HOME IN RIO

This may not be ´home´home, but it feels pretty good to be back here, in the comfort of the lovely flat in Leblon, with Roman and the family, where we have the luxury of a room each. Our 2 months on the road is at an end, and we are beginning to relax and chill out in a mere 33C as opposed to the torrid south at 38 - 40 C. I know we´re not supposed to grumble about the heat when you all, back in the UK, are suffering such a cold winter, but when you are melting like a blob of marg that´s been left in the hot sun, its hard not to have a little moan.

Enough of that for the moment, because this is also about the Argentine Iguazu, where we spent Wednesday. It was much more of a trek to get there that day, as we had to go over the Tancredo Neves Bridge between the 2 countries with all the border crossing formalities which that involved. When we eventually made it to the National Park itself we found it quite easy to get rid of the Argentinian Pesos we had saved for this as everything, especially the entrance fee, was so expensive. Once in we went on a little train to the start of the trail we had decided on - the low one with lots of jungly shade. Again the butterflies everywhere, especially hosts of yellow ones, and coatis (kind of racoon). These were much more in evidence on this side than the on the Brazil side. One tried very hard to get into Sue´s bag where it could smell her lunch pack. We saw others jump onto tables outside the cafe and snatch peoples sarnies and race away with them. We also saw a big lizard and several little ones, plus a cayman down in the river, and some lovely birds. After the jungle trail, which had several viewing points over a number of the falls, we got back on the train and went on to the trail leading to the Garganta del Diablo. This part was a little spoiled by stampeding hordes of tourbus tourists, who seemed to be in the mood for lots of pushing and shoving (perhaps on a tight schedule). In the end they passed. We went along a lengthy series of walkways, much out in the sun over the rapids, till we reached the huge "devil´s throat". We had seen this the day before, but not quite so close. Spectacular and overwhelming. No picture or film could convey the enormous power and magnificence on display. I wanted to go away and hide in a little hole and think about it, but no chance of that.
So the Iguaçu/Iguazu falls certainly provided us with a wonderful finale to an unforgettable journey.

SUE .We are going to continue with the blog for a few days longer.Hopefully,Roman will download lots of photos.Iguacu will stay with me forever,awesome,as will so many other aspects of our journey.It is good to be back in Rio though,just relax for a few days as we look back,remember ,and marvel at all the different aspects of this journey.