The Argentinian Falls - Day 36 and 37

We were both very sad to leave Buenos Aires - it was a great city, so easy to get around.  It is a grid system so you never get lost and the Metro system was so straightforward it was nearly as easy as the one in glasgow.

We had such a lovely apartment too with a great Landlord - Juan, who was on holiday from work so every time we saw him he looked like he had been up all night drinking and as it turned out he usually had!  Palermo Soho was the area we stayed in an I would highly recommend it, really nice area to walk around at night with no worries and lots of bars and restaurants - didn't have an ATM that worked though!  my only problem with BA was how difficult it was to get money out of a bank but Rio was a little bit like that too.

We headed off to catch our lunchtime flight to Puerto Igauco which is the Argentinian side of the falls we saw last week.

We arrived at the hotel too late to head to the falls so instead we headed to the pool and I booked in for a massage - yippee!!! I love when I have time for a massage!  I had a beautiful hot stone massage and was on another planet when I went out to meet Mark at the pool although he was tucking into the local beer so he was quite happy.  I think everyone should have a massage at least once a month - its so important to help you relax but it also helps to eliminate toxins out of the body, if you have a massage regularly it can also help you to lose weight - when I have a weekly Manual Lymph Drainage massage I usually lose about 2lbs a week.  Now thats my idea of going on a diet - lying on a table and someone massaging me.

We went off the the falls the next day, getting the local bus up to the national park.

Is this where 'Somewhere over the rainbow' came from?  not often we are above a rainbow.....  Don't think these people even realised the special position they were in....

he's a big boy! a huge iguana just walking by us - not even acknowledging us !!!

here I am touching the rainbow - is that rude?!  thank god I wasn't wear white as I think I might have taken the miss wet shirt title!!!!

You can't go to the falls and expect to come away dry!  here we are a couple of argentinian wetties!!!

here is one of the wide shots of the argentinian falls - it really was spectacular!

and a wee cutie to finish off...

just hanging about eating a banana skin!!!

The falls were more spectacular that the brazil side just because you could get so much closer to the top of them, a really impressive new seventh wonder of the natural world!

After the falls we headed over the border and on the advise of the hotel tried to get a taxi at the border to take us to our hotel as it wasn't far from the border so no point in going all the way into town on the bus to get a different bus out but getting a taxi was easier said than done.  We had a border guard helping us as he kept an eye out for empty taxis coming over the border but after 30 minutes we had no luck so I phoned the hotel and luckily they had once of their transfer vans just about to pass the border so we jumped in that and got to the hotel within minutes.

The hotel was nice and had a big pool so off we went to put our sizzling bodies into the pool - we both had a bit of sun burn as the sun was really hot at the falls.

We are up at before stupid o'clock (3.30am) to get our flight to Sao Paulo and then our bus transfer to Paraty to the beach so off to bed to catch a few hours sleep.

suzxxx

Learning to play Polo - Day 35

I had a morning of sitting on the balcony drinking ginger and lemon tea before getting ready to head into town with Mark to drop him off to meet his guide for the football stadium tour - he was heading to River Plate - apparently where all the best argentinian footballers play (accept Maradona and Messi as they played at Boca).  He was meeting his guide at 2pm and I was being picked up down at Indepencia for my polo experience.

Once Mark was on his way I headed off to try to find an ATM that would work with my card - easier said than done at the 6th bank I finally got money so headed off on the underground down to Indepencia.  It shouldn't be that hard to get money out of an ATM but so many of the banks don't recognise my card which is an HSBC card so you would think it would be a worldly recognised card but no.

Once at the pick up point I met 3 american girls, Kate, Dee Dee and Robyn who were all heading for polo too, all nice girls so I knew we would have some fun.  Fernando our teacher arrived to take us out to the stables which were about an hour outside of the city.

The 3 girls are all in the military - Kate is a pilot, Dee Dee drives ships and Robyn is a marine - she didn't give much away about what she did on a day to day basis so with my imagination running riot as it usually does I have her down as Special Forces.  They were all young and good fun and Dee Dee hadn't ever ridden before but she did really well.

We all got our hats on and off we went to the practice field get our horses and to learn the first thing in Polo - how to steer your horse!  the best way is to lean into the stirrup of the side you want to go and turn your body the way you want to go so if you want to go left, lean into the left stirrup and turn to the left and the horse will go that way.  The other way is using the reigns but the horses mouths are sensitive with the bit so you can imagine in a polo match you turn and twist loads so its not fair on the horse to be pulled about by its mouth so much.

Here we are fresh and ready to go.....

My horse was Big Daddy - no idea how to pronounce his name or spell it so Big Daddy will do.  He was bigger than the other polo horses which meant I had a bit of a longer stick as we were further off the ground.  Big Daddy was a bit of a tricky horse to get started, a total tester, which is a horse that pushes to see how much knowledge you have an how much he can get away with not doing!  I was kicking hard to get him to move so in the end Fernando suggested a whip - I hate whips normally but unfortunately Big Daddy needed the threat of something - I only had to use it sparingly as generally just showing him the whip was enough to get him into trot.

Here we are listening intently to Fernando as he explains how to hit the ball - I wasn't to great at the ball hitting bit! Definitely couldn't hit the ball backwards!

After we had been practicing hitting the ball for about 30 minutes I started to feel really unwell, I felt faint and that I needed to eat or drink something but I knew I didn't really need to as I had had free range scrambled eggs with a big baguette for my lunch and I had also had 3 huge mugs of ginger tea so I couldn't really understand why I felt like this.  I felt like I needed to get off the horse but I wasn't going to do that as I wanted to learn to play polo!  I just couldn't understand why I felt like this but Mark has Man Flu so I thought may be it was that but it had hit me so quickly and it is really not like me to be ill and not to get flu that quickly.  So I carried on and after a few minutes I realised that it was Big Daddy who was taking my energy - he was an energy vampire!  I have come across many human energy vampires and know how to spot them and protect myself from them but I had never come across a horse or animal energy vampire before but that was exactly what Big Daddy was.  I put up Reiki protection for myself and sent out healing energy to Big Daddy - generally people who are energy vampires need healing so animals will be the same.

Within 10 minutes I started to feel better - isn't that amazing?!  Its great that I have started to recognise these feelings in myself - if I had got off Big Daddy which was what I really wanted to do I would have drunk some water and eaten some nuts and thought thats why I was feeling better but the real reason would have been because he didn't have access to my energy any more as I wouldn't be riding him.

After I protected myself we were fine until I discovered how ungrounded Big Daddy was - after our practice and then we had a break we started to play a match and towards the end of the match someone in the distance fired a shot gun a few times - Big Daddy reared up on his back legs - my instinct kept me on him as I leant into his neck but at one point I thought he might go all the way over, he then put his front legs down and was bucking with his back legs, at this point I lost my left stirrup which would have been fine if the gun hadn't started firing again so Big Daddy was rearing up again and I could feel that I may have to make an exit strategy as he was quite uncontrollable but the last time I rode a horse that was uncontrollable and I hit the exit button I didn't ride again for 10 years and I really didn't want that to happen again and I have handled a lot of feisty horses in my years or riding so I knew I could handle this. I sat deep in the saddle (hard to do when your horse is rearing up!!) and put my right heel down in the stirrup and my left heel as far down as I could and gave one strong tug with the reigns giving him the signal to stop and he did!  He was very jittery though when we had finished our rearing adventure.  Horses that need grounded often are the once who are bouncy on their feet and have a habit of rearing, at the end of the whole session I spent a bit of time working with Big Daddy and grounding all four of his feet - I hope he feels much better for it.

Immediately after I had settle Big Daddy Fernando asked me if I wanted to get off and I said no as long as Big Daddy was going to be ok - that would have knocked my confidence to give up at that point and I surely had been through the worst with him?!  So we carried on playing the match and Big Daddy and I went on to score the 6th and winning goal of the match (a complete fluke by the way!) so all was well even if it had been more of an adventure than i was looking for.

It was a good experience to have as I was so proud of myself for staying on and also continuing - horses are not robots, they do shite like this and its important to know that I can control the situation.  If I had sat deep in the saddle and tugged his reigns on the first rearing perhaps he wouldn't have bucked or reared again - its all learning but I am pleased it happened as it has boosted my confidence.  I do know how to ride and I can handle difficult horses - I always was able to when I was younger so why not now?

Here I am practicing hitting the ball - an impressive swing out don't you think?! (I probably missed the ball on this one!)

Leaning in to hit the ball (I think I did hit this one, hey its harder than it looks!)

another action shot and proof in the 2nd pic that I did actually hit one ball!

and here I am - too happy for words!!! This pic was taken before the whole rearing incident!!!  but I was still smiling like this as I was so proud of myself for handling the situation.

So polo was a success - hard work but I really enjoyed it - I really enjoyed the match even though none of us were that fast we all had fun and we all enjoyed a bit of ball hitting and a bit of defence - I think I may have a career as a shoulder pusher - I was quite good at riding my horse up to whoever had the ball and pushing into them - is that the German blood or the Scottish blood that makes me good at that?!

Fernando was a brilliant teacher so if you are going to BA and want to learn polo look him up - www.poloelite.com.

suzxxx  - ps. here is a pic of where Mark went for the afternoon, he found it interesting but I reckon he would have loved polo!

Learning to cook Empenadas - day 34

I had organised a transfer to Cooking with Teresita's as she is quite far out of town and I couldn't be bothered fannying around with trains and buses early in the morning.

Once we arrived and met Teresita's lovely dog and her puppy both Vislas - beautiful dogs - we headed into the kitchen to get started.  It was only about 10 minutes before Teresita asked if we wanted to taste some wine - so it was about 11.15am!  I looked at my watch and then Mark and we both said "yes why not, its after 2pm at home"!

We were poured lovely cold glasses of Argentinian White wine - really lovely after our hot long journey in but it wasn't even 12pm yet!!!

Teresita was a brilliant teacher and soon had both of us chopping, kneading and stirring...

Here is Mark actually looking very interested in whatever Teresita is saying - he never looks that interested when I talk to him....

Mark is working on filling his last Empenada while Teresita and her husband inspect mine!!!  Think we are on our 2nd bottle of white wine by this point....

We made 24 Empenadas, 6 of them meat, 8 were Aubergine and the rest corn.  Half of them were cooked in the oven and the other half were deep fried.  Oh yeah the deep fried corn ones were AMAZING!  the Aubergine ones were ok too, lots of flavours from the cumin and chilli that Teresita added so very nice.  The oven ones really couldn't top the deep fried ones - why is it that the most unhealthy food is always the BEST!!!

Once all the Empenadas were ready we sat out in the garden and got tucked in and Teresita opened a bottle of Malbec - god help us - 2pm and 3 bottles in!!!!

Teresita has a really beautiful garden with Hummingbirds flying around - she feeds them nectar which keeps them coming all year round.  They are amazing little birds with very high energy levels and with it high vibrational energy - way way above our heads - its like they come from another dimension as their energy is so vibrant.  Such cute wee birds - I really loved sitting outside watching them.

Here I am enjoying my corn empenada and argentinian white wine.  Brilliant fun making them and Teresita and her husband were perfect hosts.

After we had eaten we then sat and talked to Teresita and her husband for a while - she is an retired high school teacher and her husband is a retired doctor and she started doing this just because they love cooking and she enjoys teaching so why not.  We had a fab day and promise to invite you all around sometime for some delicious Empenadas!

It was nice to take it easy with the cooking after our horse riding experience the day before as our bodies are starting to get sore but as always its 48 hours after the event that you can't move - don't think Mark believes me but he will have to roll out of bed tomorrow because his legs won't work!!!

Teresita directed us to the train station where it cost us 3 pesos each to get back into town - saved us a $30 taxi journey so big thanks to Teresita for being the perfect host, a great cook and teacher and also for saving us money.

If you want to know more about Teresita look her up on her website www.try2cook.com

Mark is off on a footie stadium tour to River Plate while I have my polo lesson tomorrow afternoon so more info to follow.....

suzxxx

UPDATE - Suz and Mark cantering handsfree video

Here is the you tube video link to the video of us cantering hands free - what  brilliant day!  Hard to believe this is the first time Mark has ever been on a horse!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZPOsvT_h1M

you will need to cut and paste it into your web browser.

enjoy!

suzxxx

Horseback riding - Argentinian style! - Day 33

We headed off into town early to where we were to meet Adrian who was picking us up and then headed off to his Ranch.  He is really lovely and very chatty and speaks great English, drove like a maniac though!

As soon as we got into the Ranch we could see our horses saddled up and ready to go but we headed into the kitchen to have Mate tea which was a weird drink - didn't taste anything like tea as we know it but it had a very interesting flavour - Mark described it as smokey and I can understand why he said that but it really is a strange flavour to describe. Adrian makes the Mate in a little cup with a metal straw and passes it to the right (always the right he said) and once Miriam, who was taking us out riding, had finished her Mate she passed it to Adrian who put more sugar and hot water in the concoction and passed it to me and then when I was done I passed it back and Adrian refilled and then passed to Mark.  We did a few rounds of that, Mark having more of it that me.  It was good to have taken part in a good Argentinian tradition with Adrian and Miriam - they are such lovely people.

We then got our hats and our chaps on ready for a few hours of riding - here is Butch Cassidy ready to go...

We headed off with Miriam having to constantly correct Mark's riding position which is fair enough, this was the first time EVER he had been on a horse so hadn't got a clue but he did really well as within half an hour he was trotting and within an hour or so he was cantering.

I loved the cantering, it really helped my confidence as it was in Canter that I fell off 10 years ago and that stopped me riding for the last 10 years, a big knock to my confidence.  But I was back cantering almost straight away and was handsfree for loads of canter - IT WAS AMAZING!!!

Here I am cantering and riding Argentinian style, one handed, with the hand facing up which was strange to get used to - I didn't have to have much instruction from Miriam except to turn my hand up, my riding position is good and I had good communications with Isobel my lovely horse.  She was a very happy horse and loved cantering too.

and here I am cantering handsfree...

I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF THIS!!!

I was so happy riding today, it really was a fantastic place to ride.  Miriam let me just head off into the open field sometimes to canter on my own while she gave Mark some instruction and also let us both go cantering off together once Mark had mastered cantering.

I wish in my first lesson when I was 12 years old I had been allowed to just head off and canter like Mark was - I think I spent a year at least riding round and round in a circle with 9 other people in the class before I was allowed to canter.  Miriam was a brilliant teacher and was very relaxed about everything.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ride again....

After lots of cantering we then got off to adjust the saddles as they are different from English style riding and the saddle loosens over the ride and needs to be pulled forward and re-tightened to make sure the girth doesn't rub too much on the horse otherwise they will end up with sore areas.

Then we did a bit of cantering on the way back.  The park we were in is massive and we didn't really see very many people at all whilst riding which was amazing considering it was such a beautiful day.

Isobel had earned her carrots!  Isn't she a really beautiful horse?!  she had one blue eye and one brown eye, just stunning.

I had such a brilliant day as did Mark who was cantering at every opportunity once he had mastered it and he loved it.  He had such a great horse too who was very patient with him.  I have a video of us cantering handsfree side by side and once I have figured out how to upload it I will post it on the blog.  UPDATE - here is the link www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZPOsvT_h1M - you might have to cut and paste the link

Miriam had organise a take away deliver of Empenadas for us which was a really lovely thing to do as good and drink aren't included in the day and then she brought out a big Argentinian beer for us to share - absolute heaven.

After Adrian had given all the horses a cold shower he came in and joined us for a drink and some empenadas before he drove us down the road to meet our driver who would return us to the city.

It was a really fantastic day, I loved the horses and also the lovely people, Miriam and Adrian are really nice people who just love their horses and want to share their love of horses with other people which is right up my street.

Here is the link to the place we were riding today www.caballos-alapar.com - it was fantastic.

Can't wait for my polo lesson on Tuesday now!

Tomorrow we head off to learn how to cook Argentinian style Empenadas with Teresita which should be good fun.

suzxxx

Arrived in Argentina - Day 31 and 32

The bus was long and not quite as filled with champagne as I had hoped!!!

Here I am excited to get on the bus and start our 18 hour journey to Buenos Aires - little did I know they only carried meat for lunch and dinner and that in 18 hours I would be allowed one (very small) bottle of red wine and a glass (!) of champagne and that some fucker would be snoring all night!!!  I can sleep through most things but have no idea why snoring keeps me awake!  This snoring fucker in front of me snored all night - thank god for my iPod and Elizabeth Whiter's 'Journey through the Chakras' - my saviour from most stressful situations!  It last half an hour and I listened to it 8 times from midnight till 6am - so I was well meditated but fucking knackered as I hadn't slept and I was starving - wish I had got the plane, even if they only serve turkey (SHAME!) sandwiches at least I would have been there in 3 hours!!!

Here is a pic from the bus of the sunset in Argentina - very pretty.
Once we arrived at the main bus station in Buenos Aires,  I headed off leaving Mark to watch the bags to see if I could a place to change money as neither of us had any argentinian money but I didn't have any luck so we had to persuade a taxi driver to take us to our apartment and get paid in US$ - as it turns out all argentinians want to get paid in US$ because their economy is fucked so they are all buying into the dollar to save themselves.

We arrived at our apartment and Juan our lovely landlord was more than keen to swap his Pesos for our US$!

We landed on our feet with this apartment $40 a night and its 4 times the size of our apartment in Copacabana and it has a lovely pool and gym - pool I will use - gym not a hope in hell but Mark might, mind you he is learning to horse ride tomorrow so he may be walking like John Wayne for the next few days so perhaps he won't be heading to the gym!

Some people had just checked out of the apartment as we arrived so it needed cleaning so Juan took our bags up but we went off to find me something to eat - I had had a bread roll and red cabbage for my dinner and a horrible sticky croissant for my breakfast so I was threatening to eat a 'scabby dog'!  as if I would ever but anyway the threat was enough for Mark to get me into the first available cafe for a toasted sandwich, orange juice and tea - absolute heaven!

I get very grumpy if I don't eat often, or at least drink tea with sugar and on the bus they didn't do tea so I didn't get anything to eat or any tea with sugar so you can imagine Marks hurry to get me to somewhere to get me some tea and something to eat!

Once sorted in our apartment we headed off to do our afternoon City Tour which was quite interesting, it was all in english which helps to keep your attention...

The first thing we were shown was a huge flower sculpture that was made out of old air plane parts - interesting way of recycling!!!

We then went to Eva Peron's Mausoleum which I have mixed feelings over.  I have put a picture below but as I was waiting to take a photo (lots of tourists) I started to get a bad conscience.  I get this feeling a lot to do with dead people - have no idea what its about - I got it in the Cathedral too where there was a big tomb for some hero who had helped fight some cause.  What is that all about? I really don't know why i don't feel comfortable around dead bodies - its nothing to do with my experience of my dead little sister, this feels much more recent and the first time I remember feeling embarrassed taking pictures of dead people was at the Cremation Site in Kathmandu so perhaps something stems from there.  Mark took a picture of me in front of the dead guys grave and questioned why I wasn't smiling - hmmm why would I be smiling standing in front of some dead guys memorial?  am I supposed to be happy he has been reborn?  sorry not really figured that shite out but will let you know when I figure out why I feel the way I do around dead peoples memorials!

Here is where Evita is buried - 8 metres underground!

I don't want a huge stone building built for my dead body - sling me in a recycled cardboard box, burn me as quickly as possible and scatter my ashes somewhere green with trees while the sun is shining and I will be more than happy!  I suppose I could make it difficult and say I want my ashes scattered in the Jungle where I had my ayahuasca ceremony!!!  At least a few of you would get a good trip out of it all!!!

After this we headed to The May Square and the Cathedral - I have been in so many Cathedrals in my life of travels - why do I keep going in to them?  I was baptised a Catholic but really don't believe in any of that shite - I don't believe in sinning and repenting - I believing in living and never regretting!!!

Here I am with Evita on the building in the background - she made such a huge difference to Women and the working classes - what an amazing woman.   They have an area in the new port that is dedicated to women - all the street names are named after women and the modern footbridge is called The Woman Bridge.  They really celebrate the female in Buenos Aires - we should really celebrate women all around the world, where would the world be without us but we don't recognise that ourselves as women but we should.  We are amazing , we keep the world going round so lets start celebrating that...

Ahhh, a nice cool beer and the sun on my back!  here I am on the balcony of our lovely BA apartment....

We had a nice dinner in for a change - mark made tomato pasta and a pepper and lettuce salad - it was brilliant!

Off for Argentinian riding lessons tomorrow - I can't wait!  I think Mark is a little nervous as he has started asking questions about how he will feel after!  I have told him that 24 hours after he will be a little sore in the bum area but 48 hours after he will be walking like John wayne! I know he doesn't believe me but he will in 48 hours!!!  If I haven't told you before - Mark has NEVER ridden a horse before in his life!  I am so looking forward to watching him gallop hands free - that is Adrians mission, he is our teacher.  I will be a little bit harder to teach as I have been riding since 12 so have my own riding style and also have my own fears.  Mark doesn't have any of that... I wish I could be like that again.

Anyway will hopefully have lots of photos of us riding for the next blog.

suzxxx

Off to the Iguacu Falls - Day 30

An earlish start and off to the airport to catch our flight to Foz du Iguacu which is on the brazilian side but right next to the argentinian border.  I was feeling slightly rough as our last night on Copacabana beach ended in cocktails till 2am and we were up at 6.15am but everything went smoothly although we were delayed in take off by an hour because of a lighting storm but to be honest I hadn't noticed as my head was attached to the window of the plane fast asleep - probably drooling!

not sure why all of Marks photos from his phone of us are out of focus, he must have the cocktail shakes!!!

We arrived in Foz airport and tried to get a taxi - the South Americans really couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery or a taxi queue!  It was a mess!  there was a counter where you had to get your ticket to get a taxi and the guy wasn't there so we went outside and couldn't get a taxi because we didn't have a ticket - catch fucking 22!  so after about 15 minutes of chaos I headed back into the terminal and found an english speaking woman in the tourist information office and got her out to sort out the chaos - she found me the man with the tickets - thank god!  Think he was out smoking several fags!  so thank you to that lovely lady who helped us out - sometimes you just need to kick ass or find someone who can speak the language and do it for you!

We dumped our stuff in the hotel and were going to head out straight away but were delayed by Mark's sore feet - his sandals rubbed the skin off his big toes on day one but he hasn't really sorted it out properly and now the wounds have got bigger and more infected so I put some blister plasters on and he stuck his trainers on to see if that helped.  He was hobbling a wee bit but he managed to get through the falls ok.  I suggested he buys flip flops so the wounds can air with some aloe vera and tea tree oil on  to help scab up so we got him some flip flops on the way back from the falls so hopefully in a couple of days they will have scabbed and the tea tree and aloe vera will have dealt with any infection so his big toes should survive!

We got the local bus up to the National Park where the falls are - its always interesting when you are getting the local bus as you are never sure if you are getting on the right one and how do you know where to get off but this was easy - a block from our hotel and a fast loony bus driver got us to the park in 30 mins - it should take 40!  the Park is the last stop so easy to work out.

Once in the park there was transport to various stops so we went straight to The Devils Throat drop off and started the walk down into the falls.  Here is a wide shot from the start of the walk down - pretty amazing - one of the new 7 natural wonders of the world!  looked it up on wikipedia and there seems to be lots of 'new' wonders of the world...

It was tourist hell here though - with people everywhere - hard to get good pics without other people in them.

but there were some wee cuties to keep me smiling....

 Hello Mister!!  Huge big Iguana  - I love reptiles so much - their energy feels like it comes from the centre of the earth - its big and deep and makes you feel like you are being pulled to the centre of the earth.  They are truly amazing.

These wee cuties were everywhere looking for scraps of food - they were like a cross between a raccoon, a badger and an ant eater.  This was a little baby one.  So cute!

Do you remember MUTHA from my Jungle adventures?  well I found GREAT, GREAT, GRANDMUTHA.... (sorry Lindsay and Dawn - look away now....)

Not a Tarantula but absolutely huge, it would have been too big to sit on my hand - NOT THAT I WAS OFFERING!!!

As we got down into the falls, the boom of the water and the spray was amazing - it was boiling hot so the spray was welcomed, we both got absolutely soaked but it was good fun.

Here I am with the falls in the background and a beautiful rainbow. The falls and rainbow are beautiful - shame about my popeye!  think i was having trouble with salty sweat running into my eyes now I was also getting wet from the spray!!

this was a platform built out and over the falls -really amazing and is called the devils throat.

we then headed up to the viewing platform at the top which you can see on the left hand side where I had an altercation with a Swedish Guide who was trying to jump the queue for the lift with 16 of her tourists - hmmm not a hope in hell Swedo!!  she started to argue with me that she was a guide so should be able to come to the front of the queue - I pointed out that we were all paying tourists and had every right to our place in the queue and that she should get to the back with her 16 tourists.  She really wasn't very happy and kept arguing back so I told her to get her annoying face to the back of the queue - I tried to keep it polite!! She then said she was sorry so of course I replied 'so you should be' she then said she was sorry that she had made me angry, I laughed and replied 'I am not angry but you are really annoying' that was the end of the conversation and she went off to the back of the queue with her tourists.  I hate queue jumpers!  although the South Americans are so good at it, they really don't give a shit but the Swedish bird should have better manners!

So we made it to the top but whilst waiting for the list we had the most amazing close up view of the falls.  WOW - I really love this picture, we were so close the noise was deafening but also really exhilarating and breathtaking.

Both Mark and I have been to Niagara Falls but never felt anything like how we did at the Iguacu falls.  Although these falls are 4 times the size of Niagara so thats may be why!!

Really stunning.

Here we are at the top view point, soaked to the skin but really happy - loved the Falls!  Apparently the Argentinian side is so much better with more to do - we do that side when we get back from Buenos Aires next week.  Looking forward to it.

After the falls we headed off to get the local bus - easy to do when going to the National Park as its such a big landmark and everyone knows where it is but how do we figure out what stop to get off at for our hotel?!  I worry about stuff like this and had the map of the town out before we even got on the bus!  Its just part of my personality - I am a forward thinker, always thinking of every outcome so I can solve all the problems in advance.  Mark is so not like this, he is far too laid back for that kind of organisation but he has fun watching me be first on the bus, first into the seats at the front so I can see every thing and checking off all the street names as we go.  Its best just to let me get on with stuff like that, I get annoyed when interfered with when solving problems of outcomes that won't actually happen!!!

I hadn't eaten all day - Mark had a turkey and cheese sandwich on the plane but the only thing they could offer me was a wee packet of peanuts and at the National Park the snack bars were all burgers so nothing for me there so I had a packet of Doritos which sort of kept the hunger pangs at bay for a wee while but once we got back to the hotel at 8.30pm I was so hungry my stomach had started to eat itself! So after we sorted Marks sore feet we headed to Bella Pizza round the corner - as much pizza, pasta and ice-cream as you can eat for 17 reals!  thats like £6!!!  Of course the worst bit about being so hungry is your stomach fills with acid so when you do eventually eat you can't actually eat that much but at £6 I still got my moneys worth.

Mark was so funny as the waiters every minute were offering another bit of pizza or a big bit of chicken or some chips - it took him about 30 minutes before he actually started turning food away.  I was done after 15 minutes of olive pizza and sweetcorn pizza - they were delicious!

Its funny to have been so hungry and now I am sooooo stuffed....

We stumbled out of Bella Pizza and rolled our way back up the hill to our hotel.

We need to figure out tomorrow where we get the bus from to go across the border to Argentina to get our posh bus to Buenes Aires - we have booked Cama Suites which is a full lie down seat/bed on the bus and apparently they feed you champers all day and night while you watch movies!!  18 hours of champagne bliss....

suzxxx