Escapisms

Dear All,

            Oh my word.  And I thought the Argentinean side was good.  The Brazilian Side is just, well, out of this world!  It gives you the most amazing panoramic views over pretty much all of the falls from various viewpoints.  I mean you don’t get to go so close but the views are SO dreamy you can’t imagine.  I could have stood watching them all day.

We all went in a helicopter ride over the falls and I managed to jump in the front and so definitely had the best view. It was only about an 11 min flight but it left me totally speechless for quite a long time and the views of the whole of the falls were just superb.  I only hope that my photos will do it some justice.  Some of you are lucky enough to get postcards from there but they do nothing to show you the real beauty. (The Brazilian side has a larger park with 1550sq km of rainforest but the Argentinean side is in far better shape.  There are masses of walkways, which give you the most wonderful views of various parts of the falls in particular the Garganta do Diablo (Devil’s Throat) and of course getting so close to the falls always leaves you feeling a little wet!  The 275 falls as a whole are over 3km wide and 80m high.  That makes them wider than the Victoria Falls and higher than either Victoria or Niagara.  Before the falls we discovered they were a Holy burial place for the Tupi, Guarani and Paragos Tribes.  Many of the locals are not keen on the helicopter rides over the waterfalls because of environmental concerns.  Apparently the pilots now just fly the helicopters higher so as not to disturb the wildlife so much.)

We leave here tomorrow and batty Laura, who we now think is an alcoholic, and I think we are going to have a little problem prizing ourselves away form her.  We take a 5-6 hour bus journey to Asuncion in Paraguay and Chloe and I are booking into a nice hotel as we are totally fed up of having FREEZING cold showers every day because there seems to be no hot water.  This afternoon I think Chloe and Ed are going to the bird park, I really wanted to go but I am so shattered so I am going back to Laura to catch 40 winks!  I am going back via the Lavanderia to collect our washing – at last clean clothes!  I had to go out and buy a new pair of trousers yesterday as I had put both mine in the wash and it was freezing, not suitable weather for shorts at all!  I did quite well as the sizing is totally different and we don’t speak any Portuguese.  The trousers fit fine except there is almost a train of material at the bottom as they are obviously for people with legs up to their armpits, not me!!

Anyway enough about my trouser situation!  I am off to sleep now, loads of love and hugs to one and all,

            Em

            xxx