Aqueous Transmission

The day after we went to Colonia, Uruguay… we hopped on up to the north of Argentina to visit las cataratas de Iguazú. First, I need to express just how trippy and amazing the bus ride was. There are two options for travelling large distances in Argentina/South America - flying and the bus. Flying to Iguazú was not in my budget… and a 17+ hour bus ride didn't look too grand either… but Chi Chi and I both heard great things about Iguazú and we wanted someone to travel with… so we figured: porqué no? (why not?)

The bus was amazing… around 80 dollars bought us not only a long bus ride (in one direction)… but a lot of a food, including: snack when we got on the bus; dinner with soda, water, wine or WHISKEY; a little desert/cookie thing with CHAMPAGNE; and in the morning… an Argentine breakfast: coffee or tea with a medialuna, some crackers and jam. We also watched a few movies - albeit they were horrible options that were actually in English with tiny Spanish subtitles. And the seats were semi-camas… which meant they reclined a lot but not all the way to full beds. I can't express to you how much I enjoyed the bus ride there… but that's not the main point.

Onwards to las cataratas!

Our bus arrived to the small town Puerto Iguazú in the afternoon. When we got there, our first mission was to find a place to stay and feed ourselves. We walked around a bit and compared prices in a few hostels (there were tons in the town). But we ended up choosing one after a young guy on the street stopped us and whipped out at least five pamphlets for different (competing) hostels… it was an odd way to advertise - but worked! We settled in and continued on to eat the best pizza I've had (to-date) south of the equator.

We went back to the bus terminal (all of this was within 3 blocks of each other and very convenient) and bought tickets to head off to the falls. Since the park closed early at six we didn't have much time that day. So we opted to do a relaxing boat ride on part of the river… se llamó "paseo ecologico" (it was called the ecology tour)… It was thirty minutes of drifting on a river and checking out some wildlife (we saw a tucan and alligators!). Muy tranquila!

That evening we returned to our hostel and had a quiet evening. The next day we got up early (for me) and caught the 8:40 bus heading towards the falls (it's almost a 30 minute ride from the center of town to the park). The park pushes a discount for half-off the second day, which was nice (40 pesos the first day; 20 for the second)…

When we got there, we were disappointed to see that due to the questionable weather and high water levels, the boat access to the great view from Isla San Martín was closed. But we continued on with our plans and tackled the Sendero Macuco (Macuco Trail). It was about a three hour venture (roundtrip) into the jungle to find an isolated and tiny waterfall. It was a very nice walk and a bit odd that on our way in we didn't see a single form of human life, which was a bit disconcerting... I definitely had a nagging fear that I would never reemerge from those woods... But we got to the fall safely and saw some harmless wildlife on the way; and on our walk back, we even saw some monkeys! We spent the rest of the day wandering around on the different paths and getting different views of the main falls.

Again, that evening we returned to our hostel and were invited to hang out with a group of people. We met two guys who are studying abroad from a Texas school (Longhorns I believe) in Córdoba... And I do have to say I became smitten with a Frenchman who is travelling around South America with his sister… but it's a non-issue - when will I ever have time to learn French if I still have a ways to go with Spanish which is top priority? France is just too expensive… And he's too old. Bueno, now that's done with...

The final day was very chill as well. It was Argentina's independence day - July 9th. So as we were walking to the Hito Tres Fronteras (Three Borders Landmark) on the other end of town, we saw a major parade of (what seemed like) all the schools and children in town. It was interesting but I would have liked to see what Independence Day is like in Buenos Aires though. Anyways, the rest of the trip was a breeze… after some shopping, we spent a very long time eating more pizza at the same place where we had lunch the first day…

All in all: un éxito!/a success!






P.S. I'm really happy I was able to travel outside of the city… it really helped me see the tip of the iceberg of the dichotomies between the interior and the capital… which is a very interesting issue I'll be touching on next time...