Welcome to my Blog

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Hi Everyone,

Greetings from Puerto Iguaçu. I am currently on the Argentine side of the border, sorry Tri-Frontiers of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. Well, this is the first entry of my online blog, so I had better make it sound like I've been busy over the last 12 days since leaving the UK, I have (along with my ex flat mate, Dale) visited Buenos Aires, Cordoba and Puerto Iguaçu, well I had a brief visit to Paraguay, and also Brazil this afternoon (more to follow)..

In 12 days there has been a lot of ground covered, meat eaten and met a few people along the way. First stop was Buenos Aires. Both Dale and I took different flights to get there, Dales stopping in Paris then to BA, mine stopping in San Paolo then to BA. Got to BA safe, little tired but excited to be trying something new, who knows what the next few months have in stall. After a quick transfer, shower and change we got tickets for Boca Junior vs. Arsenal, so we grabbed a quick coffee and headed to La Boca by foot. Got to out 'seat', well step, the stadiums in South America are still standing. The atmosphere within the stadium itself is something I have never experienced, for 87 minutes (we ducked out 3 mins before the end to get out of La Boca before nightfall) the Boca fans provided an amazing atmosphere. The standard wasn’t as good as I was expecting, but nonetheless an amazing experience. We high tailed it out the stadium, after a couple of wrong turns, and walking past a couple of wrong uns, we made it back to the hostel ready to devour some cow. The routine of our evening meal became the same, more or less, it would involve eating some form of cow, whether it was Bife de Chorizo, or Lomo, sometimes when we were hungry we'd go to the Tenares Libres (all you eat places) and have some fantastic food for the price of a starter back in the UK. We were typical tourists in BA, did the city tours, visited the Recoleta cemetery where famous Argentine dignitaries are buried, including Eva Peron, or Evita as she is more famously known.

After 4 days in BA, we moved onto the next city on the list, Cordoba. It is the second most important city in Argentina. It is very different to BA, but I think I if we could have spent more time in any of the places we had visited so far, Cordoba would have been the pick. Getting there, we braved the 10 hour semi-cama over night coach from BA, which left at 10pm, arriving just after 8 the following day. Got to the hostel, which at first glance, I did think, what the F&*k have I booked here. Welcome to travelling Mark. Dale and I were sharing with 5 others in a dorm; bunk beds have been the order of the day in terms of sleeping. The one aspect which made the hostel amazing was the roof terrace, that and the fact it was 32/33 degrees for the two days we were in Cordoba helped. Again we did the tourist thing, looked around a few churches, museums, tried to find our bearings, and also get lost in the city at the same time. That night, visited the night market, which meant not buying a lot of items which looked amazing. Not sure where I would put that 4 foot statute in my rucksack. Had one big night out in Cordoba, on the Saturday. Places don’t start getting busy until 3am in the morning here, and by that time, I am ready for my buck bed. We ended up at a club called Tripp, which is in a place the locals call 'Little Vegas'. The busiest club I have ever been to, and by 5am, we called it a night. 7 hours later we had to be on the coach again for a 22 hours journey to Puerto Iguaçu.

Not feeling the best due to lack of sleep and too much Cerveza, we climbed onto our Cama Coach for the trip to Iguaçu. 22 hours seems like a long time, but after watching films and falling asleep, the journey wasn’t bad, and probably won’t be the longest journey I have to undertake in SA. After that journey, we kicked back next to the pool for the first day and decided to do the Iguaçu Falls the following day. The falls itself is one of the most amazing views I've seen. Nothing really prepares you for the view of the Devils Mouth, the first time you see it. The park has different trails you can look around and explore. After 5 hours snapping waterfalls, climbing steps and being followed around by flask carrying school kids, we called it a day, and decided we would venture back to the park the following day to get more snaps and do anything we hadn’t managed to do.

Bringing me up to today (28th May), Dale flew back to Buenos Aires today to get his connecting flight back to London tomorrow. My plan was to head to Rio, which is another 22 hour trip, but when I got to the station to book my ticket, the bus was full, so like a traveller I needed to adapt my plan. I booked myself into another hostel in Puerto Iguaçu for the night, also booked on the coach for Rio tom. Said goodbye to Dale, and decided to head to Cuidad Del Este for a couple for hours in Paraguay. The hour journey is 3 pesos, about 60p, you travel through Foz Do Iguaçu (Brazil), so you have to go through immigration, show your passport, get back on the bus and then into Paraguay. So for safety reasons, I have only my passport, 20 USD, 20 Arg Pesos and my Lonely Planet guide to help me get around. The Amistad Bridge you cross to get into Paraguay is about 125 metres high, over a river. A stiff breeze could have blown this bus over, good job I always wear Speedos... Got off the bus on the main street, and for the first time in my trip I did think to myself, what have I done here. The streets are packed with every electronic good imaginable. After an hour of walking around, testing out what Spanish I knew, haggling, and not buying I thought it was time to leave. Waited for about 40 minutes for a bus back, nothing was going back to Argentina. After consulting my Lonely Planet, which screamed 'Tourist, mug me' it said you can walk along the bridge to Brazil and head back to Argentina from there. So, nothing to lose 125 metres in the air, walking over this bridge, with a fence that was not taller than 5 foot which separated myself from a very cold bath, I walked across to the Brazilian side, got my passport stamped, half way across a bus to Argentina flies past me, no justice. After scratching my head, reading me Lonely Planet again, which actually said avoid walking across the bridge due to robberies, I decided to try my Pigeon Portuguese to border officials. They said I could get a bus to Foz Do Iguaçu and then get another one from there to Puerto Iguaçu. I jumped on a bus for Foz, get to the bus station and he points to this rickety old shed, which has a sign 'Argentina' on it. Off the bus I get and wait for another bus to Argentina. Luckily one comes along 10 mins later and after clearing the border again I finally get back to Puerto Iguaçu.
My next stop is Rio Di Janeiro, staying on Ipanema, should get there on sat morn, due to my little set back. I will update as soon as I have stopped bronzing, drinking and dancing..

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Comments

[The Shref]

World class yeah, better than any....world class yeah
Hello mate glad to hear you made it back in one piece though a small shoeing on that bridge would have entertained me for sure. Just chilling back the hostel at the mo, been out and got some gifts. tried some hagglingand actually managed it with the ones who can speak less english than me spanish. managed to snap up quite a fetching card wallet for 20 pesos, the guy wanted 35!! any way mate i look fwd to the next installment from Rio, am border line Turbo Shrivid about heading home. Take it easy Safe yeah p.s thought I saw YeahMan working some tables in thebar where we went for Cervezas and Empanadas haha