that in just two days we missed the Spanish language and the familiarity of Argentina. It´s lovely to have a rest too...this travelling malarkey´s great but can take it right out of you!