Iguazu and Rio

Well anyway we arrived into Sao Paulo from Caracas and thingsinstantly became all the easier. People were friendly. Colombia would be my favourite place in South America but I'd love to have more time to see Brasil. From our limited time here it has been amazing and so easy to get around in with the helpfullness of the people.

Anyway we did an overnight bus to Foz de Iguacu which was meant to be 16 hours (I think) but we did it in 15. This is more or less on the Brasil-Argentina border. From here we headed to Puerto Iguazu in Argentina via both border checks. If anyone is lanning on doing this I'd recommend a taxi as the bus doesn't stop at the border checkpoints. We relaxed the first day and headed for the falls the following day. We did the boat ride under the falls which is a bit of a ripoff and not worth doing at all but on the other side the park is very good value. On the Argentinian side you really get close to the falls and the views are amazing. We headed for Catarata on the Brazilian side the following day which amazingly was even better than the Argentinian side. The pictures do more justice than any description I can give you. We headed to Parque de Aves after the falls after this which was really good as well.

Well onto Rio that night on another night bus of 24 hours. After all the travel the first couple of days were fairly uneventful. Caroline came to the Macarana to watch Fluminese draw 1-1 against Santos (Pele's old club). It was great atmosphere even with the limited crowd. Fluminese were poor considering they're in the Copa Libertadores final against LDU Quito. It's also strange that they're currently bottom of the league. Last Saturday we headed for Flamengo against Sao Paulo which was absolutely amazing atmosphere with it being like a nightclub inside a football stadium. Flamengo lost 4-2 though although they still top the league. Caroline had alot of beach time here while I don't know what I did. Pao de Asucar was the only thing I went off on my own doing. The views from this were amazing. Today we did a favela tour in the morning and just rambled around the Centro in the evening. The favel atour was very good with some of the proceedsgoing to different projects here such as a nursery. The gap between rich and poor here is astounding.

Well 25 hours to go to my departure now. See you all soon. The weather better be good.

Slan,
David