Apr 2008

...or Folioloilopolis as we keep calling it! Our skills at mastering Portuguise (and spelling) even extend to place names.

We spent 2 days at the Iguacu falls on the Argentina/Brazil boarder. They were amazing. We spent the first day on the Argentine side where we took a boat trip up the river and got soaked. The boat takes you right under some of the falls (Thank's Just Advocacy, as this is what I spent my leaving present on!). The sun wasn't out this day so it took us a long time to dry out. It's strange that as you approach the water from the falls, the spray feels warm, that is until you're soaked in it and speeding off again in a boat.

We walked up to the part of the falls that they call devils throat, due to the amount and speed of the water coming over it. The story says that the river was once calm. The tribe who lived there used to sacrifice women to their God and one day the boyfriend of one of the women ran away with her so she wouldn't be sacrificed. The God was angry so he turned the woman into a rock, the guy into a tree and stirred up the river, creating Devil's throat. The Geologists story is that it was plate tectonics...

The second day we spent on the Brazillian side. There are these Swifts that live behind the falls and we were lucky enough to see a flock of them flying in and then out from behind the falls. Don't know how they manage to fly through the water.

We got a sleeper bus last night to Florianopolis. The cheaper buses don't have fully reclining seats so a bit tired today. Ah, the joys of sleeper buses - The last one we got, we managed to get the seats directly over the wheel which was far from a restful night.

There are a lot of beaches here, where we hope to go snorkling.