Day 6 - Puerto Iguazu

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Day 6 - Night Bus to Iguazu:

Despite some initial apprehension about the impending length of our journey, the bus trip to the Puerto Iguazu wasn´t too hard. The time had passed reasonably quickly - the movies shown on the overhead televsion were better than what we had seen on the plane ride from Canada to Argentina. Dina was able to keep herself entertained by speaking with some of the other people on board, in Spanish, while I attempted unsuccessfully to get some sleep. There was a young fellow sitting directly to the right of us, whom Dina spoke to for a while. She later told me that he was from Paraguay - his job was buying/selling items in BA, and transporting items back to his town, near the falls, for resale. Our travel guide (rough guide) listed the Paraguayan town near Iguazu unsuitable for tourism, and unsafe. He insisted that this was bogus - however, when Dina asked about a jagged scar on his left leg, he said he got it from a knife attack not far from his home. Hmmm....

There was also a lady from Brazil, travelling with her husband, whom Dina spoke with for a while. They were returning home to attend the funeral of their son, who had been killed after the car he had been driving rammed into a horse. The conversation left Dina feeling a bit vexed - it reminded her of a sight that she had witnessed during our taxi ride to the Sandanzas Hostel, the first day we had arrived in the country. An unlucky fellow who had been driving a motor bike had wrapped himself around a light pole. Dina had seen the body, face covered in black plastic, as our taxi passed by the scene. I had been looking the other way at the time, and saw nothing. Still, talk about traffic mayhem creeped me out a bit too. While Dina slept for a few hours next to me, I sat wide awake, staring at the road ahead out the corner of the front window of the bus. It was mostly dark, except for a short stretch of illuminated road directly in front of the headlights. I cringed whenever the driver pulled out to pass slower moving traffic. Eventually, I stopped watching, and the bus swayed to and fro as it sped upon endless miles of highway...

We had left the station on Monday, around 5:30 pm, and arrived at our destination the next day, at about 10:00 am. We walked from the bus station with our gear to our new place of stay, the El Guembe Hostal. The person in charge was a friendly gentleman with dark hair and a wide smile, who seemed very pleased that we had picked his place for our accomodation. He showed us to the room that was made ready for us - it was an individual cabin, complete with cable television. The TV had recently been installed, and it recieved many channels in english. However, Dina and I were extremely tired from the bus trip, and even though the sun was shining outside, we drifted off to sleep at around 12pm. When we woke again, it was already 8pm at night - talk about a long siesta! We caught a late supper at some place in town, and then retired back to our new hostal for the night...

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Photos

A long bus ride
The place we stayed at while in Puerto Iguazu wasn´t bad. We slept most of the first day after our arrival by bus...

El Gumbe
The Hostel we stayed at in Puerto Iguazu was run by friendly people, and the rooms were clean & tidy, if not a bit humid...