Blogs from Misiones, Argentina, South America - page 3

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Made it to our hotel. The view of the falls is beautiful. Walked the lower falls circuit. Nearly stepped on the tarantula. Pedro says I nearly brushed my foot on it. We are enjoying ourselves. It is nice and warm in the upper 80's.... read more
Relaxing at the Sheraton
Tarantula
Salto Alvar Nunez


Waterboarding Iguazú's waterfalls are among the 3 biggest and most impressive in the world, we guess together with the Niagara and Victoria ones. You might think, if you've seen a waterfall you've seen them all, well, not quite the case. The rivalry between the Argentinians and the Brazilians goes beyond football, beyond Gauchos, all the way to this impressive natural wonder, they argue as where the falls are , Argentinians found the right approach into this dilemma, they say, the Iguazú falls are in Brazil, but we've got the view.... And they do. We adventured ourselves with Francisco's little Esportuguese and the local bus outside of our hotel in Foça de Iguazu on the Brazilian side to go to Cataratas de Iguazú about 45 mins away, the bus took us through the border into the city ... read more
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Today we visited the Argentinian side of Iguazu falls. 85% of the 250 falls lie in Argentina, but they formed geologically 200,000 years ago in Brazil along the Parama River. They are one of the 7 new wonders of the world, and UNESCO has them heritage listed. The Argentinian side has an emphasis on it being a national park, there are many options for walkways to take you beside, on top of and right near the falls from many angles. The whole park is wheel chair friendly with all terrain wheelchairs available, ramps, and a train to take you to major vantage points. Toucans and monkeys are supposedly able to be seen, we only saw many Coaties (the animals on the signs) which are scavengers and must not be feed. You can take optional tours under ... read more
The latest in Zika wear, find that flesh you pesky mosquito
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Train to take you around

South America » Argentina » Misiones » Puerto Iguazú July 17th 2016

We left the house in La Plata on Saturday by taxi to the long distance bus terminal. This is the first day of school holidays and the queues were long. We had to take the bus to Buenos Aires to catch our bus to Puerto Iguazu. Retiro is the long distance bus terminal of Buenos Aires, again massive crowds, huge amount of buses. Most people travel by bus in this country, internal flights are expensive, train travel virtually non existent and many do not own a car. So the bus left at 1-30pm and we were travelling semi cama class. Cama class is full lie down seats, meal and wine service with airline first class seat room. Semi cama was seats that were closer together, and a cold styrofoam tray of food. They did recline almost ... read more
Section D wait area in Retiro
Retiro bus terminal like an airport
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I made a last-minute decision to visit Iguazu after finding a flight from Buenos Aires that was only $150, since it was low season. This was actually cheaper than the 20+ hour bus. Another factor is that the $160 Brazilian visa fee has been lifted for the Olympics, so visitors can visit both sides relatively cheaply. The only problem that can't be solved is that there isn't much else to do in the area, so I just stayed for two full days (which is plenty) before flying to Salta. The Argentinian side is vastly superior and it alone made the trip worthwhile. 10 miles of trails and walkways take visitors to different viewpoints of the 275 separate drops in the falls, the largest of which is similar to Niagara. It isn't very crowded until the tour ... read more
Island
From the Island
From Devil's Throat (Garganta del Diablo)


So I left Sao Paulo with a fifteen hour bus ride staring me in the face. I figured it would be long, but not to bad. I departed at 6:30pm and arrived in Foz do Iguacu a little before 10am the next day. The bus ride was in fact really awful. The bus was old, crowded and my seat was broken and did not recline. Couple this with the fact the suspension was shot so every bump rattled and hummed all night long. I slept maybe 45 minutes. Bleary eyed I took the local bus into the center of town and set out to find accommodation which thankfully only took 10 minutes or so. The reason I had come here was to view the world renowned Iguazu Falls which are on the triple border of Brazil, ... read more
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South America » Argentina » Misiones » Iguazú National Park January 29th 2016

I remember speed walking, that’s how we started our day. We were wiggling our asses around the river & through the woods to the embassy we go! It was everything…took everything, to get out of bed before eight. We had to get to the embassy by nine to turn in my visa paperwork. At 8:59 exactly, Jon and I were at the front door. Paperwork and a smile. A different employee came out and unlocked the door. He was dark skinned and freckled. The man looked so incredibly different from his co-workers, in that he wore a wide smile and looked generally enthused about life. I hope I get to talk to him. There were a few other groups waiting along with us. Most of them Australian, they all couldn’t believe how much more money Americans ... read more
Rainy Iguazu

South America » Argentina » Misiones » Iguazú National Park January 28th 2016

The air was heavier, denser. The heat slapped us when we walked off the plane. Immediately Jon’s shirt came off – his official unofficial uniform for South America. Greenery seemed to eat up the landscape, leaving the road inches from its own solitude. For miles -- or kilometers rather – we drove deeper and deeper into the jungle. So deep, that instead of seeing ‘Deer Crossing’ signs on the road, the signs had animal silhouettes that I didn’t even know existed. I was Dorothy and we weren’t in Kansas anymore. The taxi dropped us off at our hostel. We couldn’t see the place from the road and had to lug our packs through a marked trail to get there. Jon had booked the place, so the anticipation was killing me to see it. A short distance ... read more
Hot Date, Steak Dinner
Breakfast in Bed

South America » Argentina » Misiones December 12th 2015

Dall’aereo si vede Buenos Aires, una distesa di terra piatta ed enorme che piano piano diventa città. Quando atterri a Puerto Iguazu, dopo 24 ore di viaggio, la prima cosa che ti assale é l’afa, e le zanzare. L’umidità invece più che sentirsi si vede, dai miei capelli nello specifico. Quando viaggi da solo, mi si dice, ala fine é più il tempo che passi in compagnia che quello che riesci a dedicare a te stessa. In questo il mio viaggio non é un’ eccezione. Anzi, io manco lo comincio sto viaggio, che già trovo chi s’accolla. Il turco socievole, il tedesco disorganizzato. E poi arriva lei- ‘perdona, una pregunta!’. Non so se é il metro e cinquanta di zaino che parla, o il metro e cinquantacinque di donna ivi attaccata tramite spallacci. Fatto sta che ... read more
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Today was our second time taking on the national park, and it was amazing. We did the second part of the park adventure package we'd paid for, which was the better half (the first was the ecological tour yesterday). This part was called the Gran Aventura (grand adventure), and it was grand. It started with a jeep ride through the heart of the jungle, to see the plants and hopefully some wildlife. Unfortunately, as we took it at noon, in the heat of the day, we struck out on the second part, but the jungle and the information we learned was cool. There are a couple thousand species of plants in the jungle, which is the only real jungle in Argentina. There are 6 species of cats, the three largest of which are the jaguar, puma, ... read more
More waterfall
MOAR WATERFALL
Selfie by the falls!




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