Waterworld

If only Kevin Costner thought of coming here to Iguazu falls rather than building the most costly set in Hollywood history. It truly is one of the great sites of South America despite the fact it resembles one of those animated paintings you often see in Chinese restaurants. Iguazu falls borders Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay and is also the site I believe of the worlds largest dam(Itaipu). Apparently there were even bigger and more beautiful falls here before the Brazilians decided they needed cheap hydroelectricity. So what to say about billions of tonnes of water pouring out of every nook and cranny you can shake a camera at. For us the highlight was a boat trip into the falls themselves which resulted in us getting completely soaked and having extreme difficulty breathing whilst being underneath the aforementioned billions of gallons. Lots of woo hoos and yeeee haaas made for one of the most fun days to be had. The days comedy moment came after I purchased a packet of chips(crisps to you English geezers) but was unfortunately spotted by a coati (pronounced koarrrteee). Coatis for you non South American Mammal afficionados are an extremely annoying and quite dangerous racoon rat like animal that I loathe. They have an extremely large mouth and even larger teeth that are usually scrounging for food 24 hours a day. So, just after a very hungry Ed purchased his crisps he found himself being chased by not one but 4 of these little buggers. No amount of yelling, sidestepping, cursing or attempting to make myself look bigger did anything to deter the little buggers. So to the soundtrack of Kates hysterical laughter I succumbed and threw my packet of crisps to the devils. I hate them... But revenge was mine when later I found one of them robbing tourists of their sandwiches in the canteen and armed with my latest weapon ( a birkenstock) I chased the little bastard halfway down the falls. Brothers in arms unite..death to all Coatis. So here we are in Iguassu, Brazil and unfortunately our latin American world has caved in on it´s head. Suddenly we´re forced to say Obrigado instead of Gracias. Brazil is a whole different world. 160 million people... more than all the other South American countries put togethor. The country is bigger than Europe, there are more murders here than in South Africa, and it takes a long time to get anywhere. 85% of the worlds portugese speakers also live here... so there. It´s also expensive and especially so during Xmas and new year. In Rio they are asking 50 dollars US a night in an 8 bed dorm. So we have decided to say Vamos to Brazil ( or whatever the portugese equivalent is and hello Morocco and Thailand Via London. Yep tomorrow we hop on a bus to Sao Paolo( God help us) then fly to Marrakech for some mint tea and how much for the carpet. 10 days later we fly to London for 3 days for a bit of Christ it´s cold here followed by a flight to Thailand and show us where the cheap cabana on the beach with the hammock is please. Can´t wait.