Post-forum Brazil blitz: A journey through the length of Brazil (Soundtrack: Coach engines)

On the last night of the forum, we managed to get to a free Jorge Ben Jor concert, in a huge venue in Belem called Hangar. It was a massive gig, as he's a massive name and one of Brazil's most well known artists, most famous for his Bossa nova style. I`ve had a few of his tracks for a while, so it was a bonus to get to see him. It also kind of made up for the many music events which had fallen through at the forum. At the beginning, when we'd first arrived in Belem, I`d done a fair bit of pushing the DJ thing and secured myself some pretty big gigs over the duration of the forum; I had been set to DJ at a huge Reggae night, a daytime Hip Hop event with an open mic, a gay and lesbian night and, prehaps most excitingly, I was to be the DJ for a Hip Hop crew from New York called the Readnex Poetry Squad http://www.myspace.com/readnex who were meant to be playing on the last day on a big festival stage.
Frustratingly, each one fell through, or moved location at the last minute, or simply disappeared from existance. I did get to play with the Readnex though, although I wasn't DJing as such, just playing their instrumental tracks from a laptop, which was still quite fun and I got to fulfill my fantasy of playing on a festival stage!
We packed up, said goodbye to the great bunch of people we'd befriended and left the free forum accommodation (the classroom floors of a local college). After a few days spent back in Belem city we decided to hit the road and head south, and it took some time to decide between Bolivia or heading really far south to Argentina. In the end, we opted for Argentina, as it seemed to make sense to go as far south as we we going to go, and then work our way north through Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and then Colombia again, where we'll get our boat home.
A quick glance at a map will show that Belem is a long, long way from Argentina, so we prepared for a long, long journey. From belem we headed to Cuiba, and then to Campo Grande, racking up a total of 60 hours in one go. After a day's break in Campo Grande, another 20ish hours got us to Foz Do Iguacu, where we would stop to check out some of the most world's most amazing waterfalls. We camped in a great hostel, where we put the tent up in the shade of orange and avocado trees whose fruits we could help ourselves to.
The falls are from the Iguazu River, located on the border of the Brazillian state of Parana and the Argentine province of Misiones. The falls divide the river into the upper and lower Iguazu. Guaraní Indian legend has it that a god planned to marry a beautiful aborigine girl named Naipí. She wasn't really up for it, so she did a runner with her mortal lover Tarobá in a canoe. As a result, the god was less than happy and in rage proceeded to smash the river, creating the waterfalls and condemning the lovers to an eternal fall. The girl can now be seen as a rock, and her lover a tree.It was absolutely stunning. We'd heard a lot of hype about the falls beforehand and sometimes things don´t quite live up to your expectations when you've had something hyped up so much, but this place was amazing, and undoubltedly one of the most beautiful I've had the pleasure to witness. The energy of the place was awsome, with such a phenominal volume of water just roaring through and crashing together from over 240 different falls, with rainbows appearing everywhere with all the mist.

We spent a day exploring from the Brazillian side, and then a day from the Argentine side, the latter being our favourite. For accomodation we put the tent to use and camped in a really nice campsite in Puerto Iguacu for a couple of days, before taking a final 20 hour bus trip to the capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires. I think it's safe to say that we've officially earnt the title of true 'hardcore bus travelers', or maybe just 'crazy fools'. We've also mastered the art of stretching a hotel free 'breakfast' into a free breakfast, lunch and bus snacks - it's all about the subtle under-the-table rucksack filling.