Rainy Rio and those Caiprinas.......

Hours of sleep = Not enough
Waterfalls = Hundreds
Cocktails = Too many
Quirky spanish phrases learnt = at least two...... ´le gato es en la mesa´ and ´la vaca hace ´mu´´  - I think that´s roughly right!

Hola from Argentina, thankfully a very sunny one, after the torrential rain in Rio!

I have heard a few amusing reviews of the Carnaval in Rio, it is after all in a class all of it´s own, but I think the funniest one was from an English guy who got tickets to the Sambadrome and left after two hours because after 6 minutes he realised that the samba schools played the same song on repeat for an hour and a half and he just couldn´t take it! Not even with almost naked samba dancers to keep him occupied!

My take was..... AWESOME! Even in the rain. The best way I can think of describing it, although this is still pretty shabby, is like Glastonbury in a city, just with more feathers, stronger cocktails, worse porta loos (who knew Glasto could be beaten on that front) and some awesome dancing. Glastoberries, this is no reflection on you, but I have never seen moves as good at Glasto!

I am so glad we went, despite the expense, every penny was worth spending; the Blocos were street parties like I have never seen and the Sambadrome was just brilliant, our seats weren´t great but we got to see a lot of the dancers up close which I definitely think Malc enjoyed! We even got to try on a couple of the head dresses on, which are suprisingly heavy and I couldn´t believe they just throw away afterwards. Next time I go I´m going with an empty suitcase and stocking up on the fancy dress ;-)

After partying all night for 3 nights and still managing to do Sugar Loaf and pop in to see Christ on the hill, we hopped on a 23 hour bus to Iguasu. Needless to say we slept the whole way. The Iguasu falls are amazing, we got to see them from both the Brazilian and Argentian sides and now have, wait for it, approximately 200 photos to prove it. Hmmm, some serious culling required I think, or that sandals and slide show party is going to be REALLY fun!!!

We have just completed a 22 hour bus journey from Iguasu to Tucuman, followed immediately by a 4 hour journey from Tucuman to Salta and get back on a bus at midnight tonight to head from Salta to La Qunica (another 7 hours),  where we will cross into Bolivia. You´ve got to love the buses in Argentina though, the seats recline so far that they are longer than me, they provide food, have a coffee machine and show films. National express have a lot to learn.

Squirrel and Toad will be back online soon with an update from the last couple of weeks, Squirrel tried the catwalk dance that Pablo so kindly recommended but despite wowing the crowds, he is now nursing a poorly tail after toad hopped all over it. Turns out toads don´t samba as well as Squirrels.......

There is so much more I could write and I haven´t done the last week or so enough justice at all, but I don´t want to bore you all and quite frankly after 26 hours of buses my brain is a little numb. Not even the super strength coffee I ingested my own body weight of has managed to kick start my brain cell, I´ll have to hope red wine and steak do the trick.

Speaking of which I hear the restaurant calling................There are some pics below to keep you entertained.

Like my hat?

Iguasu.......or some of it....

Our hostel owner in Puerto de Iguasu, LOVELY lady!

The Dragon Lizard hat that we tried and failed to get for Hugo, sorry H man, we´ll have to see what Adam can do with some paper mache instead.......

Please excuse all the spelling mistakes, spell check on a Spanish PC is not very helpful when you are writing in English!!!!!!