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So we arrived in one very hot and sticky Rio on Wednesday 11th of February and made our way to the area of Catete where we were staying. Our first few days of what was going to be an extremely short jaunt into Brazil, had been on a non stop bus journey up from Foz de Iguacu. The highlight of which was the frequent stops at service stations, with huge pay per kilo buffets, fresh fruit juices and delightfully unhealthy fried pastries.
Our first day in Rio was spent exploring the Centro, trying, and failing miserably to make ourselves understood in Portuguese, and silently praying for the gloomy looking clouds overhead to go away. Alas it wasn't to be, and that night the heavens opened, and what seemed to be months worth of rain came from the sky and flooded the streets, somewhat stranding us in our hostel. The one thing I thought might be guaranteed on our trip, and what I'd been looking forward to for ages, was a sun bathed trip to Ipanema beach, but the rain came, and was to stay with us pretty much all of the time we were in Brazil. With constant rain and clouds we put off a trip to the key sights like the famous sugar loaf mountain - Pao de Azucar, and the statue of Cristo de Redentor, in the hope of a sunny day. Instead we spent our days exploring the shopping streets of Ipanema, visiting various sights and going out in the area of Lapa to see an ace Samba band and join in with the crazy street party.
Food remained a highlight in the rainy days (as ever for me) and we enjoyed sticks of grilled cheese covered in Oregano, huge Prato Feito lunches; plates piled high with rice, beans, meat, and feijao, and amazing fruit shakes. When we did finally make it into Ipanema beach, there was a Carnaval procession making its way rowdily along the main street, with lots of the followers using the beach as a big open air bathroom. But even despite this, the beach was breathtaking, and down by the edge where the huge waves crashed against the white sand, we were the only people.
Alas our time was nearing an end in Rio and the sun still wasn't shining so we decided to head up to the statue of Christ early on our last morning, the clouds cleared enough for us to see the bays of Rio, with the islands out at sea, and the view was amazing. Surrounded by 100's of people standing around with their arms splayed for a photo op, we decided to join in. At last the sun came out as we visited the beach of Catete. We finished the afternoon with some friends from the hostel, going to Maracana football stadium to watch a match between Botofogo and Flamengo. As we left Rio the sun was shining and the atmosphere was already heightened in preparation for Carnaval, but we were headed for Salvador further North where we'd heard the party was even better!
We had come to Puerto Iguazu for one reason, Iguazu Falls. With 275 individual falls they are among the widest in the world and can be seen from the Brazilian or Argentinean side.The source of Iguazú river is in Paraná state, Brazil, and after crossing 1,200 km. on a plateau, where it joins with several tributaries before reaching a fault line. This crack in the sandstone and basalt is where the river runs an 80 metre canyon into the spectacular Devil's Throat. Puerto Iguazu is a nice little town but obviously touristy. It was a great feeling to be back in Argentina and Residencial Amigos was a paradise after the journey. We celebrated our ‘half way through’ night with a meal out, complete with the most delicious Argentine red wine and steak. The tourist information is based in the town centre and is probably the best and most informative we had ever experienced. So armed with our bible of info we took the early morning bus to the falls along with the Park workers. The early start meant that a lot of the trail we were on was empty. Spider webs were strung across the path, Iguanas retreated to the undergrowth and a Tarantula took refuge under a step as H went bouncing past.
The Argentinean falls are by far the best side in my opinion, with more walk ways and falls to explore. One particular highlight was being on the Isla San martin away from the crowds and seeing the wildlife. By the time we headed up onto the Upper Trial it was 10:30 and the hoards had arrived. Nevertheless even with an army of tour groups marching around videoing themselves, the falls are an epic sight. The Devil’s throat is the biggest of the falls and standing on the platform looking into the drop, the noise is deafening.We’d made friends with an Argentinean family staying in our residencial, and they invited us to join them that evening for the tastiest (and latest - the meal started at midnight!) Asado. When we headed out of Argentina for the last time it was with a real feeling of sadness. The food, wine and hospitality of Argentina had been a highlight of our trip and something we were definitely sad to leave behind.
As Han mentioned in the last installment we now had the task finding a way to Iguazu Falls, Argentina. There are several ways and none of them particularly easy or straight forward. So, in true backpacker fashion we went for the most exciting route through Paraguay and the Gran Chaco.
Leaving Samiapata by colectivo taxi is the norm but after siting in the square for an hour it looked like we were the only ones heading out of town that day. We had only one option - to pay the price of four people. The mammoth journey began as we hurtled round corners and roads became gravel tracks and later became littered with speed bumps.
Once we arrived in Santa Cruz, at around 17:00, we made our way to the bus terminal and haggled for a ticket to Asuncion, the Paraguayan capital. Sometimes choice becomes a problem and as there were numerous companies going that way, all offering the same discount, all under exaggerating the length of time it would take and all promising a clean, safe bus…haha! We bought the $55 ticket that all we knew would get us to Asuncion and then on to Ciudad del Este, on the Paraguayan border, somehow.
As the sun went down the heat remained, the terminal was throbbing with people and fumes. Undercover police marched around checking passports and the Bolivian drug police, the FELCN, searched every bus coming in and going out, the sniffer dogs were brought out and paraded up and down our luggage. Mine was picked out and I had great pleasure in taking out the Malaria tablets the dog had caught a whiff of.
The night past on our bumpy bus with babies screaming and the smell of the toilet that was centimetres from our heads. As the sun rose the following morning the sight of dusty roads and the endless scrub of the Chaco greeted us. The only amusement that I could find was the conductor looked the spitting image of Ben Brewster (TV Director extraordinaire), maybe he was a long lost brother?
The Lonely Planet Guide to South America describes the Trans Chaco as a journey for “hearty souls” and by the 15:00, 18 hours in, my soul wanted to get out and walk. The Chaco occupies 60% of Paraguay and it is largely desert and scrub land with this single dirt track through it, connecting Bolivia and Paraguay. The sun was the hottest we had experienced and the lack of water in the toilet system produced an unbearable smell. The sweat was pouring off us as the bus twisted and turned. The only ventilation was, of course, our window which when opened filled the coach with a cloud of dust, even so anything was better than the smell of that toilet!
It soon became apparent the timings we had been told were as far from reality as we were from a hot bath in a Hilton. By late afternoon we arrived at the Paraguayan border control and after the usual sitting about for half an hour we were ordered to line up all our belongings for the sniffer dog and police checks. The burley and officious looking police were completely shown up when they brought out their mangy looking drug dog. He had other ideas and rather than being keen to hunt out drugs, he kept running off into the scrub and playing with his ball.
We rolled on and around 23:00 we were arriving in Asuncion and searching for our midnight departure to Ciudad del Este. Simple things count for a great deal when traveling by bus and the cool, clean and quiet ambience of this new bus was a world away from our Chaco chicken coup. We awoke as we were pulling into Ciudad del Este terminal, it was 5am. Inside the terminal people were slow and sleepy, the air was cool and refreshing and our 6am local bus to the border arrived promptly. A twenty minute ride and we were being dropped by immigration, exit stamps stamped and we were waiting for the next bus across the ‘Friendship Bridge’. Linking Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina this is a major union for commuters who work in any of these countries. The tri-border crossing was a hum of moto-taxis, colectivos and pedestrians. After sometime we caught a bus direct to the Argentinean immigration and then on to the town of Puerto Iguazu, Argentina. By midday our thirty-nine hour journey was over and we were relaxing on the poolside of Residencial Amigos. 
Our second escape from La Paz was to head East, towards Santa Cruz, and to a small village called Samaipata on the edge of the Amboro National Park. A world away from La Paz, Samaipata has a mild climate, few inhabitants and the most stunning scenery. We stayed in a place called El Jardin where we rented a small Cupula to stay in, a mud built building with a mattress on the floor upstairs and a small table downstairs.
We went horse riding around the town, and played with some of the animals from a wildlife refuge down the road, including a very friendly red squirrel called Skippy, and a rather sulky howler monkey. We found a guide called Carmel who lived in the town and agreed to take us on a walk up into Amboro and into the cloud forests. It was like being in Jurassic park, the forest was calm and quiet, everything covered in moss with giant ants climbing over everything and beautiful butterflies flying everywhere. The deeper into the cloud forest we got there began to grow ferns, of all different sizes and types. We reached one valley in the forest where the fern trees were giant, some reaching 6 or more metres high. 
Unfortunately our money ran out too quickly, and with no cash point nearby we only managed to spend 4 days in Samaipata. It definitely gave us a new view of Bolivia though, a much more tranquil and peaceful one which we hadn't seen elsewhere. If we'd have had more money with us I think it would have been hard to get us to leave. We began to head towards our next stop - Iguazu falls in Argentina - there was just one thing in our way, Paraguay.
So we arrived in one very hot and sticky Rio on Wednesday 11th of February and made our way to the area of Catete where we were staying. Our first few days of what was going to be an extremely short jaunt into Brazil, had been on a non stop bus journey up from Foz de Iguacu. The highlight of which was the frequent stops at service stations, with huge pay per kilo buffets, fresh fruit juices and delightfully unhealthy fried pastries.
Our first day in Rio was spent exploring the Centro, trying, and failing miserably to make ourselves understood in Portuguese, and silently praying for the gloomy looking clouds overhead to go away. Alas it wasn't to be, and that night the heavens opened, and what seemed to be months worth of rain came from the sky and flooded the streets, somewhat stranding us in our hostel. The one thing I thought might be guaranteed on our trip, and what I'd been looking forward to for ages, was a sun bathed trip to Ipanema beach, but the rain came, and was to stay with us pretty much all of the time we were in Brazil. With constant rain and clouds we put off a trip to the key sights like the famous sugar loaf mountain - Pao de Azucar, and the statue of Cristo de Redentor, in the hope of a sunny day. Instead we spent our days exploring the shopping streets of Ipanema, visiting various sights and going out in the area of Lapa to see an ace Samba band and join in with the crazy street party.
Food remained a highlight in the rainy days (as ever for me) and we enjoyed sticks of grilled cheese covered in Oregano, huge Prato Feito lunches; plates piled high with rice, beans, meat, and feijao, and amazing fruit shakes. When we did finally make it into Ipanema beach, there was a Carnaval procession making its way rowdily along the main street, with lots of the followers using the beach as a big open air bathroom. But even despite this, the beach was breathtaking, and down by the edge where the huge waves crashed against the white sand, we were the only people.
Alas our time was nearing an end in Rio and the sun still wasn't shining so we decided to head up to the statue of Christ early on our last morning, the clouds cleared enough for us to see the bays of Rio, with the islands out at sea, and the view was amazing. Surrounded by 100's of people standing around with their arms splayed for a photo op, we decided to join in. At last the sun came out as we visited the beach of Catete. We finished the afternoon with some friends from the hostel, going to Maracana football stadium to watch a match between Botofogo and Flamengo. As we left Rio the sun was shining and the atmosphere was already heightened in preparation for Carnaval, but we were headed for Salvador further North where we'd heard the party was even better!
