Quite a lot of water really...

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Uruguay

We finally had a new country to enjoy after 6 weeks in Argentina! Pity it turned out to be a bit of a let down...

Ok, we're probably being a little harsh on poor Uruguay, after all, we were visiting in winter (and a fairly dampening seafog), we were only in the country for 4.5 days, and we actually had quite a good time. However, we encountered more people with social ineptitude / other unwanted issues here than anywhere so far on our travels. They were also all fellow travellers...

We caught the ferry across to Colonia from Buenos Aires on a beautiful sunny day. Stayed in a very cute hostel on the main street which was so quiet that we had a dorm room to ourselves (hurrah!). Wandered aimlessly around the old town on the lovely cobbled streets taking photo's of the very pretty town and climbing the lighthouse. Rob settled in to watch a movie that evening (Blood Diamonds) and we met our first disturbing traveller.

He sat and talked to the 8 or so people watching the movie and regaled them with tales (lies would be a more appropriate word) about how he had written the screen play, how the story was based on his life, how the lead female actress was a dead ringer for his wife and after every scene stated the impact that it had on him ("wrote the theme tune, sang the theme tune..."). We would possibly have felt more inclined to believe him if he had some idea of where the film was set when Rob asked him. He then continued to say how he was hired to assassinate Nelson Mandela(!), he was the 6th most dangerous man in the world, he was so wanted that he'd left South Africa and changed his identity (and was telling everyone this why?), and had just been offered an engineering job in Maritius. It was very
hard to keep a straight face. The next morning, after listening to him beg the owner the previous night to let him stay for free, we heard how he just needed just a little leeway before he headed back to Sth Africa to collect half a million dollars. We gave him a fairly wide berth whenever possible.

After more sightseeing the next day, we caught a bus the morning after to Montevideo. We arrived yet again in sunshine and had a brief look around the centre. Met two more disturbing travellers whilst at our hostel, the first appeared to have an unhealthy interest in helping disadvantaged, suicidal young girls, the second stood that little bit too close when speaking to us and just rambled making no sense whatsoever (a bit like Rob after a few beers!!). We became slightly disoriented after we went into a supermarket for 15 minutes, only to emerge to find that a seafog had come in, making it hard to see down the street, let alone any 'sights'. The next day saw us, in sheer bloody mindedness, going for a 10km walk along the seafront in the same fog.

Things got a little better once back in town and Cath had the sheer joy of going to the Mercado del Puerto and having the best steak of her life. We also completely bemused all the staff after, being friendly, we joked that they were cooking up a small snack for another member of staff. They had no idea what we meant and a 20 minute conversation followed, drawing in more and more people, along with demands for the correct pronunciation of the word 'snack' and what it meant. Given we had to do this in our very minimal Spanish we felt quite proud that they were so entertained and they gave us a free pen as we left.

We left Montevideo feeling that if we'd been there in summer the enjoyment and randomness factors would have been even higher. Our next stop was Iguazu Falls on the northern most point of Argentina. It turned out to be the first 'bad' bus journey we'd had in South America and fate decided it would be a very representative one (and we're now quite concerned about what Bolivia and Peru will throw at us!).

Stage one went smoothly, we managed to travel from Montevedio to the border, then cross back into Argentina at Colonia with very little stress. We then had a 4 hour wait until the 2 ticket offices that had buses to Iguazu opened again, made a little worrying by the one open vendor with buses to Iguazu stating that they were sold out for the month. Rob went off to put his best Spanish on display when the vendors re-opened, whilst Cath minded the bags. A worrying 40 minutes went past before Rob re-appeared but it was good news, the last 2 seats out of town were being held for us. They were at opposite ends of the bus but not to worry.

Tickets duly purchased we settled in to wait... and kept on waiting. 3 hours late the bus finally arrived at 10.30pm. We checked our bags in, then boarded to find no seats available. Some disbelief, headshaking, re-checking of the passenger list and finally frantic activity by the conductor saw Cath's seat appear, however Rob had to sit on the floor for 30 minutes until the next stop. All seemed to be going well (despite the permeating smell of people with bad personal hygiene who've been trapped in an overly hot space for too long), Cath was seated next to a very amusing child that kept dribbling on her, and Rob was very pleased to see that the meal on the bus was veggie omlette, when, after some whirring, we pulled into a petrol station and promptly broke down.

Every male on the bus, except Rob who was sound asleep (nothing changes), got off to try and help the driver fix what looked like a broken fan belt. Despite having replacement's that looked to be every possible size, the bus didn't move. Another 3 hours passed until finally at 2.30am we started moving again. Rob and I did manage to get seats together as a lot of people jumped onto another bus that was apparently heading in their direction. They didn't seem to be able to sort their heating out so we either baked (and smelt) or froze. The sound system let out a piercing high pitched whine the entire time the movie played in the morning, and to add to our joy they didn't turn the video machine (or sound system) off when it finished, so the teeth gritting noise continued until the end.

To add one final insult to our bored and grumpy selves the rudest conductor in the world started questioning us (in Spanish) about where our ticket receipts were because they could only find Cath's and obviously thought that Rob was a stowaway. On production of our receipts, clearing stating that we had paid he refused to accept that they might be real and snapped out a few more questions before stomping off in a sulk. The apology that we didn't expect never arrived. However our bags made it safely which, considering their incompetence, had been a bit of a worry.

Iguazu Falls

The previous 33 hours shenanigans simple fell away when we arrived at Iguasu. We had found the tropics. It was warm, no, it was glorious sunshine and 20C warmer than the 8C in Mondevideo. After consulting the friendly tourist information people, we headed to a lovely campsite 5km out of town. It was off with the long sleeves and trousers and on with the shorts and T-shirts. We were still so excited to be here, the warmth on your skin and the sweet aroma of tropical plants. The campsite was in the forest, so we were immediately surrounded by tons of wildlife. If Patagonia was about scenary and panoramics (OK and a few seals and whales), then this was definitely wildlife territory. In the first few hours, we saw a humming bird feeding on the flowers near our tent, dozens of other bird species, tons of different butterflies, a leaf with legs (OK, insect), oh, and the blood sucking bugs and mosquitoes. The later set about eating our fresh, newly exposed, glowing white bodies as soon as dusk set in. Counting the bites and puncture marks the next morning, we decided that you have got to take the good with the bad! Anyway, it will be good training for Zambia.

Iguazu Falls. Everyone had raved about it, and they were right in everything that they said. Thunderous, gargantuan, walls of water. Iguazu Falls consists of about 270 waterfalls spread out 2.7km along the Iguazu River seperating Brazil and Argentina. A truely humbling sight of the sheer power and force of nature. We had so much fun there walking across the catwalks above and below falls, and simple sitting and admiring the cataracts, that we went back for another day. There seemed no point to come all this way to rush around.

At the Falls, the wildlife continued to amaze us. As we were leaving the first day, Cath was talking about how she desperately wanted to see a Toucan, when, as if by command, two appeared on a tree 100 meters away. Out came the camera, and with Cath jumping around in excitement like a child who found a candy tree, we chased them from tree to tree and photographed them. Other animals included butterflies with transparent wings, Coatis (Racoon type critters), a huge Tarantula, Vultures, and Swallows that deftly dive in and out of the ledges behind the falling water. An absolutely amazing experience and we left wanting to spend another 2 days there.

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Photos

Beach volleyball anyone? - Montevideo
Rob was dissapointed that bad weather stopped play at the womens beach volley ball...

Statue - Montevideo
...however, we found other ways to entertain ourselves.

Probably the best steak in the world - Montevideo
Cath had to fight Cartman off from eating her steak.

Devils Throat - Iguazu Falls
It was as if the water was being sucked from the river

Rob & Cath showering - Iguazu Falls
This walkway took us right up to the falls, enabling us stinky campers to have a brief wash.

Iguazu Falls
Some of the 270 catarats that make up Iguazu Falls.

Cartman - Iguazu Falls
He knew he´d float, but, we managed to persuade Cartman not to do a backflip into falls.

Dusk at Iguazu Falls
The catwalks take you close up and right over the falls.

Toucan - Iguazu Falls
They are sooooo pretty. How they fly with such large beaks defies physics

Very Large Spider - Iguazu Falls
Guess who had to put his foot next to the spider for scale...?

Beautiful Butterflies - Iguazu Falls
So many wonderful shapes, sizes and colours.

Comments

[Greg]

That steak
I hear the beef there is great but seriously Cath, how long did it take you to eat that meal. I mean a small meal takes you 1 hour to eat. Love you both and see you soon Greg x