Epic bus, Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina!

We went for ice cream with the Israeli's which was fun, we were hounded by a strangely drunk seeming 'magician', who told us 'I no like your money, i show magic.... how are you from?'... which is always a good start to a conversation.

We woke early the next morning and trooped around Parati looking for a post office.. more difficult than you might think! Before heading to the bus station awaiting our bus to take us to Sao Paulo. Luckily our 6 hour bus ride to Sao Paulo was strangely pleasant.. it went relatively quickly with comfy reclining chairs and we were able to watch Jackie Chan in Portugese... not sure whether to be proud of that or not...?

However on the journey down to Sao Paulo it was interesting watching the scenery change. The trees changed from tropical rainforest to more European looking ones and the landscapes from forest clad mountains to rolling hills of plotted fields. We had been told by a friend who lives in Sao Paulo state, that this area is regarded by other people as more 'country' and simpler... similar perhaps to the South of the USA where the towns are smaller and people are more in the small town mentality. That all changed when we reached Sao Paulo itself... away from the tiny little homestays that look almost Cowboy-esqe, we entered miles and miles of concrete jungle. It was overcast as we entered the huge city which probably didn't help my view.. but the city seems to be a huger version of London. We were dropped off in the bus station.. gathered ourselves together, bought some dinner and then waited for our next (epic) bus.

The bus arrived on time (for once) and we had ordered one of the most simple buses... without beds.. as this was cheaper. However the chairs did go back and there was water available on board. Luckily most of our 16 hour journey was during the night and we dozed off sporadically which wasted nice amounts of time. We stopped occasionally in huge great big rest stops which felt very American. Also, and I think the highlight of my journey, was being woken up at 3am with people asking if I spoke English because someone was stuck in the toilet. I promptly realised that this was Liz and (much to my amusement) half the bus came to the back of the bus peeling off clothing to have a go at wrenching the door open. .. Liz, finally freed, flew back to her seat in fits of giggles.

We arrived in Foz and then made our way.. on another bus.. to the centre of town. We easily found our Pousada El Shaddai. Everyone was very (strangely) friendly there.. it was a cross between a hostel and a hotel and didn't really succeed in being either. It was strangely like a motel, and being a border town we found everything seemed rather lost.

That evening we decided to take a bus head across to Paraguay - just because we could. Whilst looking for the bus a man from a tourism company gave us a lift in the tour bus because we looked so lost and we jumped out at immigration to get pretty stamps to fill up our passports. The moment we crossed the Iguazu river and the border into Paraguay everything changed. The streets are lined with rubbish and mud and the traffic is insane. There doesn't really seem to be any road rules... the biggest car wins and if you're on a motorbike you can weave expertly away from death. The roads are lined with stalls, not nice little market stalls but sprawling piles of clothes, 'Gucci' sunglasses, electricals, counterfeit DVDs and CDs and all manner of bags. You can feel the change of wealth from one country to another even across such a small difference. We attempted to establish the currency in Paraguay and the exchange rate, but the currency is so weak that the numbers are mindboggling.. so it seemed more helpful for everyone if we stuck to Reals. Paraguay is famous for having cheap electricals... they have no tax.. so whilst looking for a camera cable for my digital camera we found some SLRs. Liz is an expert in this and was looking at lenses for her camera, and whilst doing this we looked at some basic SLRs and comparing them to English prices... I found a good basic one for half the price it was going on Amazon in the uk.. and bought it! Impulsive.

We then caught the madly crowded bus back to Brazil, on which a little girl tried to sell us pringles and drinks. When we were back in Brazil we delighted in realising that as we were in a Pousada and not a hostel.. we get given towels!!! This is the most exciting thing we'd heard in days! After a shower and a nice sleep we got up, had a rushed breakfast and headed out again. We took a bus to the Iguazu national park to see the falls. The falls were incredible, but the number of people going to see them was not! There were huge queues to get in, queues to get on buses, queues to stand and take snapshots... just queues everywhere. I'm not used to that many people, even whilst doing the tourist run in Rio.

Once we got to the falls we did a little walk down along the panoramic walkway which takes you out over the middle of the falls - you get soaked. The falls are amazing, I know they're the biggest in the world, but they really are and the thunderous noise they produce doesn't let you forget that. There are lots of different sections all cumulating into one big river at the end which runs between the 3 countries. The rainbows which form across the water are beautiful. Along the walkways friendly coatis come and walk beside you.. which look like a cross between badgers, racoons and anteaters.

After returning from the falls, we donned our massive rucksacks and went to catch - another - bus. We crossed the border into Argentina.. another stamp... and ended up at the bus station in Puerto Igauzu. We are now staying in a lovely little Pousada right by the bus station and we're going to go out and explore the town and see the falls from the Argentinian side by boat. They have an interesting drink here, which I read about before I came to South America and have been dying to try: called Mate. Which in Portugese (Matte) is a type of woody sweet tea but here means something different. It smells like a cross between green tea and sugary tobacco, it's mixed with hot water, and sometimes sugar, and is drunk out of an interesting pot with a metal straw type thing. I'm going to try and bring some home because it's something I've really been looking forward to and I don't think I can get hold of it in England.

Mate