Geisha Steps

After our fab breakfast Amy decided that she was feeling awful so would stay in bed while Anna and I headed to the Argentinian side of the falls. We headed off under grey skies, successfully making our way out to the park. We are doing well with our Spanish but every trip where we manage to arrive at the right place still seems an achievement.

We hopped on a little train and headed to the top of the first set of falls. The Brazillian side gives you a grand panorama, but the Argentinean side gives you a close up view. The first set were pretty interesting but as we reached the far end of the track thunder sounded and the heavens opened. Within minutes we were about as wet as we had been after the jet boat ride yesterday. The paths you walk along are elevated metal walkways as they go over swap, river, rocks etc and in the rain they became slick, particularly the solid metal bits between the metal grill which makes up the majority. In order to stop slipping we had to take tiny little steps, but quickly to try to get out of the rain. The result was a bit of a geisha walk, just wetter and more daggy in our travelling clothes.

It was about then that we ran into queso boy. The Spanish guy from yesterday's jet boat ride had explained the word the spanish say when you are taking a photo is a type of bird and we had explained that we say cheese. which is queso in Spanish. He thought that this was hilarious and throughout the boat ride had exclaimed queso. We were walking back from the first falls when suddenly we could hear "queso, queso" and saw him madly waving but heading in the other direction. I think that is the last we will see of queso boy.

We hopped back on the train and went to the top stop. By then it had stopped raining so we walked out the 1.2km to the lookout at the top of the main falls. They are truly spectacular! The power and size of the falls when you are that close is amazing.

It started to rain again so we headed back to the main entrance, had some lunch and watched the small hird of agouti munching on the lawn. They are just like rabbits back home in how they wander about, it is just that they look like big guinea pigs. We then went to Guira Oga. It is a wildlife, mainly bird sancturay. They rehabilitate birds and wildlife that have been injured or donated to the park then when they are ready they release them into the wild. They get lots of injuries from hunters, mainly illegal and donations from people who buy stupid pets.

We decided it looked great so jumped in a taxi, collected Amy and headed for the tour. We saw lots of fantastic animals, hawks, eagles, birds of all descriptions including a tucan! Unfortunatly it was once again pouring with rain. We had a fantastic time but it was great to get back, shower and get warm.

Since then we have had dinner and investigated the local art store attached to the hostel. We are all very tired so are heading to bed accompanied by the sound of the continuing rain and the smell of drying clothes! Kenyon - your coat reeks.

Today has been a great day, unexpectadly wet though it was.

Tomorrow we head to Buenos Aires!