Puerto Iguazu, Missiones, Argentina

I was trying in vain to find a little clip of "La cucaracha" to stick up here to illustrate my next post. A cheerful little song it is and not many people who don´t speak Spanish know what the word cucaracha means. I know it only too well having gotten a little more familiar than I´d like with a can of Baygon and a worried expression. Cucaracha is Spanish for cockroach and Baygon a very deadly chemical spray used to kill them. I had to sleep in a miasma of the stuff last night after a horrible incident with about 4 cockroaches of about 4cm x 2cm. I know what you´re going to say - well they´re not dangerous, and they´re not, unlike the Black Widows that also live here but they´re not at all nice to have scuttle under your feet while you´re going to the toilet and I´ve been very happy to not have any incidents the whole time I´ve been here til now. There was also a cute little yellow lizard in our room and it was he who let us in on the possible hiding palace of the mass of cockroaches I suspect to have been living in our ceiling. There were about 6 or 7 in the bathroom when we awoke. Time to move. Luckily the other wildlife in our hostel consists of Hummingbirds, cute birds and teeny ants which, though they bite, don´t scare me :)So apart from that Argentina (though we`re about 1 mile from the border with Brazil) is great! Cheap cheap food and good too (much better than Brazil), lunch for 3 Euro and Main course and drinks in a fancy restaurant for about 5! The waterfalls on this side are more impressive too - a lot closer which I hope to illustrate in photos if I can get them to upload! The park was also full of large butterflies and lots of them. I do happen to be afraid of butterflies too so yesterday was really rather stressful for me on the insect front. On the upside I now consider the beetles and things we get at home to be rather puny in comparison to the behemoths you get here. Everything has its upsides!
Next stop Asuncion, Paraguay. Technically I´ve been in 3 different countries in the past 3 to 4 days. When we visted Itaipu, the largest hydroelectric dam in the world, (whihc I´m sure now I´ve probably mentioned)half is in Paraguay and half in Brazil. Soon we will be returning. Techinically I´ve passed in and out of Argentina 3 times though because of our visit to the "largest duty free shop in the world" in the neutral zone between the two border controls. If it´s the largest in the world then I think Dublin must be excluded from the privilege of being part of planet earth. It was pretty nice though and they had sour skittles whihc unfortuantely included watermelon sweets that actually tasted like watermelon. Not good. When we told our kind of tour guide, Luis, about us going to Paraguay he asked "really?" with a look of incredulity. After the third time I began to wonder whayt was awaiting us on the other side of the border? Monsters? Aliens? Some sort of mind exploding ultra bureaucracy which would cause us to sleep in the border control station for 2 nights while we awawit passport processing. I don´t know and only time wil tell. I´ve heard it´s poorer than many South American countries but I´m sure it´s not the void in space that people seem to amke it out to be. I´ll report so that others will not have to tremble in fear at the insensitivities of influential tropical tour guides.
I was hoping´d get the chance to update this a little more often so I wouldn´t forget my experiences but such is life, large chunks of Rio are slipping from my mind now only to be revitalised later so I may wish to stick them in if they feel relevant or if it´s a story I wanted to put in but forget, like the brownide we got in Rio but I´d forgotten. The largest brownie I´ve ever seen in my life with a mountian of icecream on top. All in all it would´ve been about 15 cm tall easily. Ah the food here really is a sight to behold. I haven´t been to a parilla yet and I´m not sure if I will. If you don´t know what it is it is easily explained. One obtains an animal and cracks it down along its breastbone, pulls it out like a fan and roasts it on its back. A full one. Rather unpleasant to behold but at least Argentinians aren´t afraid to see exactly what they´re eating.
I think I´ll have to leave it there for the moment for all else escapes me. Spanish I am finding easier than Portuguese too. Hang on I´m thinking of more stuff to say! This somehow reminds me of Mate. Mate is the natinal drink here in Argentina. It´s made from a herb called yerba into which one adds hot water and drinks it through a metal strawlike thing. Yerba is very high in caffeine and mate tastes a bit like tea that been sitting around for a long time but quite nice really. It´s also *very* high in caffeine. When our hostel guy told us it was like red bull he wasn´t kidding. Fun stuff. Being able to say bueno and not be joking is rather fun too. The Mask is also actually funny in Spanish! It just seems to suit the way it should be acted :). This reminds me a bit of the announcer in Rio airport who sounded like he should´ve been in a 70s game show. I tried to recoed him but to no avail. Never have I so wanted to visit Vitoria, I don´t even know where it is! His relaxing voice could make me take a plane to anywhere :) Ha.
Right well that´s that for now. Buenos Noches!