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Published: September 13th 2006
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Puerto Iguazu protest..we weren´t kidding
Ian Cooke reporting live from the front lines in Puerto Iguazu... Ian has had a hard time saying goodbye to eating two steaks a day (I´m sure his arteries are thankful) as we left Argentina and saying hello to vegetarianism. We both decided after reading that Bolivia has this meat called ¨false rabbit¨which essentially can be any meat...dog, cat, etc...sticking to veggies might be a good idea.
True to our motto ¨expect anything¨...a flight from Buenos Aires to La Paz with one stop over seems too easy. Why not add two other unscheduled stop overs along with a 2 hour delay on the runway due to a grass fire that got out of control near the end of the runway. The fire trucks and water bombers had to be called in and the smoke cleared before we could take off. In any case we made in to La Paz - the highest capital in the world!!!
In Argentina we did the North to South tour...from Iguazu falls to Patagonia.
Iguazu falls was quite the experience as we mentioned in the previous blog. The waterfalls, however, were worth all the trouble. The Iguazu falls border Brazil and Argentina, as such you can see them from both countries. We barely got to
Checklist for a successful protest
1. Blockade of motor bikes - check
2. Burning tires - check
3. Hang out with your buddies drinking a couple of bevies and annoy the tourists by not letting them leave to catch their flights or see the falls - check
4. Wait for enough embassies to contact the local government so that your protest is successful - check see them from the Argentinian side. The protest ended 24 hours after we arrived in Puerto Iguazu (and mastered our ping pong, chess, pool, card playing) and 3 hours before our flight back to Buenos Aires. As soon as the word was out that the protest had ended, we were the first ones out of there. We flagged down a taxi driver and asked him what it would cost to take us to the Falls, give us a quick tour and then drive us to the airport. To our delight it was only 100 pesos, which is about $30 US dollars. We arrived at the falls before any of the workers did, since they were still stuck in the traffic that was dissolving, as such the entrance was free....things were definitely starting to look up!
Unlike Niagara falls which is one curtain of water, Iguazu is split into some 270 waterfalls. Because we were there in the dry season, the volume of water was 50% less than normal, but you could have fooled us. It is truly beautiful and very picturesque...and if you want to save yourself the couple hundred dollars, you can see it in the new Miami
The Coati - the South American racoon
They keep it real to their family roots and scavenge the garbage cans for food. Vice movie.
We arrived at the airport to mass crowds still trying to catch the flights they had missed the day before because of the blockade...luckily our seats were still reserved. We arrived in Buenos Aires with time to settle in and catch a quick bite to eat before the Boca Juniors game.
The Boca Juniors were playing Sao Paulo in an international match as they play for the bragging rights for the best team in South America. Each team had won one of the two Cups offered each year in Latin America. The game was amazing. There was so much energy in the stadium...named the Bonbonera, which translates to ¨The Chocolate Box¨. A whole section of fans called ¨Jugador No. 12¨ (the 12th player) were insane. Throughout the whole game they would chant, shoot flares and fireworks into the crowds and sing about the visiting team´s fans..something about how their wives are being unfaithful to them while they´re away watching the game...and that´s sugar coating it. Security was very tight, as you can imagine, especially for the fans of the visiting team. The fans have their own section, which is guarded by police and is fenced in with
barbwiring...The final score of the game was 2-1 for the Boca Juniors.
The next morning we left for El Calafate în Patagonia. This would be our base camp for the next four days as we visited the many different glaciers in Glacier National Park. The scenery around El Calafate was breath taking...snow capped mountains...a big sky with clouds that look airbrushed... lakes that were tinted aquamarine...and pink flamingoes!...that was sort of unexpected, but we saw 50 or so of them during the sunset one evening.
The first glacier we visited was Perito Moreno. We decided to rent a car after the people at Hertz convinced us that drivers here don´t drive like drivers in Buenos Aires. Side note...you know it´s bad when the guide book says that if you want to have a bad day in Buenos Aires, rent a car. Also, we came up with a new driving manoeuver called ¨the sandwhich¨, whereby a taxi driver will create his own lane between two exisitng lanes and squeeze in between two cars..one of them is usually a massive truck. We just held our breath and hoped we survived it. But I digress.
We drove out to Perito
Iguazu falls ..another shot
We only got the Coles notes version of the falls with our taxi driver Rodas, since that´s all the time we had after the blockade ended and before our flight. Moreno and were lucky enough to have the whole glacier to ourselves for a while. During the peak season (Jan-Feb) there is up to 2000 people on the viewing platform. The glacier advances about 2 m a day, so from the viewing platform you can hear loud thunderous noises as the glacier advances and huge masses of ice break off and fall into Lake Argentina.
The next morning we signed up for a boat cruise that would take us to other glaciers in the park that aren´t accessible by car. As the boat navigated through the Iceberg Channel, we saw the smallest glacier in the park and the largest...the Upsala glacier.
On our way back to Buenos Aires, we touched down in Ushuaia, the southern most city in the world. This is the city from where the Antarctic expeditions debut starting in November. We arrived back in Buenos Aires for our last night before we had to say Ciao.
This brings us to La Paz. The next 1.5 weeks should be interesting seeing as protests and blockades occur here almost daily and without warning. We´ve added in a few flex days in our schedule for this reason.
We also had to change our plans slightly, as there were rumours that the Bolivian-Chilean border was closed. As such, we´ll be traveling back to Lima through Lake Titicaca, Arequipa and Nazca (Peru) and should be back in Lima by Sept. 22.
Hope all is well back home,
xox
Kasia and Ian
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Megan
non-member comment
It looks like you are having soooo much fun! Can't wait to hear all about it when you come home!