Iguazu!

Foz do Iguaçu, where i arrived by bus from sao paulo, is right on the border of Brazil. It is the location of Iguazu falls, a spectacular set of waterfalls that are located right at the borders of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.

To see them from the Brazilian side is meant to be spectacular, but from quite a distance away. However, on the Argentinian side (which is called Puerto Iguazu), you not only get up close to all the waterfalls, but you can take a boat ride under the falls. Which i did. And it was awesome. Or as barney would say, ¨legend-... wait for it... and I hope you're not lactose intolerant because the second half of that word is DAIRY! ...¨ Yeah! I´m cool! Aaaanyway, you try desperately to keep your eyes open, so you can remember what it looks like to be under a waterfall, but the pressure of the water is just too insane to manage it.

about to enter the waterfall...amazing

So you just close your eyes against your will and enjoy a once in a lifetime sensation. The falls are set in the middle of a national park, so you can trek for about 8 hours and easily not see all of it. It´s beautiful, but me being me, again, like with the giant jesus statue, i was a bit underwhelmed. It was beautiful, absolutely, but i thought it would be bigger. Still, it was a great day. The header picture on my blog is of one of the main falls, it was gorgeous. Nearly impossible to get photos, you had to whip the camera out from under your hoody or whatever, snap and get it back undercover, before the camera and the lens got wet from all the waterfall spray, rendering the pictures blurry. So be impressed with the picture quality people!

more photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=132489&id=222304166&l=d258fa50c9

Since i changed my plan last minute, i just randomly picked a hostel that i´d heard mentioned by someone in rio. I met a swedish girl (another one- i can´t help it, they´re everywhere- scandinavians have such a high cost of living at home, south america´s peanuts for them), Hanna, on the bus across the border to argentina, so we went together. Keeping in mind that in rio, for a tenner a night, u get an 18 bed dorm, with a tiny window and broken airconditioning, that stinks of hostel sex, (yey), this place, was a palacial resort. Inventively called ´Hostel Inn´, it was fuuull of western europeans sunbathing by the, wait for it...POOL! So clean and with it´s own tourist information, inside and outside bars, dance floor cum lounge outside, ping pong tables and dorms as well as cottages, it was riduuunculous.

We played volleyball in the pool, and drank piña coladas on deck chairs. And here, i met lola. The craziest girl from brooklyn, insane really, but intensely likeable and she just doesn´t give a damn about what others think. I imagine she´s pissed off her fair share of the population in her time, but she´s good people and always a good time. Got a world map tattooed on her back. Plays with street kids when she´s wasted, then has a wash in the morning when she´s sober and realises what she did : ) Has a lover in Buenos Aires that she can´t get enough of, and tends bar back in New York. Inexhaustible and a delight and brutally honest. Brutally. I also met the only other indian i´ve encountered on my whole trip so far. Indians as a whole generally don´t do the whole backpacking thing. Even indians brought up abroad like me. I think our parents usually think it´s a GIANT waste of time (not mentioning any names, cough *mum&dad*, ahem.) So this indian i met, he´s from atlanta, and he´s 33. Thirty-three year old Samir, who has worked in investment and consulting and is 33, has told his parents that he has a job volunteering in a hospital in argentina so they won´t worry. He showed me an email his dad sent him;

¨Samir, it has been one whole week and we have not heard from you. Why haven´t you sent us the details of the hospital you are working at yet? We are very worried. Please call us ASAP, so we know you´re OK.

Love, Mum and Dad¨

THIRTY-THREE! Poor Samir...

(and i know you whities were imagining that email in the voice of Apu from the Simpsons, but i forgive you, as he is a beloved character, and frankly, what other reference do you have? )

I met some incredible people at Hostel Inn, (including Max, who got jumped by some guys in buenos aires, and cut his jaw open- it´s that kind of continent unfortunately), and a crazy bunch of belgian and dutch guys. It turned out that they were travelling to Buenos Aires on the same day as me, so we all went together. But first we got drunk on happy hour at the hostel. Obviously. Then we got free wine on the bus. Oh boy. The bus waiter man did not like us by the next morning.

Please note that for this bus journey i took a giant hoard of benelux fellas with me for protection : )
Though not sure they were in any shape to be of any help. Anyway...