Iguaçu -> Iguazu

You´ll notice that my apostrophes have become accents, which means we made it to a Spanish-speaking keyboard. We did it by foot yesterday, walking the 12 kilometers from Foz do Iguaçu on the Brazilian side to the town of Puerto Iguazu on the Argentina side, making stops at both customs checkpoints* and crossing the high one-lane international bridge. The bridge is appropriately painted in green and yellow stripes until its halfway point where it cedes to sky blue and white high above the brown Rio Iguazu, still at a nearly record high. The walk took us longer than expected (past some apparently dangerous favelas - we were advised by border agents and our hostel dona that walking was pretty stupid) and our sandals blistered our delicate little American feet, but it was quite satisfying to look back at the span and distant city once safely into Argentina. An Argentinian photographer for Reuters even screeched to a halt to snap several hundred pictures of backpacked gringos in the wild, although a quick Google search has yet to turn up any accompanying news story.
Our hostel is a little paradise, and a torrent of rain twenty minutes after we arrived was quite a beautiful and soothing sound and sight as well. Showers (hot and ready!) were taken and we then wandered to the town center where we sought out a TV screen, some well-earned food and wine, and others Americans to watch the USA - Ghana game. We were thrilled with the result, although some (the nurses) enjoyed the close-up of Dempsey´s nose getting broken more than others (the rest of us... and Casey).
Getting back to speaking Spanish has been tough. I can´t believe how much simple Spanish I´ve forgotten after having practiced Portuguese so intensely for the last six months. The bonus, however, is that nearly everyone in our group now speaks the language around town. With still surprisingly few people who speak English here in Argentina this has been a boon for all. And the accent has been much easier to understand than expected. We´ll see if that changes once we get to Buenos Aires.
Pura Vida - Life is Good!

* Argentina charges Americans, Canadians, and Australians a ´reciprocity fee´. This is essentially a screw-you to the only three countries that require expensive visas of their own citizens. Reciprocity indeed.