Hola from Argentina
So it’s boxing day and time to go to the airport. As Jane and I were in the queue I heard a woman call “Iguazu” so of course I said yes. She was actually calling people for the flight before ours. But then said would we like to go earlier and I said yes. We were checked in immediately, whisked through security and even had our own bus to take us on to the plane. It all felt very VIP. We asked three times if are bags were definitely on the plane and three times we were told “YES!!” (you know what’s going to happen….). Upon arrival at Iguazu we waited at the carousel, and yes, no bags turned up. Why oh why had I wanted that extra hour by the pool ? We went to report the missing luggage and were told that it was very unlikely our bags would be on the next flight as 1200kg of luggage had not flown earlier that day (that amounts to around 80 bags). I must admit at that moment I threw a bit of a tantrum, well let’s face it I haven’t really got anything else to be stressed about. I think it was more because we’d done them a favour filling up their earlier flight. Luckily Jane was the picture of calmness. We were also told that if the bags were more than 24 hours late we’d get 50 pesos (that’s about UKP 8, yippee!!). So the moral of the story is never do an airline a favour, especially if it’s Aerolineas Argentinas. We decided to stay at the airport and wait for the next flight (our original one). Amazingly, our bags turned up, they’d been put on standby so that was a relief !! Time to go to the hostel. We stayed at Hostel Iguazu falls, which after changing our initial room was really nice. It’s very central and has 2 pools. Jane very kindly let me have the double bed whilst she had the single, what a sweetie!! Okay, time to take a walk around town.
The climate as changed dramatically. It now feels like we are in tropical jungle heat – probably because we are !! The town Puerto Iguazu is there really for the tourist industry and the earth is now a bright red colour. You can take a walk along the river where you come to a point where you are standing in Argentina but opposite on the left river bank is Paraguay and on the right river bank is Brazil. It’s quite cool looking at all 3 countries at once. I’ve decided to avoid Paraguay, to be honest I haven’t heard anything outstanding about it (and as they destroyed waterfalls more spectacular than Iguazu to build a hydro electric plant, it’s a bit of a protest aswell). As we were making our way back for a potential dip in the pool it started to rain. In fact it was quite a major storm. Glasses were being blown off restaurant tables and we stopped to help people take things inside, plus that way we could get away from all of the dust swirling around the streets ourselves. For dinner we went to what seemed to be the busiest restaurant in town and although there were a couple of power cuts the food was pretty good. Jane has become addicted to “sorrentinos”. It’s pasta but a kind of ravioli meets tortellini.
So it’s time to go and see the main attraction – Iguazu. You can do Iguazu both from Argentina and Brazil, so for day 1 we decided to go to the Brazilian side called Fox Iguazu. This will be my only visit to Brazil on this trip. It wasn’t in my original itinery and I’ve decided it’s just too big for this trip (it’s the size of the USA after all). We caught the local bus after incurring the wrath of the lady at the bus station who likes to whistle a lot and went through the border crossing. For a day you don’t need a visa, but you do get stamped in and out of Argentina and the bus kindly waits for you – it’s all very efficient. We stopped after the border and changed buses. Upon arrival the queues for tickets were ridiculous but I suppose it’s understandable as it’s the xmas holidays. After you get your ticket you then queue for a bus to tale you to the viewing platforms. The main reason to come to the Brazilian side is that you get a better over all panorama of the falls than you would from the Argentinian side.
The first thing I’ve noticed is the women are more attractive, well until they reach a certain age and then they are really over weight. The men however are not. So it’s the opposite of Argentina, where the men are much better. So anyway on to the falls, the falls !! There are various activities you can sign up for which are extra on top of the entrance fee such as canyon swings and safaris. We stayed on the bus until we got to the first look out points. Indeed it was a great view but still quite far away. You then take a path which takes you closer as you walk along. On the way you can see some wildlife but at this point we just saw a few lizards bathing in the sunshine. We got nearer and nearer until we came to one metal platform where you could walk out across the water. We could see rainbows, it was beautiful.
Time for a late lunch so we headed towards the restaurant. On the way we saw Coatis. These are a bit raccoon like with a more pointed face. There were adults and babies and they must be quite territorial as two nearly had a fight. However, they have also realised that humans mean food so some are quite tame and just wander around you. Of course, you are not supposed to feed them but people do. But hey that’s another new animal to report for my trip. Making our way to the restaurant we had to go up in a lift and then walk across a further metal platform. Hanging to the underside of the platform were hundreds and I mean hundreds of spider webs with huge black spiders in them. I haven’t walked as quickly as that since Kamikaze Kampot. Thank goodness the salad buffet more than made up for it. On the way back we were told only to change buses at the junction where there was a hotel as otherwise it’s too dangerous (another thing that to be honest has put me off Brazil).We got back to town just as another storm hit, so we relaxed for a while. Will I ever get to use the pool ? We went out for dinner and had too much wine.
The next day it’s time to go to the Argentinian side. The bus was packed but we got there quite quickly and cleverly raced off the bus to find that on this side there was in fact no queue for the entrance tickets. On the Argentinian side you have to then get a train to get to the falls. No problem there, only in the morning you have to get off half way and then queue for another one. As there were already people in the queue we couldn’t get on it so we had to wait a further 30 minutes. That was made more painful due to an English couple having a huge row next to us. Xmas holidays….although unless you’re prepared to queue for things don’t come to Argentina. They queue for everything.
Finally we’re on the train and go straight to the main section called “Devil’s Throat”(pictured above). This is the wildest part of the falls, water is just gushing. If you fell in you wouldn’t survive. How they even managed to build the viewing platform I don’t know, I was holding on to the rail as I have to say I felt a bit scared. The other consequence of standing there is that you get soaked from the spray. Then my camera got wet. Luckily it dried out later and is now fine.
Time to go back and catch the train again. There is more to do on the Argentinian side and we walked the various trails which give you different perspectives on the falls. You can even get a free boat over to an island in the middle to see more. Time is now creeping up on us. I’d loved to have caught the boat where you get put under a calmer part of the falls but we have a plane to catch. We half ran back to the train and our timing worked to perfection. If you only have one day then the Argentinian side is better but had we not gone to Brazil I’d never have seen the coatis.
Time to catch the plane and head back to Buenos Aires. This time we are staying in Recoletta the rich area and again managed to upgrade our room. That evening we went to Palermo. This area is a little further away from the centre and is full of parks but also enormous amounts of restaurants and bars. As it’s a Friday night the place is packed. We had a drink then went to Bar 6 for food. Just as well Jane only had one day to go as I think she could easily have spent a fortune in the rather expensive boutique shops.
The next day was jam packed. It’s Jane’s last day, boo hoo !! After breakfast we walked to the clock tower but again it was closed so we went to do a bit of shopping before heading to La Bocca. La Bocca is one of the poorest areas in Buenos Aires and is the only place I’ve heard of that people have been robbed. In years gone by it was quite rich but due to a yellow fever epidemic the rich moved away and the poor stayed. As long as you stick to the main route you’re fine. You can see that you have walked into a poorer area immediately. After a few stops we made our way to the football stadium, home of the Bocca Juniors. This is where footballers like Maradonna, Batistuta and Teves played. You can do a tour but we didn’t have time so just looked at the footballers “hollywood like” stars on the pavement. Some of them have had prints of their feet embedded in the cement in the star. I have to say Teves has rather small feet !! Maradonna hadn’t made a print, but maybe his should have been of his hand anyway !!
Time to head on to Caminito. This is the area of La Bocca that has all of the very brightly coloured buildings. We finally found tourists. There’s a market and huge amounts of local art on display. The restaurants have outdoor musicians and dancers that grab you to tango. We headed instead to one of the oldest bars, La Perla for a beer and an empanada as Jane hadn’t tried one. La Perla is incredibly old and had some great photos of how things used to look in years gone by. Time to catch a taxi back to San Telmo and for Jane to admire the square one last time and for us to stroll through the antique shops.
That evening we’d decided to have a final tango soiree. We went to a local place to see about tango lessons but when we got there we were the only people so I felt a bit intimidated. We decided to go to another tango place first and get some food. What a nightmare !! I think the real dancers didn’t show as there was a huge argument going on somewhere in the kitchen. Our compere looked like a cross between Big Daddy and Max Wall. He cracked a few jokes (in Spanish) and then one of the musicians danced with the lady behind the bar. So far so good. Then the singers started. I have to say after 3 or 4 songs I was developing a headache. The musician again danced with the lady behind the bar. Where were our promised dancers ? At least we got our food, some people didn’t get theirs until 11pm. I had to get out of there, it was turning into an awful last night for Jane. We went back to El Beso which was now full although they’d kept our table. Luckily or unluckily we were too late for the lessons. We just watched locals strutting their tangos, this is called a Milonga, they just dance with either one partner or anyone who takes their fancy, it was great. They even provided a show for a fraction of the cost at the restaurant. It’s so traditional and the women look like wall flowers sitting around the room waiting to be asked to dance. We were still on the Chandon but it’s time to go. The clocks go forward tonight, it’s the first time the clocks have ever changed in Argentina and Jane has a flight to catch in the morning. I must admit it only occurred to me as we got back towards the hotel as to how drunk she was. Possibly the demands for water and the stumbling on the pavement gave it away.
We went for a final breakfast together the next morning. In our drunken haze we’d managed to get up an hour to early. Jane caught her taxi and I decided to do nothing but relax for the rest of the day. It’s been a hectic 3 weeks as I suspected it would be, but great fun. It’s been nice to see what it would have been like travelling with someone, and I have to say I really enjoyed it. Thanks Jane for making Argentina so special for me. Oh well, back to being a Billy no mates !! I decided as it’s New Years and I had no plans that I’d stay in the room and make the most of having my own space for a couple of days and just watched films. After all it’s the holidays again and most things are closed. I want to stay in Buenos Aires and learn Spanish but first I think I’ll pop over to Uruguay. This wasn’t in my original schedule but it’s just too easy to do from here.
Transport count:
Plane = 18, Bus = 70, Train = 2, Boat =14, Sunglasses = 6, Mosquito Repellant = 8, Books Read = 14 1/2 (couldn’t get on with Faulkner)
Bags lost twice.
Take care all
Sally
