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Published: March 3rd 2010
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Posadas
Sculpture of a man drinking mate (pronounced ma-tay) - extremely popular in SA. Posadas - not much to say because there´s not much going on. This is a very small town that - as far we can tell - doesn´t see a lot of tourists. The people however are very friendly and, despite there not being much to do, it has been a really nice place to relax for a few days.
We arrived in Posadas by bus (5 hours) from Puerto Iguazú in the afternoon of the 28th. We caught a taxi into town with a couple (Ashley and Katka) from Australia/Czech Republic and ended up spending the evening having dinner and drinks with them. Very friendly people which made for a fun night. We also met a guy from the US (David) who we´ve had dinner with a couple times. Funny how the only English-speaking tourists in town manage to find each other 😊
Accommodation here hasn´t been too bad as we switched rooms on our 2nd day to something less comfortable but more affordable. The first day we arrived we checked into ´City Hotel´ which was very clean, had cable TV, air conditioning and a fantastic view of the city and water. We would have preferred to stay there,
Posadas
The bridge connecting Argentina - Paraguay. especially for the air conditioning as Posadas is HOT, but thought it would be best to move to a place that was AR. 100 less/night. So we moved to the ´Residencial Misiones´ which only cost us AR. 70/2ppl/night (approx. $18.45 USD). Not bad considering the price - private bathroom, comfortable bed, air conditioning that sort of works and sheets that are dark enough that you can´t really notice how bad they´re stained. Once we got past the discovery of blood on the mattress, a gecko on the wall and a small scorpion in the bathtub, we were fine. I think it´s kind of cozy - (funny what a person will overlook when the price is right). Plus, the staff are friendly which always makes up for a few shortcomings.
We originally did not plan on coming to Posadas as we wanted to cross into Paraguay from Puerto Iguazú. However, once we discovered that we could not access Paraguay by bus without crossing into Brazil (which we would have to pay $65 USD each for a Brazilian Visa), and that the ferry across was questionable due to the suspicion of use by drug traffickers, we decided it would be best
to make our way to a different entry point.
So that´s what we are doing tomorrow. We have been staring for 4 days at the large bridge that connects Posadas, Argentina with Encarnación, Paraguay across the Paraná River, wondering just how difficult it is going to be to cross - we have heard some pretty bad stories. Unfortunately, the stories (found on internet blog sites of other similar sources) are very few and far between as no one seems to ever go there. Paraguay is definitely not on the ¨to do¨ list for most travelers who come to South America and we have yet to actually meet anyone who has been - or was ever planning to visit - anywhere in the country. To say the least, it should make for an interesting experience 😊
As for the natural disasters that have been occurring in South America lately, fortunately we have not been anywhere near the countries at these particular times so have been left unaffected. We were fortunate to have hiked the Inca Trail in Peru in December, just a month prior to the massive flooding in the areas surrounding Machu Picchu; we also just missed the
Posadas
Braeden, me, Ashley and Katka. massive earthquake that shook Chile by only a few weeks. I guess timing has been on our side. We are however in dengue territory right now and - according to the ´Merco Press´ - ¨...sanitary authorities from the Argentine northern province of Misiones, next to Paraguay, have confirmed 424 dengue cases since mid December... However officials are on the alert because in the city of Port Iguazú, where the three countries meet (Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil) next to the world famous falls, a daily average of 60 people visits medical centres with possible symptoms of the disease... Misiones was put on “yellow alert” last year following the epidemic in Paraguay¨ (Thursday, February 18th 2010). Perhaps we should start wearing bug spray...
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