Buenos Aires & Iguazu falls

---

The nightbus trip from Cordoba to Buenos Aires exceeded my expectations. Not only did the bus not break down this time but we were presented with possibly the biggest meat, cheese and cracker platters I've ever seen. No red meat for the rest of the year after Argentina I reckon now. When the bus arrived into Buenos Aires I thought it would be sensible to follow the majority who seemed to be getting off. Fortunately a friendly local called Luis told me I was getting off too early and should stay on the bus for the town centre. Turns out he works in museums and was involved in the Che Guevara museum I had visited so he provided some tips on places to see and museums to visit in Buenos Aires which was of great help.



Once in Buenos Aires I dropped my bag off at the quite cool but rather hippy Eco Pampas hostel (there are no locks on the bathroom doors here – a metaphor for no secrets perhaps?). Given I was beginning to feel a bit unhealthy given the wine, beer and meat consumption I went out for a run in the local park. This was quite pleasant, it seems that Argentinians are quite active – lots were out rollerblading, skating, running and walking in the sunshine. Overall I have to say I was surprised at how similar Buenos Aires is to London in a lot of ways (bar the climate and the friendliness of the people perhaps). The locals seem to have similar interests, there's a great cultural scene here and a lot of the shops, bars and restaurants in certain areas are very similar. They even have similar pill box style post boxes, albeit not red.



The afternoon consisted of visiting various tourist sites in the centre and a walk to the seafront over the reclaimed land at Puerto Madero. This is a large, reclaimed nature reserve sitting below the various skyscapers in the business district – an impressive achievement for such a large city. In the evening a load of us from the hostel decided to go out for food and a few drinks. This proved something of a learning curve for me in traveller politics – in so far as democracy just doesn't work with people that travel. They (we?) are simply just too chilled out to make a decision on anything. After walking around for over an hour looking for a place to eat I was becoming increasingly hypoglycaemic and grumpy before luckily we found a decent kebab shop. It provided a welcome taste of home – had plastic tables and chairs and everything and unlike home beer!



The next day a group of us went site seeing again around the San Telmo antiques market district and to various places including the congress building and the famous Cafe Tortoni – a stylish Parisien coffee house that does Tango in the evenings. That evening we headed to a nightclub / bar that was a pretty crazy place – a kind of cross between an alternative shoreditch nightclub and the place out of the Michael Jackson music video Smooth Criminal. You had to time your trips to the bar well though given the hourly or so free beer giveaways to girls only....Argentinian girls seem to like their beer! I think this was possibly the most crowded and hottest place I have ever been to and myself and an American friend Brad seemed to stick out as gringos like a sore thumb. This was actually a good thing though as lots of locals asked us where we were from and wanted to practice their English in exchange for us practicing Spanish. No better place to do this then in a noisy nightclub with a Fernet and cola in hand (addictive local mixer). Overall a great final night in a truly great city!



The next day I swapped the sunshine and trendiness of Buenos Aires for the remoteness and humidity of Puerto Iguazu – the Argentinian side of the famous Iguazu falls. This is a huge and very famous waterfall complex on the three borders of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. The town itself is a bit of a dive but the falls themselves are breathtaking. I'd seen photos and read about the falls but the scale and power of the water when you're up close to them is awe inspiring. I must have taken a thousand photos that day of the falls from various different angles of the water – it really is a stunningly unique place.



The surrounding park and trails are full of wildlife, some of which I'd seen before but a lot I hadn't. The catfish in the river were scarily big and there is a bewildering array of birds and different coloured and sized butterflies. Highly entertaining were also the Coatis - a kind of racoon type creature that enjoys playing in the jungle and trying to steal food and other items out of your rucksack when you stop to take a photo. Apparently they can be quite vicious little critters though so you have to be careful. Looking across the falls and wondering what the lively country of Brazil would have in store for me I thought I saw a collection of inflatable balls for zorbing over the falls....turns when examined through a camera zoom these are actually inflatable buoys used for the boat jetty on that side of the river. Guess that would make more sense.



That night I decided to grab a 15 hour nightbus from the Brazilian side of Iguazu to Sao Paulo. This didn't get off to the best start when the Argentinian authorities fined me for illegally entering the country (I hadn't been stamped properly at the Chile border). I thought about trying something like “this is about them Malvinas islands isn't it?”, “Its cuz I'm British!”. Thinking better of it I decided to just pay the 40 GBP fine so that in typical James South American bus style I could make one last terrible nightbus in time. I struggle to understand how they can call it a nightbus given how cramped the seats are and the fact that it stops at a station every hour where they turn all the lights on and wake you up. Guess the Brazilians just don't sleep anyway...

---