South/Cental America #6 - Brazil

Photos:
Brazil

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Headlines
1. Iguazu Falls
2. Florianopolis
3. Ilha do Mel
4. Sao Paulo
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Hello all,

I hope that you are all well where ever you might be in the world. Get comfortable all as I am in a writing mood...

Well after years of waiting I am finally in Brazil and I am loving it, the places that we have seen so far are fantastic. But first things first, when I last wrote to you we were in Salto on our way to Iguazu Falls, one jump across the border, 8 hours of waiting for a connecting bus and then a 5 hour brake down on the side of the highway with nothing but run down service station to keep us occupied, made the journey well interesting.

We checked into a great hostel complete with pool, bar a great restaurant and spent the day relaxing. Awoke to an ok day and hit the Argentinian side of some of the most impessive falls on the planet, water falling across a massive 2km cresent 80m high. We walked all around the falls and you can get really up close, so close I fact that I walked away from a boat ride absolutely soaked right through to the bone, this could of course have something to do with my repeated taunts to the driver. The most impressive sight is definately the Garganta de diablo (Devils Throat), here huge volumes of water fall into a narrow point that rumbles as it falls. Huge plumes of spray saturate the area and turn the canyon into a swirling white out, truely awesome. Saw huge numbers on butterflies a couple of monkeys an alligator but no tucans unfortunately.

Next day the sky opened and we took off to the Black Market in Paraguay, a supposed haven of stolen goods that finace terrorist activities....if you believe LP that is....after a quick wander around the electronic section, seeing a couple too many guns, a sword to my throat and Matt getting hassled for 30 minutes by group of guys selling an ear cleaner a window washer and a toy plane (he bought the window washer) we took off for the worlds biggest dam...all I can say is well it is big and it holds back a lot of water and a great place to catch an hours sleep whilst on the tour. Next day we checked out the Brazilian side and this offered a great panoramic view of the falls and very worth the visit to both sides. The falls should be on every itinary to South America and thus nocked off number 2/5 of the must see list.

Next stop was the beaches of Florianopolis, a great city on the island of Santa Catalina. We arrived early, as in 5:30am after an overnight bus and was taken to Ingleses beach by some random taxi guy, but all turned out well as the hotel was great and a short stroll to the beach and town. Again the sky opened and we waited and waited for a clearing as we were both hanging for a day at the beach. We were finally blessed and basked in the sun of Brazil, walking for miles and swimming at any beach we came across. Took off the next day to Barra de Lago a great beach where we positioned oursleves in front of a bar that offered towel side service and blasted out Bob Marley all day...perfect. Day 3 we walked again along the coast and by this time we had regained our sun tans and felt nice and relaxed.

After a stroke of genius on our behalves we managed to catch 4 buses and 2 boats with no waiting time and found ourselves on Ilha do Mel, a great little island, 90% of it a nature reserve, 30km of beaches and two little settlements to chill in. We wondered around the island visiting all of the spots, for some unexplained reason there are 1911 cannons hidden in the jungle, a great fort and plenty of beaches. Next day we got together with all of the other backbackers on our paradise (10 of us from 6 different countries) and visited a strange natural occurance where converging rivers confuse the fish and they sit on a sink whole whilst dozens of dolphins have themselves a feast. Matt and I decided to open a new eco-tour and waded into the water up to our chests and the dolphins simply ignored us and swam around feasting like it was a Sunday roast.

Well three days of chilling out, reading in hammocks drinking a couple too many Caiprians whilst watching the sun go down and having a couple of late nights at Chileano´s we had to pack up our sand infested bags and head on up to the metropolis that is Sao Paulo. The city extends for miles around, in fact it took us one and a half hours to get into the city, but it is actually really nice in the centre with massive avenues, good Sunday markets and a great park area that resembles Central Park in NY. We found a good friend from Australia after a trying to find him for two days and caught for a great lunch and a great chance to see one of our best friends again even if it was for a brief moment.

Tomorrow off to Rio, number 3 on the list and I can not wait.

Remember to check out the http://moose.delphinus.net.au/ site for new photos in a couple of days....as soon as I can find a place that lets me plug the camera in.

Roland