you start a car with a key

when we were in Iguazu, Nell took another of her bets (this became a theme with Nell).

in Spanish, there are two words that can be used for the english word here :
aqui (pronounced as in a key) - which means right here
aca (pronounced as in a car) - which means here as well but a little bit futher away

Nell had bet Nico that the second word for here and the second word for there were not used much.
The signs in the information centre proved her wrong.

But .. it gave us a name for the Citroen Picasso that we would be driving around in for the next 2 weeks or so.
Given that our last two cars had names derived from their licenses plates, and the Citroens license plate started with FGK (*!&# I know!) and we had the parental units in the car with us .. the Citroen was christened "ACA"

... and we all know that you start aca with aqui !

Pappy and Mammy

i'd just like to make a little dedication to pappy and mammy.
pappy is nell and nicos dad - otherwise known as rendo, spine, anything and usted !
mammy is pappys wife maretha.


we met them in buenos aires just before our iguazu trip.
after iguazu, we went back to BsAs for a couple of days and then picked up .. A CAR.
.. but thats a whole 'nother blog

no water shortage here

"Poor Niagara!"

After meeting pappy (nells dad) and maretha in BsAs, we hopped on a plane and flew up to Puerto Iguazu to meet nico.

Nico had demanded that we stay at the Hostel Inn and it was well worth it ! not only was there a huge swimming pool but the night we arrived, they had an asado (BBQ) planned and a tango show.

iguazu falls was definitely one of the places we had planned to see that i was very very excited about.
i had done loads of reading before leaving home and had even watched james bond moonraker again as the falls appear in the film.
i also read that there is a legend that a god planned to marry an aboriginal girl and that when she took off with her mortal lover in a canoe, the god sliced the river creating the waterfalls and condemned the lovers to eternal falls.


We got up early the next morning and caught a bus from just outside of the hotel to the National Park.
I was so excited !!!
as you can see, pappy was really excited too.
the park entry fee was pretty reasonable - but we also paid an extra $100 pesos for a ride in an inflatable boat down the river to the falls.



we pulled up in an inlet and the driver rotated the boat so we could all take photos, then he sped us up the river a little further - and we got wet. i mean really really wet.
not only did we get soaked by the falls but there is a lot of water in the boat as well. its just like a shower and a bath in one !!!

they dropped us off at the entrance to one of the walkways and we walked up to meet nico.
at this time of the day, the weather was quite warm but it was starting to cloud over a little.


just as well we were already wet, as for the rest of the day there was a lot of drizzle.
you just dont notice it when you are standing around watching this amount of water spill over the side of a huge drop.



at the end of the day as we were leaving the park, we asked one of the guys who works there whether the falls were at 100% of their capacity or near to it.
he told us that earlier in the morning, when we would have been on the boat, the falls were only about 20% capacity. at the end of the day there would have been close to 1,500,000 litres per second passing through the falls.
christ almighty thats a shitload of water !

i uploaded this video to facebook - and i have put it on youtube .. but check out the sound !

see what i mean !
i have another video to load - of the water rushing over devils throat. that was the highlight of the day - butterflies in the tummy kind of highlight. anyway, i will wait for it to upload to youtube and then chuck it in another post.

the next day, mammy and pappy went over to the brazilian side of the falls and the kids (me, nell and nico) spent the day by the pool.

UNESCO World Heritage Site

Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside

With a few days to spare while waiting for my folks to come back to BA, Tara and I decided to go to the seaside. A search came up with Mar del Plata, so we booked a hostel there - with a pool and friendly, English speaking staff.

We took a very comfortable 5 hour bus ride there, and were feeling quite happy when we got off, except for the fact that our sleepy little seaside town had turned into a large seaside city.

We headed for our hotel, and were sorely disappointed when we found out there was no pool. The woman there was friendly, but she spoke no english, so there was no chance of finding anything out about the city. We made our apologies and left, to and internet cafe to find something better. With a pool.

We came up the ... The Sheraton.
All searches for a hostel or cheap hotel with a pool rendered nothing. So we thought "stuff it" we can splash out for one night.
Seems to us, when people piss us off it ends up costing us money.

Unfortunately there were several conferences in town and the Sheraton was full, but the lady was kind enough to find us a room in the other 5 star hotel in the area and we walked over there.

The only room available there was the honeymoon suite, but the bed was a super king, and I couldn't even see Tara on the other side of it, the bathroom was really two, and we got fluffy white bathrobes to wear. They only had the one pool, but what's a girl to do?

We spent the night in the room - after finding a much cheaper hotel for the next two nights and some bubbly wine to drink - ordering room service and feeling very decadent.

The next day we were rather hungover from all our wine, so after booking into our new hotel, we went in search of a movie theater. We came up with nothing, no English movies in town. So we got in a cab and went all the way to the other side of town to the Aquarium. This ended up being a brilliant decision.

We spent the day walking around the Aquarium, I think it cost us about US$15 to get in.

We watched them feed the Penguins.

We went to the dolphin show, twice, it was so good that I didn't pick up my camera once it started.

The seal and sea lion show was almost as good. It would have been a lot funnier and more interesting if we could understand more spanish though.

Then there was the pirate/ski show. Great ski stunts, but once again our spanish let us down.

There was also a 3D movie, it was about 20 years old and quite funny for it.

When we got back to the hotel I had my Big D experience, which we are still not talking about.

The guy at the hotel recommended a great steak restaurant around the corner and we had a great meal.

the next day was spent lazing next to the public pool at the beach. the beach would have been good, but the pool area had a bar...

The hotel recommended another restaurant for our last night. We decided to go, even though it was on the other side of town.
We don't regret it at all.

We sat at one of their unconventional tables, and had a fantastic meal.

Tara's lamb pasta was one of the most delicious things I have ever tasted, and we had chocolate fondue for desert.

Unfortunately I can't remember the name of our hotel or the restaurant.

All in all, Mar del Plata was a good experience and a great way to waste a few days.

And on a lighter note

OK, I know you've heard so much about it already, but I thought I would add my two cents about mendoza.
Tara has covered the fact that we drank pretty much the whole time we were there, with a few activities thrown in so that we didn't feel like total bums.
So I am going to dedicate this blog to the people we met there.

First there was Matt and Shaun Smith - no relation, just coincidence.
These two were slightly crazy Australians, but they could eat and drink with the best of us.

Then we met Charlie, "Do you have change for a hundred", Charles, Playa! - take your pick.
A very posh englishman, with wads of cash.

Or maybe not so posh...

Rory and Lana were our drinking companions through most of our stay at the Break Point hostel.

Rory is a scotsman through and through, and is always bringing sexy back.

Lana is his very patient wife, who speaks iguana.

We hung out with some locals too. Pablo "Asado king" and Cottie from the hostel and Enrique "Hot horse guy."

There were several extras who hung around with the cool kids. That would be us.

Jan, Laura, Scott.



Jan, Kieran "I put it in a safe place", Charlie, Lana



Kip

Patsy

And her 10 year old son Brel

And many, many more.

Thanks to Break Point hostel, and all the people we met there, we had a fantastic time in Mendoza. So much so that we went back, but that's for another blog.

Big D and me

Some of you know the start of this story, but I'll tell the whole thing for those that don't.

While in the Bolivian Pampas, all the girls were bitten several hundred times each, some even through their mosqito repellant pants.

One of my bites stayed with me for a long, long time. At first I thought it was a bite that I had scratched open and infected. Two courses of antibiotics, and a large number of non-drinking days, later, we scrapped that theory because the bite didn't get any better.

Then I moved on to the spider bite theory, which was semi-confirmed by a doctor visit in Mendoza - which included a hypodermic needle, I will spare you the details of that. This was 4 weeks after the day I figured I got the bite.

By this time, the bite was pretty much stable. It wasn't getting any worse, but no better either. It was a swelling on my back that just wouldn't heal.

The bite would also hurt every now and then, maybe twice or three times a day. The pain was so intense and sudden that sometimes I would actually jump. It felt as if someone was sticking a small knife into me, and twisting it around and around.

There were many discussions, and jokes, about it. There were even some cruel people that nicknamed it my "back herpes", I won't name any names, Tara and Charlie. Of course there were those people, pretty much everyone actually, that insisted I had a maggot, or something, growing in me. I poo-poo'd those thoughts, and the idiots who had them. That kind of thing only happens in the movies. Seriously.

Then Tara and I went to Mar del Plata, and had a lovely day at the aquarium. That night all the action happened.

This is where any sensitive viewers should switch the TV to another channel. I'm going to be very graphic here, in the hopes that you will experience even a fraction of the horror that I did that night.

I was in the bathroom, doing my usual inspection of the bite, prodding and poking it to see if it was any better. I noticed something coming out of it, and thought that it was pus, but it went back in. So I squeezed a little more, and then sqealed. It still looked like pus, but a lot of it. I called for Tara to come and help, well, actually to share in the grossness of it all.

The more I squeezed the more came out, until eventually it popped out and onto the floor.
"where did it go?" I squealed again.
I looked around on the floor and found it, ten picked it up with a piece of toilet paper. That was when we realised it was a larva of some kind.

It took pretty much all the self control I have to not freak out, or throw up, and that feeling did not pass for several hours.

Tara mentioned throwing it away, but I had to keep it. There was no way I was going to see a doctor without being able to show them wat it ws that popped out of me. I was definately going to see a doctor, I had to know if there was just one. Where to find a doctor was the next drama.

We took photos, as you do, for prosperity, and rushed off to the pharmacy up the road. I asked them where we could find a doctor that spoke English. Unfortunately for me, the pharmacy happened to be full of doctors from an Orthopeadic and Trauma conference who thought they could speak English. Eventually I had 3 doctors around me, with one civilian woman helping to translate. These guys were fascinated, I don't think they get out much. Awed by the pictures, and a slightly dodgy translation, they prodded at the hole in my back. They couldn't really help though, and we decided to go to the hospital.

Here we found a fantastically friendly woman doctor who spoke very good English. She took my money and we went off into the back rooms to show her what the fuss was all about.

I showed her the hole, and she immediately said that it was an infection.
"Ah, but wait," I said, "there's more.
When I unwrapped the offending bug, she agreed that it was rather disgusting when prompted by Tara. She went upstairs to find someone who knew about these things, leaving us alone in the room with Big D, which is what we have come to call him.

At this point Big D had actually started wriggling around. It was one of the most horrifyingly fascinating things I have ever seen in my entire life, not least because this thing had just come out of me. I was, once again, called upon to summon all my strength to not scream and vomit all over the nice clean hospital floor.

Still, we couldn't look away, and yet more photo's were taken - from all angles. We were actually a little disappointed when the doctor came back to take Big D upstairs to show to the Biochemist. It was the last I would ever see of the only living thing to grow inside me. I was not exactly sad.

When the doctor came back down again, she said she had good news. There was only one of these little buggers inside me, and there would be no side effects, or ripping open of my ribcage to the screaming horror of my shipmates. I was relieved.

Big D turned out to be the larva of the Human Bot Fly, we called him Big D because his scientific name is Dermatobia Hominis. The Bot fly captures a mosquito and lays eggs all over it before releasing it on unsuspecting tourists. These tourists then unknowingly incubate the egg, and provide a wonderfully warm, wet and bountiful environment for the larva.
You can check out more, assuming you want to, at: Human bot fly

I happened to be lucky, believe it or not. Usually the larva takes 9 weeks to reach maturity, at about twice the size mine was, and then leaves the host. I had unknowingly managed to starve it of oxygen using cream and plasters and it came out for air a few weeks early.

WARNING!!!
These are not for the faint hearted...