Iguazu August 2015

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We arrive at Pousada Son Mehu, sooo close to the bus station and the huge Muffeta shopping center. Being mentioned in LP has really made this a busy place. Dinner is at the Churasco just up the street, luckily Robin is no longer a vegetarian. It's so good and convenient that we go back the next night as well. Sunday we take the 120 bus to the Falls, and hit the trails. An excellent day! We took the boat ride under the falls, and nothing, absolutely nothing, stays dry. Day 2 we take the bus out to the Buddhist Monastery, but it is indeed closed on Mondays. Still, the bus ride gives us a chance to see the outskirts of the city, and some of the neighborhoods. We also decide to take the plunge and hit the Argentina side, so we got some help from the great folks at Hostel Katarina and purchased the AR Visas required for Americans (and CAN and AUS too), and booked our trip there as well. The AR side (day 3) is much different, you get out over the top of the falls, and is worth it. By this point we are staying at the Nacional hotel out by the airport. We buy a cacao drink from a street vendor outside the hotel and all our conversation is in German...go figure. We ate at the Nacional both nights, which wasn't bad for hotel food.

Side notes: Folks at Son Mehu like to party at night! It's so bad one night that Robin yells SILENCIO out the window, but they don't even hear her. We recognize the language as French, and the next morning we spot the guilty folks....one guy looks like he plays for the NHL. We learn why you must enter the bus station from the entrance side...enter the wrong side, and a guy appears out of nowhere and grabs you by the ear and brings you around to the cashier. Somehow we exchange USD for R at a rate better than the official exchange rate, a sign of the pessimism in the future of the R. One morning while waiting for the bus a taxi driver picks us up and gives us a lift, no charge, he just wanted to practice his English, and we sang along to Aerosmith on his radio.

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