
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 Argentini

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!