TRINIDAD AND JESUS (PARAGUAY)

UNESCO world heritages and places which converted local ethnic communities into Christians.

PARQUE NATIONAL YBYCUI (PARAGUAY)

Arriving in Ybycui town on a Sunday wasn't our best choice. No buses to the National Park and no shops nor restaurants were open at all. In order to survive we had to unpack the trangia (get it trangiaed!) and cook in the backyard of our hospedaje (B&B).

Next day we arrived at the National Park and pitched up our new purchased tiny Brazilian tent (what a piece of shit). We went swimming naked underneath the waterfall and nearly got caught by a visitor starring down from the top.

In the evenings we had BBQ's and "jungle juice" (spirit made out of sugar cane) mixed with fresh oranges from the park. The iPod was blasting out some heavy tunes to scare off the jaguars and pumas.

We left the park after 2 days, walking 2km back to the entrance to catch our bus. With our little Spanish we asked the guard what time it will arrive. He simply said there is no bus and carried on talking to his mate. A bit confused about that comment we asked again and we were than told to catch the bus 4km up the road. It looked like we had no other choice then walking along an boring concrete street with our heavy bags, 40 degrees, no shade and only 2 litres of water between us. After reaching our destination after 1 1/2 hours we kindly decided not to walk any more that day!

ASUNCION (PARAGUAY)

Realizing we were living in the wrong time zone for the last few days we nearly missed our connection bus to Asuncion. The capital of Paraguay isn't the most picturesque place to visit but we still had some memorable moments.

Petra had the "pleasure" of eating tongue (huge and disgusting), Phil reassuring her langua means vegetables. That wasn't the only wise advice the big man has given. We also ended up on a bus, apparently going back to our accommodation ending up in a village 16 km out of the city. Doesn't that show again how much men rely on women to point them into the right direction?

PARQUE NATIONAL CERRO CORA (PARAGUAY)

The border crossing into Paraguay wasn't the most straight forward one as the immigration offices either side aren't easy to find. After getting exit and entry stamps and changing currencies (US$1=5000 guaranis, we are millionaires) we headed off to Cerro Cora National Park.

The bus stopped after an hour, our bags got chucked out of the window and there we where, in the middle of nowhere. Was that really such a good idea to come here? The bus driver pointed us into the direction of a sandy road and we started walking. An hour left before darkness and our shoulders hurting from the heavy backpacks we still didn't know where we got ourselves into. Our faces finally lit up when we saw the visitors office in front of us. Asking the guard for directions to the campsite he offered us free accommodation in one of there houses. We stayed there for 2 days exploring the parks historical sites and natural beauty.

BONITO (BRASIL)

Bonito is suppose to be a snorkeling paradise, unfortunately very expensive too. Luckily we met an Argentinian hippie couple in a bar (where else!). Salvador and Pauline were cycling around South America with some old bikes and no gears. They invited us to a cycling tour the next day. We went to a river to swim and prepared a BBQ for a delicious chicken with salsa in the forest. On the way back, Petra nearly killed a tarantula with her front wheel, luckily it wasn't the other way around.

PANTANAL (BRAZIL)

Campo Grande is one of the places to book a tour to the Pantanal, a vast natural paradise offering a density of exotic wildlife. Getting of the bus after 16 hours we were unable to deal with a dozen harassing tour operators. instead we fled in the next reachable bar, got pissed and fell asleep at 5pm. Of course we did book our tour finally, an unforgettable experience.

Catching piranhas after swimming with them minutes before and eating them for dinner was one activity of many. We saw many birds including macaws, caymans,deer,armadillos, monkeys, capybara, otters, coatis and the highlight was the giant anteater. We also went swimming in a swamp before setting up our camp for the night. We had an awesome time!

FOZ DO IGUACU (BRAZIL)

On the way to Foz do Iguacu, Phil was in tears seeing all the VW split screens rotting away at the side of the road. We went to the Argentinian side of Foz do Iguacu, a stupendous roar of 275 different waterfalls crashing 80 meters into the river Iguacu - breathtaking! Considering the huge amount of tourists we still saw amazingly lots of fauna. Butterflies, birds, caymans, monitor lizards and Phil even got harassed by a coati trying to steel his biscuits.

The Itaipu dam on the other side of town was a free entry propaganda trying to impress visitors with that amazing hydroelectric project. unfortunately they must have forgot to mention that a more impressive set of waterfalls than Iguacu has been destroyed including flora and fauna around the area.