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Published: November 27th 2015
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Argentina and the Iguazu Falls.
Our ride from Asuncion in Paraguay to Peurto Iguazu in Argentina was a pleasant ride through amazing cropping country, but that was after an hour and a half of fighting the traffic out of Asuncion with the diesel fumes just about suffocating us, I was so glad to get out of there!! My eyes were watering and stinging,so when we stopped,I took my white rag and wiped my eyes,I was amazed at the black goob that I cleared from my eyes and we were breathing this crap!! Thank God we don't have to live here!!
On the way,just before the border with Brazil (yes we had to go into Brazil to get into Argentina) Gerardo took us to the worlds biggest hydroelectric dam at Itaipu, where we took a free tour of the site....again an amazing project between Brazil and Paraguay built in 1980. This project supplies 87% of Paraguay's power and 19% of Brazil's..
The next challenge was to exit Paraguay, via Brazil and enter Argentina, this was a bit complicated,but Gerardo's experience got us through without too much drama and it was only around two hours and we were in our hotel in Argentina.
We are at the hotel that night and headed of to bed reasonably early.
The next day we had scheduled to visit the Iguazu Falls so after breakfast we got on our bikes and rode the 20 odd kilometres to the park. We paid the entry fee and took the narrow gauge train to the point where we had to walk on this incredible steel walkway to the point where the water falls into the void below. We then took a walk to the bottom of the falls in another section, these fall are just so amazing,and I just stopped and tried to absorb the feeling and volume of water that was falling.
As there had been such a lot of rain in the mountains over the past week or so, the water was just like liquid hokey pokey.
When we got back into town,Gerardo and I had a great parrillia for a late lunch/dinner as here in Argentina today is the Presidential election so everything is about to shut down so they can watch television!!
The following morning we had a late start as Gerardo cut his hand on the fan in our hotel room, you know as you
are putting on your t shirt you reach up!!!! And if you are as tall as he is then there is trouble. We took him to the hospital and he got three stitches for his effort.
The next couple of days were uneventful riding through huge cropping farm lands on very good roads.
We stayed a night in Parana where we had a vegetarian dinner that moved along overnight, as it were!
We left Parana at 7.30 am and arrived to our hotel in downtown Buenos Aires amid road closures and demonstrators at 4.30 pm. What a massive city this is to ride through. It took nearly two hours to do 50 kms, the bikes oil temperatures went over their comfort zone as did the riders.
After a good shower we went and had one of the best meals of the entire adventure with a wander about to get a feel of this pulsating city.
Today was a rest day, but as our Continental TKC 70's, that we put on in Texas before heading 'South of the Border' were not going to get us home, we decided to change them here. String sent an email to his contact in the
States and he came back with a dealer here that would look after us.
Also, Gerardo contacted Willy,that I met on my first adventure over here in 2005. He now lives here and we got some advice from him. We made contact with the dealer and headed the 25 kms across the city at 8.00am. Willy, met us there and it was good to see him again after all these years. We finally got back to the hotel around 2.00pm.
Unfortunately on my return to the hotel my HJC helmet chin piece broke again,so it was into the spares to find and action that would work. It seams that the two small screws either side that hold all this together really needs some redesign!!
Unfortunately I ran out of time to meet with my friend, Juan, whom I met at the Cave of the Witches here in Argentina in 2005.
After walking bloody miles through the city streets, just absorbing the pulse and realising how much stuff I don't need to buy, we decided on a restful evening at the hotel.
So until my next blog,just keep the coffee hot. Cheers. Rosco
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