This morning at Escuelita some of the kids were terribly behaved! It's been a long time since they have been, but I guess this week with it having rained a lot, and there being a lot more kids there it probably made quite a difference. We were looking at the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal, and how they had a contest to prove which god was real. They each prepared a bull to sacrifice and then put it on the altar and prayed. After the prophets of Baal had been praying for a day, nothing happened. When Elijah set up his altar to the Lord, they tipped water on it, and then he called out to the Lord. The Lord answered by fire, and the sacrifice, wood, stones and soil were burnt up.

With the kids, we'd cut out hills, rocks and flames from paper for them each to make their own picture of the altar of the Lord.

Also today I've created some more icons to add to my portfolio pages - Symbols of Uruguay, currently there are only four as you can see below, but I'll probably make some more later.

Jon told me to:

1. Grab the nearest book.

2. Open the book to page 23.

3. Find the fifth sentence.

4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

From the NIV translation of the Bible:

As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, "Father?" > >

Just a recipe I cooked for tea tonight!

Ingredients

chicken pieces (1/2 chicken breast cut into bit size pieces)

• 100ml double cream

• mustard

• 2 garlic cloves

• 1/4 green pepper

• 1/2 small zapallito (or courgette)

• sweetcorn

• few leaves fresh parsley

• sprinkle of oregano

• dash of cumin

fry the chicken and garlic in olive oil, after a few minutes, add the mustard and mix in well

once the chicken is cooked, add the cream and the herbs

leave cooking until the cream starts to bubble, then add the vegetables

4. cook for a few minutes and serve with rice

This morning we took the kids from the Escuelita upto Parque Solari as an Easter treat. It was a really nice time, as it was cooler than it has been - so not too hot for running around. A lot of them had home-made kites with them, made from plastic bags and sticks- which flew very well. It's a common thing for Holy Week here in Uruguay, for people to fly kites.

We went to the local Zoo with the youth group today, as they're on holiday from school. It was nice, but quite a contrast to seeing the animals up at Iguazu. They all seemed to be in really small cages, apart from the deer, �andu and goats. The peacocks all had had their feathers cut off - possibly for selling for carnival costumes. The kids all seemed to enjoy the trip and have lots of fun, and we finished off with a ride on the spinning swings (don't know what to call it!), which was interesting as it appeared to be powered by little propellers, one on each side!

We arrived back in Concordia on time, even though there had been some problems with the bus causing us to have to change buses at midnight. As the bus doesn't enter Concordia on the way back and just stops at a road junction outside of town we had been worried about how we would get in, but fortunately there was a remisse there, and we could get a lift in to the bus station (10 pesos) after dropping off one of the others sharing it on the way. At the bus station we were just in time for the bus to Salto, just got our tickets and could get straight on the bus.

In the afternoon we did some major food shopping and discovered that they would deliver it to our flat for free for us - it just took a bit longer than we'd expected, so I ended up missing the service while waiting for it to arrive!

Today we checked out of the hotel, and headed back down to Foz ready for me and Laura to get the bus back this evening from Puerto Iguazu. We took a few detours along the way to look at a bit of the scenery, and the edge of the forest before heading back to the [Carima Hotel] where my parents had booked their last night. Surprisingly when we got to the room, the brochure had had the price of the buffet changed to the 19 real that they had charged us the previous time - don't know if this is because they knew we'd check or not though ;). We then chilled by the pool and had some drinks there before heading back. Unfortunately, the painter had just been round touching up the chairs, and my trousers got lots of white paint on them. We complained at reception, and they said they'd send someone down in the next half hour to clean them in the room (this was about 45 minutes before we needed to leave). After going back to reception once more to clear things up, eventually they sent someone who didn't really understand us, and took the trousers off to the laundry. Then the phone rang to say that the Laundry was closed. We went back up to reception to try and get the trousers back, as I needed to where them to travel in. After lots of complications we were escorted down to the laundry to get them back, and we headed off to Puerto Iguazu in a taxi (25 real). We opted for the taxi as aparently the bus doesn't always wait for you at customs and you have to wait for the next one.

We had an early start today, and headed out through the town to a place called Santa Helena, on the edge of the reserviour We had a picnic lunch there and then went to have a look at some of the artificial beaches along the edge from there before heading back. In the evening we had dinner at the hotel, which was nice, although the 'Brazilian wine' turned out to be a not to nice Uruguayan wine, and the food seemed to cool off too quickly with the air conditioning But the food itself was really nice.

We planned to go to the [Itaipu Dam], but spent too long thinking about it and getting ready before realising that they had set times for the tours - 8, 9, 10, 2 and 3. We checked out of the [Carima Hotel] and found that they charged us 19 real for the buffet instead of 14 as it said in the brochure in the room. When we questioned it, they didn't seem to care that the brochure was wrong but that the price was 19 no matter what. Also some how they manage to run the hotel without a manager on Tuesdays! After checking out, we went to the supermarket and then on to have lunch near the dam before waiting for it to open. After lunch, we went on the free tour of the [Itaipu Dam] - which was well worth going on, it's an incredible size construction, and interesting to hear about the building of it. After we'd finished the tour, we headed upto Cascavel where we were to stay the next 2 nights at the Deville Express Hotel there. We checked in and then headed into the town, which was much bigger than we'd expected - We thought it was a small town, but it was more like a city. We had dinner at McDonalds (I had a Salad and grape juice - which was lovely although different to the salads in Chile or Argentina.) and then drove down the main street. The main street is curvy all the way through the shopping areas, presumably as some sort of traffic calming, which was different. After this, we headed back to the hotel and found the entrance and front car park full of football fans and security guards outside the entrance to the annex where the rooms are. I guess the team were staying there or something.

Today we planned to go to the falls in the morning and then see how much there was there and decide the rest of the day based on that, however we found out that the park is closed on Monday mornings. We investigated the prices of helicopter rides over the falls, and found that it was too expensive, so that ruled that one out. Instead we decided to go to the bird park where they have lots of birds both native to the area and not. The leaflets say "birds in their natural habitat without the restriction of netting and cages." However a lot of the birds are in fairly small cages. It is well worth a visit though as there are also huge aviaries where you can go inside and see the birds close up. It was really great to be able to see the toucans, and amazing how close they would come to you - They look like cuddly toys with a very furry looking body and amazingly blue eyes. Once we'd finished there, we had some lunch in the cafe and headed on to the falls. It was nice to see the falls again from a different angle, although there wasn't much more there. The views were good though, and a couple of coyotes strayed onto the paths around. Annoyingly though (as at the bird park) people were ignoring the signs and petting them.

Today we checked out of the youth hostel and got a taxi across to Brazil to stay at the [Carima Hotel] where we relaxed until it was time for Dad to go and pick up the hire car. We spent most of the time by the pool, had a swim and cocktails which was really nice, although I got a nasty sunburn across my back :(. After Mum & Dad set off to get the car, we had lunch in the hotel coffee bar. In the afternoon we tried to go out to the [Itaipu Dam] (the biggest hydroelectric dam in the world), but found that it is closed on Sundays. However on the road to the dam there is also an 'Eco museum' which tells the story of the dam and how they have protected the wildlife and replanted trees to make up for the flooding of the area. After that we headed out to the Brazilian three frontiers park, and had a look at the monuments from there. We found the Geocache that was there which hasn't been found for almost a year, so we were quite pleased about that.

Having a lazier day today, caught the bus out to 3 frontiers, where you can see three posts coloured to match the flags of the three countries on the banks of the rivers in the respective countries. On the way back we went to a Orquidario which my parents had seen a sign for before when they were staying at the hotel up the road. There there were loads of local plants and birds including someof the 'air plants' that grow on tree bark. The lady there also told us about the garden of Hummingbirds, which was another hidden beauty. So after lunch, we headed up there - it was a family garden, but they'd arranged it so as it attracts hummingbirds. There must have been hundreds of hummingbirds come and go in the time we were there. It's well worth a visit if you're ever in the area. In the evening we went back (with Mum & Dad this time) to the 'Corner Restaurant' for the buffet.