Sit and Sweat.

We're in a restaurant in Iguacu Town looking at an electronic time/temperature sign. It's telling us that it is 8pm. And it's 32oC! All we've done today is sweat, and not in a nice way.

Had a last look at the falls and have now moved hotels. Outside the national park, but nearer the town centre at the golf club hotel. This hotel seems deserted. We spent the afternoon in our room watching Buffy. We ventured out at 3pm and had a look around the complex, we melted so went back to our room for another couple of hours.

We got a taxi into Iguacu Town for the evening. Wandered round a few shops and then had pizza and burritos. The town is typical of hot climates. Broken pavements and walls don't get fixed and no real gardens to be seen. I don't blame them, I wouldn't do any gardening in this heat!

Tours 'R'nt Us

Woke at 7am this morning for breakfast at hotel before our tour of the Argentine Iguacu park. There was lots of choice at breakfast, pastries, cereal, fruit and bacon, sausage and eggs. Sarah burnt the toast but ate it because she didn't want to appear wasteful. There were lots of miradors feeding by the hotel as we got on the tour bus and three capuchin monkeys in the trees nearby. I thought we were only here to see the waterfalls, but now we're on a wildlife quest too.

The coach part of the tour was arduous. We were the first pick up and after five more hotels, a border crossing and an hour and a half, we finally got to the national park...only to have to wait a further half hour for the poxy little train to take us into the park.

Maybe it was the heat, but I got annoyed at the number of people and how an American granny was so nonchalant about seeing such spectacular landscapes and animals as if it is an everyday occurrence. Travel is too easy. People would appreciate it all the more if it was difficult to get places. I know this is hypocritical of me as we are just as bad; we're half way around the World, on a new continent for us and it hasn't sunk in that were on holiday yet.
Anyway, the waterfalls are the most amazing scenery we've seen. Every turn provides a more breathtaking view. We've been above, below, alongside and then on a speedboat, in the falls.

The wildlife in the rain forest is wonderful too. On our trek today we saw a blue Jay, a snake, lots of butterflies (there are 400 species in this rain forest) and Sarah spotted a hummingbird and a toucan. Nothing funny happened on the tour and I'm only mentioning it to make you all jealous.

Did I mention that doing the tour with a guide was pointless? There was no, zip, zero commentary. All he did was tell us when to meet at each part of the tour so we all went around together. It would have been quicker and easier to go round the trails on our own. And, as the route back to our hotel went passed his house, he hopped off the coach before dropping us off. Ciao!

Oh, I've found out how South America is trying to deal with unemployment; in Rio airport there was a woman employed to press the buttons for us in the lift. Ok, this happens in some expensive hotels in Europe and the US, but at lunch today there was one waiter per table...in a self service restaurant!

Back at the hotel, we had capirinhas (Sarah's favourite cocktail, which we've found out come from Brazil) and champagne in the bar and looked at our photos on the laptop. Sarah was tiddly after one drink.

Wonder (Water) Wall

A short hour and 3/4 flight from Rio to Iguacu town. I got annoyed at the old people who had window seats and just slept the whole way. At Iguacu airport we booked a rain forest tour for tomorrow. There were amazing views of the falls as we pulled up to our hotel. (Still can't work out the time difference.) The Cataratas Tropical Hotel is lovely, very colonial. We had lunch by the poolside and had a visit from a two foot long lizard. This was not your average gecko!

We went for what we intended to be a quick look at the falls and ended up spending four hours on the trails around the national park.We were scared in the rain forest as we were surrounded by something making a really loud rattling noise. We couldn't see what was making the noise, but later found out that it was a small insect called a cicada. Oh, we felt silly for being scared...and then we walked right into a huge spider in its web! Photos on the link.

We saw our first mirador today. These are raccoon like mammals. Very cute. We were surprised at how tame this one was as it walked right by us and had a sniff at a toddler in a pram. We saw more of the large lizards. The waterfalls are huge. They're in four sections, most with two steps. There is a platform out on one of the steps between two stages of the falls. Argentina is across the river. We'll experience the falls from the Argentine side on our tour tomorrow.

Once we got back to the hotel we had a swim. Colonial hotel on oneside. Tropical rain forest on the other.Later we watched the sunset over the waterfalls, which is weird as maps show the falls to be East of the hotel! The sunset would have been very romantic had it not been for getting bitten to buggery by mosquitoes (see Ian's head photo).

Room without a view

Had our first night in party capital, Rio last night. The airport hotel was convenient but with no windows, it was a bit of a box room. There's lots to look forward to in Rio (see previous post), so it is a shame we're catching a flight out. We're off to the Iguacu waterfalls for a few days, but we'll be back with our glad rags on in a few days.

Flying Down to (and passed) Rio.

Sarah and I love our travelling and so are normally very well prepared before we set off. With this being the first visit to South America for both of us and the Rio carnival being one of the World's great events, it is disappointing that our preparations have been completely overshadowed by arranging the move to Canada.I've read the Rio guide on the flight and here are some interesting facts I didn't know beforehand.

* Rio got its name when the Portuguese navigator, Coelho mistook the Guanabara Bay for the mouth of a river. He looked at his calendar and proclaimed the spot River of January,
* Rio was the Brazilian capital for 200 years until Kubitschek made the purpose built city of Brasilia the capital in 1960,
* Carnival originates from a Portuguese tradition of water fights and practical jokes until 1855 when a group of young men donned colourful costumes and marched to music,
* Rio is one of only two cities in the World that contains tropical rainforest. We'll leave it to you to figure out the other one, but a hint is that Sarah and I have been there,
* And lastly, the famous statue of Christ over looking Rio is not atop Sugar Loaf mountain. It is actually across the bay from Pao de Acucar (Sugar Loaf), on top of Corcovado (Hunchback Mountain).

Rio is such a party city that the carnival started during the flight. Three couples and a ring leader had had six hours of beer drinking and decided they couldn't wait for the plane to land to start singing. Very loudly. And a bit of dancing too. All the other passengers were looking at them disapprovingly...and Sarah and I just happened to have the seats right in the middle of the revellers!

Airport Secured?

You know those really annoying people at airport security checks that are taken to one side because they've got a nail file in their hand luggage despite all the warnings that they are forbidden? Yep, that was us at Heathrow this morning. At first I was pleased that the scanner had found our nail scissors in our wash bag, but, as I pointed out to the guard, I could do a lot more damage with the 6" pen knife that wasn't spotted in our camera bag!

A good start!

Well, we've said goodbye to family and friends. The removal company has collected our stuff. We've got flight tickets. We're all ready to go! Except...

Just had an email from the new company to say that they are having trouble getting the work permit. The permit is likely to be almost a week late and we not allowed to enter Canada, even as tourists, before we have the work permit in hand! What does this mean for our plans? It means we now fly to South America at the end of the week and don't know when we'll be able to enter Canada! We really will be bumming around in Chile. I hope the weather's good.