ARGENTINA: "THIS PIZZA TASTES LIKE CARDBOARD!"

Okay. There are miles of protected semi-tropical bush in all directions around Iguazu Falls. But there's one very clean little restaurant area. This critter is the Argentinian version of a raccoon. He waltzed right out of the bush. On that trail to the swimming hole I showed you last post Daniel and I passed a family of ten. In the wild, masses of these things can be a bit unnerving, but they're very safe.

Here are a few other marvels you'll see in the bush, including a swath of the kind of yellow butterflies that absolutely SWARM across the road to town, figs, and a flowering tree out of Avatar.









Let's leave Iguazu Falls with a few spectacular views that never made it into my first post here. Let's start with a view looking down from above on that swimming hole I took you to last time:







Next post it's off to the colonial capital of Salta in Argentina's north-west, and a trip through pre-Incan ruins, salt flats, cactus deserts, multi-coloured mountains and much, much more with our hilarious, young driver and guide Pablo "Look Ma, No Hands!" Perez Sancho (just kidding) who joined us for four days of mountain touring.

Yrs.,

Allan

SKINNY DIPPING AT IGUAZU FALLS!

It's one thing to SEE Iguazu Falls. It's another thing to be in it.

Well... there's a trail that leads several miles into the semi-tropical bush at the end of which is are a pair of falls that land in a natural pool. It's the one place in the whole area where swimming is allowed. Just make sure you bring lots of mosquito repellent!

Owing to the hike and the bugs, very few make this side trip, so you have the falls to yourself. But first, here are a few of the things you'll see in the jungle along the way.



Just kidding. Our friend, above, was at a nature reserve next to the Falls Park, along with this amazing owl who was roosting inside a rotten tree branch.



But you will see --









And then you're there at the falls! It's just like Blue Lagoon, minus Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins. 



The water's so cold, as my grampa would say, "it'd freeze the balls off a brass monkey!" But hey, Daniel and I are Canadian, so in we went. I mean how many chances do you get to swim at a wonder of the world?

Owing to the privacy -- there was no one else around (see hike through jungle and bugs above) -- I decided to put my grampa's expression to the test and do a little skinny dipping. (SHHH!!!) Daniel was horrified. As he pointed out, there was a mirador (lookout point) up above. However, as I pointed out, what tourist, confronted with a panoramic wonder of nature, is going to notice a middle-aged bum? As for the rest -- in ice water, seen from 25 meters (80 feet) above, voyeurs would need the Hubble. :)

Ah... the best part of the trip so far!



Next post other woodland creatures and a return to Devil's Throat -- then more wonders in the north-west province of Salta with colonial towns like up like wedding cakes, hairpin turns at 4,500 meters, and mountains the color of the rainbow! See you there.

Yrs.,

Allan

IGUAZU FALLS: SEEING IS BELIEVING!

I was gobsmacked by the Falls when I saw The Mission and Indiana Jones. But seeing them in person is like nothing else in the world. Let's get me and Daniel out of the way so you can get a better look.



Iguazu Falls is Niagara Falls on steroids. In fact, Niagara Falls is actually a bit a joke after Iguazu. For one thing, the area for miles around Iguazu is protected semi-tropical bush, so you don't have to deal with fast food joints, Madame Tussauds and casinos. And unlike the other great falls Victoria Falls -- which is also amazing -- it's more than one long sheet of water. In fact, the Falls are made of of hundreds of different falls along the river which makes for an endless succession of astonishing panoramas. Like this one.



And this one.



The town of Iguazu is about a twenty minute drive away and is pretty unappetizing. There's a funky, damp smell coming out of the grates by some of the restaurants -- more like a septic tank smell, actually. Which may explain little friends like this one I found on the sidewalk.



Big as a cat, I tell you. Well, maybe not. But certainly a kitten. Anyway, that's why I suggest you stay at a B&B. Ours was La Boutique Hotel de la Fonte. We loved it. Despite appearances, it's EXTREMELY reasonable. Just a small step up from backpacking. Here's the entrance:



It's owned by an Italian couple who also have an on site restaurant with a friendly Swiss waitress you half expect to burst out yodeling. And each "cabin" looks like ours:



Those things that have leaves like trees are actually bamboo --



But back to the Falls. There's lots of ways to see them. You can take a little toy train out to see the BIG falls (Devil's Throat). After walking a mile along a bridge you get to see it up close. (Note that the previous bridge washed away; you can see the cement moorings.) Hope you aren't afraid of heights -- or bridges.



Or check out the little boat going into the mist, below. Daniel and I were on the one just before it. For thrills and chills, it sure beats the Maid of the Mist. :)



Along the river, there's an upper falls and a lower falls path. The lower falls path lets you walk out of a bridge to catch some spray.



The upper falls path takes you over little bridges with views like this.



But the best way to experience the Falls is to swim in one of them. Yes, there's actually a falls deep in the bush where you can swim (or skinny dip, shhh) in a natural pool under a waterfall. For that trip, tune in to the next post!

Yrs.,

Allan

GRAVE ROBBING AT RECOLETA CEMETERY -- PLUS EVITA'S TOMB

Apart from the fantastic ice cream chains (Freddo's, Volares, etcetera), the rubber trees, La Boca, and the amazing art galleries -- the second floor of the National Museum of Art featuring Argentinian art is awe-inspiring -- Recoleta Cemetery, aka the Buenos Aires Boneyard is one of the most interesting places in the city. It's minutes away from our hotel. Above is the church by the entrance.

And here is a street scene from the City of the Dead. As you can see, everyone here is in a family mausoleum.



The cemetery is filled with rich people and dignitaries: a plot here is literally the most expensive real estate in the world. But the main reason tourists flock here is to see the mausoleum of Evita. (Peron is buried in a military cemetery, not here.) The flowers you see below are real. They change every day. She is truly beloved by the poor to this day, despite her taste in shoes and accessories.



Aside from the dead, the cemetery is home to cats. Here is the mayor, and an assistant on siesta:





But there's a darker side to the cemetery. Many of the mausoleums are collapsed or broken into -- great for grave robbers, necrophiles and the homeless who live in the tombs after dark. The thing is, it's up to families to pay for upkeep and pay a tax of 30 pesos for each dead person in the family tomb going back several hundred years -- so some people just say forget it. After 40 years the city takes back the plot and the bodies are dumped somewhere else.

Meanwhile you can see coffins -- and touch them where the doors are broken in or the glass smashed -- and also see violated mausoleums with stairs leading down to where the coffins from a century ago are stored. (Mausoleums can hold nine coffins, plus a great many more reliquaries. I gather when the tombs are full, it's the in-laws who are first to get the old heave-ho.





Anyway, it's all quite spooky and fun -- if you´re not the corpse.

We'll be coming back to Buenos Aires. But when I post next, I'll be taking you to the fabulous IGUAZU FALLS!!! Get your wetsuits on!

Yours,

Allan

A BLOG VIRGIN NO MORE!

I swore I’d never do this. That I’d stay pure. That I’d save my writing for my books.
“Everyone’s doing it,” my editor coaxed.
“But once I’ve done it, I’ll have to keep on doing it,” I said. “My friends who blog do it two or three times a week. They’ve addicts.”
“But it’s fun,” my web mistress winked. “You’ll like it,” (Her name is Christine, but I call her Madame and she calls me Sir, and she helps me with everything to do with technology, because I’m basically terrified of anything with strange initials like URL or pdf or RSS. I’m also a very old friend of her sister, Louise, who goes by the name of Blinky.)
Anyway, Madame me set up with this blog pad, and she’s decorated it all nice for visitors and all, so what can I say? I’ve been seduced! I’m a blog virgin no more!
AND I WANT ALL THE WORLD TO KNOW!
So tell your friends! Tell your relatives. Tell complete strangers, like the people at the checkout counter, or half the people on your Facebook page. (That is if your Facebook page is anything like mine.)

“Great,” I hear you say. “Just what the world needs. Another writer with a blog. So tell us, oh Great One, who thinks he’s so important people should actually spend time reading his Blah Blah Blah -- what’ll we get if we come to your blog?”
Well, okay, yeah, I’m a writer, so some days I’ll probably blog about stuff that comes up in my work. For instance, my novel Chanda’s Secrets is being made into a movie in South Africa and I’ll be flying over on Friday to be on set. It’s a German/South African co-production set to open in Berlin in the fall. The shoot is in Elandsdoorn, a town of about thirty-thousand people, a two-hour drive north-east of Johannesburg. It’s the first time I’ve had a book turned into a film, and the chance to be back in Africa is wonderful, especially with all the local actors and the rich cultural mix. So, yeah, I’ll probably blog about that.

And in January, I’ll be on a private writer’s retreat in Cayo Largo, Cuba, for a couple of weeks, working on the first draft of the first book in a new series for HarperCollins: The Grave Robber’s Apprentice. I write for a couple of hours before breakfast, then hit the beach, swim out half a mile to the reef and relax with the corals and barracuda, then write a few hours before and after supper. It’s kinda perfect, and there’s always lots of interesting and/or weird tourist encounters, so hey, that should be good for a few entries.

Then in February my coming-of-age/ mystery/ thriller Borderline comes out in Canada (March in the U.S.) from Harper, so I’m sure there’ll be some self-indulgent commentary on that front. And stuff about researching with a guy from the ACLU, and a hostage from the Iran hostage taking in the 1970s, yadda yadda.

And in March, I’m taking a break with Daniel to either Vietnam and Cambodia or northern India for two weeks. (We haven’t decided. If you’ve been to either, please let us know what you think we should pick.)

April is my The Grave Robber’s Apprentice deadline, which should be fun if you like reading about nervous breakdowns. (Blogging is also the perfect writer’s tool at deadline time, actually, because it gives writers another reason not to be doing what they should be doing -- like, uh, writing the damn book -- which only adds to the incredible pressure that is so essential to getting things done.)

Then in May, Daniel and I are off to Italy -- Venice and Florence, mostly -- to do research (ha ha) for The G.R.A. sequel, The Necromancer’s Revenge. And face it, if I can’t write something interesting about hopping onto gondolas and seeing reliquaries with the severed limbs and organs of medieval saints, then I really ought to give up writing and sell tacks.

In between the above, I’ll write about things that pop into my head -- or if I’m blocked, maybe toss in a short series on recent trips, like my time this fall in Argentina, doing hairpin turns in the Andes, skinny dipping at Iguazu Falls, and checking out the crypts in Buenos Aires.

Oh, and I’ll always try to include a picture -- except for stuff like skinny dipping and such: The world has enough horror.
More important, I’ll be answering any questions you may have about writing or whatever. So come on, feel free -- what have you always wanted to ask a writer? Or this writer? Don’t be shy. Just ask. I’m an open book -- even if some of my pages are torn.

UPDATE: The film adaptation of CHANDA'S SECRETS is called LIFE, ABOVE ALL and will premiere as an Official Selection at the 2010 Cannes International Film Festival.