This weekend I decided to be brave and travel on my own. I got a bus from the bus station Friday afternoon and travelled five hours east right to the border with Brazil. The bus travelled through some beautiful countryside. The town of El Soberbio is a 1 street town but I was told that there were beautiful sights here and they were right.. I arrived at dusk not knowing if I would get a hotel but the bus driver kindly introduced me to a lady sitting on the pavement who took me to a room. ( I can hear what your thinking). She then whisked me off in a car and booked me a trip for Saturday to Mocone. Early Saturday morning I was picked up outside the hotel and taken 50km in a 4X4 to a dirt track. From there we walked down a path to a waiting boat and I saw the most beautiful butterflies Ive ever seen in my life. Loads of them, wonderful colours. We then travellled about an hour and a half down the River Uruguay which separates Argentina from Brazil. Completely unspoilt scenery, beautiful mountains, trees etc and then we starting riding rapids until we arrived at some amazing waterfalls, cascading into the river, really impressive, thoight the driver was being a bit careless actually as the boat was being tossed around. The boat went right up to the waterfalls, of course we got soaked but that was welcome in the heat. Later, we went for a dip in a safer part of the river. Returned back again along the river and then back in 4X4. The journey in the 4X4 was so interesting , here in the most rural parts of Argentina you see people living very simply in either wooden or corrugated iron shacks. Perhaps as Jorge ( George F) suggested the other day they might be quite happy without the pressures of modern living. The guy who drove me certainly loved living there, he has never flown and he asked me how much my flight cost and when I told him he said that he could never afford to fly. A really enjoyable day overall,.

Sunday was not so good, I had stomach cramps in the morning and it was so hot I thought I was going to pass out. Think it was something I had eaten the previous night. Managed to find a cooler place and it passed and caught the bus at midday, still had a few cramps, was a bit worried I might be sick on coach but was okay. Air con broke down and bus then broke down but the driver and conductor managed to change the fan belt in twenty minutes and I was back in the city at 5.30pm.

Have discussed about spending some donation money and will try and get my i to i support lady Veronica to speak to people at the project. Believe it or not they havent got a fridge. They have one but its long since died and still sits in the kitchen area. It would be nice to replace it and maybe buy a washing machine for the project as everything is done by hand. With all those kids it must be hard work and the older girls tend to do it all.

Those girls have taken a bit of a shine to me and 5 of them want me to go to the cinema with them next week so I might take them and pay their tickets. These girls of 14 and 15 do so much caring for the younger children and a lot of chores they could do with a break.

I hope we can get to a position where I can buy essential items. Also a DVD for the kids and possibly a TV as the one they've got is tiny and sits about 10 feet off the ground ( Walter).

PS - Thanks for all your messages

Ciao for now xx