Apart from a few convenient flights and a solitary train trip the last couple of months have been bus journey after bus journey; from hours driving through the deserts of chile to breakdowns in Peru, bone jarring roads in Bolivia to the luxury of Argentinian coche cama and finally an uneventful tourist bus in Brazil that´s delivered me to the Atlantic beaches of Paraty. By far the best bus journey on my coast to coast adventure was the last one in Argentina, from Buenos Aires up to Puerto Iguazu. I had a seat that fully reclined, my own TV screen with a choice of 6 movies, steak, wine and champagne before bed! 16 hours flew by, and I was a little disappointed to finally have to get off. Puerto Iguazu and the Iguazu falls were even better than that bus journey though! The falls were just amazing and I had a beautiful sunny day to wander around the park surrounding them on the Argentinian side. I was prepared to be underwhelmed by a couple of waterfalls, but the Devil´s Throat is an enormous wall of energy in liquid form, being thrown down a cliff to instantly bounce back up as driving rain that drenches all onlookers. It was just stunning to watch it in action from above, and then stupidly fun to go on a speedboat tour that takes you into the spray from below!
As much fun as Puerto Iguazu was I woke up the next day to pouring rain and decided to make a break for sunny brazil – only it´s been non stop rain in Brazil since I arrived. I spent two days in Sao Paulo, which must be a city full of hidden gems, because I didn´t find any of them, before reaching Paraty where the drizzle is somewhat offset by the fact that there´s a rum festival going on here! Everyone is walking around with tiny little tankard shot glasses slung around their necks so that they can taste all the different types of cachaça on offer at the festival stalls. One shot costs 1 Reai, which is about 33p. I´ve yet to see a ´please drink responsibly´ sign at the festival.
The festival ends tomorrow and with no sign of any improvement in the weather forecast for the next week I´m not sure whether to stick to my original plan of travelling along the coast to Rio. Not long till I´m home now!