Blogs from Corrientes, Argentina, South America

There is peace in the valley. It is as if all the rogues and ruffians, grifters and lifters, shovers, shouters, looters, corrupters and flouters of social norms had been redirected at an earlier junction. As if diablo's little imps and thieves and torturers and bandits had been lured to greener pickings, to richer spoils; leaving a few near-heavenly acres of remote urban existence to play out a parallel-style universe (at least to the casual eye) of quietude and gentle calmness, tucked up along the banks of a currently seething, flooding 3km-wide Parana River. The little Argentine town of Goya (Godja, to the tongue) plies its slow trade alongside the 4,880km-long waterway that in turn divides Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina, harbouring the Iguazu Falls halfway along its stretch for good measure. A flat river-plain town, ... read more

Saturday 21st December (Odyssey Day 43) Cook group 2 was on again today, so I was up to set out breakfast at 0615. It was a rushed breakfast this morning, as at 0700 we all had a boat tour of Laguna Ibera which lasted for 2 hours. We were split into three boats for the trip and fortunately Triona was in our boat and able to translate some of what our guide was saying as her Spanish is a lot better than the rest of ours. This made it a lot more interesting as we could understand what he was telling us about the area and the animals. We saw some caiman of various sizes and plenty of different birds. The splashes in the water in some areas were apparently piranha but we could only see ... read more

Again, we have no idea where we were exactly so sorry if the location is incorrect After breakfast at the hotel, we walked across the way to the camp site to put our baggage back on the truck and we drove off on another long driving day. A couple of toilet stops and we stopped for lunch at the edge of a garage forecourt as there was a bit of shade. The weather is really hot!! It was our turn to do lunch so we got it all together - cheese, tuna and ham and the day before's pasta salad. Also some oranges we cut into quarters. After lunch was cleared away, back on to the truck for the rest of the long drive towards Puerto Iguazu and a 'bush camp' for the night. We stopped ... read more

The very posh fast ferry from Colonia gets us back to Buenos Aires in time for lunch. We spend the afternoon stocking up on various supplies before our strike out into the Argentine provinces. We grab a quick but delicious dinner of Mexican tacos (real ones, not Old El Paso...) in Palermo before hopping on the Subte, Buenos Aires' answer to the Underground, to Retiro bus station. Retiro makes Victoria Coach Station look like a village bus stop. In a country as large as Argentina, and where flying is out of reach of most people, bus travel is the way to get from A to B - even when B is very, very far from A, as often is the case here...It's a massive three-storey structure with dozens of bays lined up the middle floor, with ... read more

Be warned, myself and Niamh have been without internet for several days due to the fact that we have been staying in the Argentinean backwoods towns, it’s a bit like that film deliverance except with friendlier locals with a full set of teeth,. no duelling banjos and thankfully no anal rape. Anyway, this blog entry is longer then normal so just bear with it, we have promised to stay in more advanced towns in future to keep things more tight and coherent. Argentina, with the rainforest at its crown and Patagonia nearly resting its feet on the Antarctic circle, home of Che Guevara, Philippe Conteponi, legendary steaks, giganotosaurus and the future birthplace of Johnny Rico*, its going to be some place to visit. Niamh managed to survive her well kept dorm and I managed to survive ... read more