Wednesday January 7, 2009

We spent the past two days at Iguazu Falls; yesterday on the Brazilian side and today on the Argentinian side. Yesterday was glorious but oh so crowded. We almost didn´t go back today but I´m so glad that we did. The Iguazu Falls are very extensive and the Argentinian side has lots of trails so that at some points you occationally experience the jungle atmostphere all by yourselves. I started out today sketching people waiting for the train. I savoured how all of our faces are the same (two eyes, one nose and one mouth) and yet we are all different like snowflakes. It´s a buzz for an artist just to try to capture a look in a few seconds with just a little black squiggled line!

During the day I also did two watercolour sketches of the falls. The first was okay, but a bit tight. In the second one I sort of captured the power and amazingness of these waterfalls. It´s hard to do a painting standing up holding everything, especially when tourists keep leaning over your shoulder and saying look this way, turn your painting this way. Suddenly I was the tourist attraction.

Jim and I hiked allot today and when we stopped to sit on one shady stone bench a large lizard (about two feet) slithered out in front to get its photo taken. We also saw many long nosed racoons (just as much a problem here as at home) . We also saw some huge fish and a camen. The fish have evolved differently above the falls and below the falls. I have many photos of birds and butterflies and of course allot of water. Everyone seems to want to have their photo taken with a back drop of the falls. This is a totally new thing for me to have my picture taken so often by Jim!

I hope any of my friends and family who are travelling along with us vicariously are enjoying the trip! I´m glad you´re along and I miss you all