on the Sunday the 18th, said a sad but ready farewell to Floripa. I decided to continue travelling with the 2 Welsh girls, Hannah & Nicola - and the next planned destination was Iguacu Falls. The last 2 days in Florianopolis were plagued with a a series of unfortunate happenings.. Nicola lost her camera and got her wallet stolen, and I smacked my chin and then also had a cock up with my laundry - which left all my white clothes ruined, despite the fact that I gave CLEAR instructions and even seperated my colours into 2 bags!! I lost the plot and stormed off to reception on the morning of checkout, and cut sick at the poor duty manager who was only too apologetic. I also complained about the room that girls had been in, as they had been some sort of booking error - and with the Hostel being fully booked they were forced into staying in something that resembled a hobbit hole come kidnapping storage area... And not for the cheapest price either! The very nice owner after a lengthy chat gave us a massive discount on our stay! I didnt pay a penny (as a gesture of apology for getting my clothes ruined!) and the girls paid half price! So every dark cloud has a silver lining as they say! I couch surfed for free, then got to stay in a swanky hostel for free too!! WOOHOO!
After a sweaty couple of local bus trips we eventually set off for a fun-filled 18 hour bus adventure.
The bus left at 5pm, and the arrival time in Igaucu was about 8 or 9am the next morning. Buses do recline, so its not completely bad - plus that coupled with a fabulous sleeping tablet means that journeys are about 100% better than could be unaided by medication! I had the good fortune of sitting next to a rather pervy and annoyingly ¨chatty man¨ who even though I told several times I didnt speak portuguese insisted on trying to have conversations with me. He had this delighted/psychotic grin on his face the whole time too and at one stage I did wonder if drugging myself was kind of like a woman going to a bar and willingly spiking her own drink for shits and giggles.. Anyhoo - he eventually fell asleep and for fear I might actually commit suicide out of shear boredom, I caved in and had my sleeping tab.
I slept for at least 8 or 9 hours and woke up the next morning not far from our destination. What bliss! Plus I hadnt been sexually moleste, which too was a fantastic outcome. Pleased all round!
We got a cab, headed over the border into the Argentinian side and made our way to our club med style hostel, which was huge and even had wonderful large pool. With the heat pushing 35 plus degrees, it was a God send. We mooched around the hostel for a few hours, then headed beack over to the Brazilian side to explore Brazils side of the falls - which we were told shouldnt take longer than half a day.
It was spectacular, the size of it was all pretty mind blowing and we thoroughly enjoyed it. That eve, we went out for a delicious dinner - had probably the best BBQ Chicken skewer thing I have ever tasted, it had amazing thick slices of bacon on too and was purely sublime. We then retreated to our hostel to pass out in our food comas.
After a good night sleep in the well air-conditioned room we headed back out to do the Argentinian side of the falls - which was far more of a whole day experience. Again the weather was swelteringly hot, but it was actually quite nice to just be in the sun after a rather rainy few days in Floripa! We spent the whole day doing various walks to different view points and had a fantastic day. We saved the best views for last, and ended the day with the utterly mind blowing sight of the devils throat - the heaviest part of the falls which just super amazing! Awesome day, and far more enjoyable than I had imagined.
That eve, we headed back to the hostel ready to have a good few glasses of wine after our long, adventurous and hot day. 5 bottles later, we were all in the pool, guffawing around attempting to do a 3 person tower. Heaven only knows why we thought that one of us would be able to hold the weight of the other 2 in some Cirque du Soleil manner, but we were of course convinced at that time we could succeed! Attempting (and bitterly failing) our 3 man tower had us entertained (and probably a good few other people) for a good hr. Of course in between attempting our tower we screeched, laughed hysterically, whooped, frolicked about and caused general disturbance. We had started the evening with other people from the hostel, but sure as hell by the end of the eve we noticed that slowly people were retreating from our rowdy company until eventually we were by ourselves. All good things come to an end, and we got back to our room sopping wet, and crashed out. In my hastiness to get into bed, I must have forgotten to put my pajamas on, and woke up spread eagled on my bed in just my bikini bottoms - which wouldnt have been a problem, except we had a new room mate..A guy..Great.
Anyway, we packed up all our stuff and headed off to the next destination - Rosario in Aregentina. Another 19 hour bus journey but at least this time, on a very luxurious bus, which has seats much the same as the ones in first class flights. You can basically lie down,you get food, drinks, blankets and even pillows! What a novelty!
Had a blast in Iguacu - in great company laughing about all manner or things. One of the best things about travelling is the people you meet, and I have been lucky to have already met a great bunch of folks.
The girls I met and have travelled with have had me in stitches for most of the time swapping stories about travelling and life in general. 2 of my favourite travel stories of thiers...1 about the time they were supposed to head to Salvador Brazil, from Peru and accidentally got flights to EL SALVADOR in Central America instead.. a mere 10 hour flight away and 4 countries astray of their original planned destination!!!!The second being the time one of the attempted to introduce herself to some Bolivians in Spanish... See in your Spanish phrase book - the word LLAMA/S is denoted as meaning NAME.. "cómo te llamas" is apparently "whats your name".. All very good, and kind of like a more formal way of introducing yourself. The pronunciation, is supposed to be something like YAMAR, but LLAMA as we all know is also the weird looking native south american goat/mini camel. Now in Portuguese my "my name is..." is; Meu nome e SARAH, so combine that with what you THINK is the Spanish word for name, plus a mispronouncing the word and you have an interesting question/statement! Long story short a mispronounced word later, and fast forward to a very confused translated conversation between Nicola and a Bolivian guy she met out in a bar, which went something like this:
Nicola: "My Llama is Nicola!"
Confused Bolivian: You have a Llama? Called Nicola?
(Nicola, like many people, when not understood - merely repeats the question several times, but more loudly and slower, just adding to the confusion)
Nicola: MY LLLAMAA IS NICOLAAAA!!
Bolivian guy: "You are a Llama called Nicola?!
This went on for some time, until eventually both lost enthusiasm and retreated! Hahahahaha - needless to say we know affectionately call Nicola our little Llama.
More news to follow!
Gypsy..signing out!
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