Five border crossings and no "donations" to customs officials...

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Leaving Buenos Aires I went on a road trip that would have me constantly reaching for my passport like a child into his Christmas stocking as I journeyed through Argentina, Uruguay, Argentina again, Brazil, Paraguay and then returned to Argentina.

First was the Argentinian town of Tigre, which sits on the delta of the Rio Plata, meaning one of the key attractions is a boat ride through the delta to explore some of the islands. I had met a local guy, Arturo, in the hostel and he recommended a great little restaurant that I should go to for lunch, and then the next day he was free and so he suggested we have a “tourist day” together. He was a really interesting guy: although he was born in Tigre, he had lived in Germany for many years, was a pilot and had his own business giving guided tours to wealthy Germans at weekends. He spoke English, but we conversed 75%-80% of the time in Spanish, which meant a huge amount to me in my continual attempts to improve my language skills. Arturo was not only top company, but a tour guide and a language tutor all rolled into one!! Like many times before, a visit to an out of the way place was turned from a good experience to a great experience by the friendliness/generosity of the locals!!

For my first border crossing I took a boat ride “across the river” - the only difference being it took 3 hours to cross the river as the delta is so vast at that point! Again the generosity of the locals got me off to an amazing start – I got chatting to a local Uruguayan lady on the boat across and it turned out she was going in the same direction as me to get to her home town. She insisted on paying for the taxi to the bus terminal and bought me my bus ticket as “good luck” for the rest of my travels!!

Fray Bentos was a tiny, friendly little town whose big “highlight” was the meat processing and canning factory that lent its name to the famous canned goods company whose eponymous corned beef or steak and kidney pies in a tin still fill supermarket shelves today (although I've never had the “pleasure” of trying one!!).

Production at the factory has ceased and the run down remains have been partially restored and converted into a museum - although it won't surprise you that the last entry on the guest book was 2 days before I arrived and the daily guided tour that I paid an extra 75p for turned out to be a private one!!

One of the key facts that I learned was that Fray Bentos were able to take 32 kilos of meat and “convert” it into one kilo of meat extract while apparently keeping virtually all the nutrients. Now this to me sounds like a terrible thing, but the positive was that during the first world war these tins of corned beef could be easily transported en masse to the front line (along with the OXO beef extract to which you added water to create a hot “beef tea” - yum) and were apparently one of the main things that kept our soldiers going in the trenches. The museum contained letters home from soldiers asking for more of the Beef Tea and also an acknowledgement from the company that their most successful times as a business had been based on the suffering of so many and they never wanted it to be like this again. Sobering stuff.

Elsewhere in Uruguay I stayed at the oldest hotel in the country (built 1860) in Salta which is a town most famous for its thermal baths. Now usually the oldest hotel in a country is just a cover to justify why the paint is peeling (which it was) and the plumbing isn't great (which it wasn't). However these minor “idiosyncrasies” helped me negotiate a price that I could afford, and the courtyard of the hotel oozed colonial charm and the owner was so friendly I felt very at home! (http://www.granhotelconcordia.com.uy/)

I hopped back across the border (to Argentina) on another river boat (only 10 minutes this time) and got a surprisingly cheap bus up to the Iguazu Falls. It only became apparent why it was so cheap after I had bought the ticket, as the wily saleswoman then went on to explain how the bus didn't actually come to the bus terminal, they lay on a taxi to dump you at a service station on the motorway just outside town and you get the bus from there! Needless to say that while the bus refused to come to my terminal it then proceeded to stop at seemingly every hamlet en route meaning a supposed 12 hour journey took 15! A quick lesson on what questions to ask when a price does seem too good to be true!!

I had been to Iguazu falls in my previous trip to South America, but given how absolutely spectacular they are I had absolutely no hesitation in heading back there for another viewing. You get up close to so many of the falls that you are frequently kept cool by the fine mist created as the cataracts tumble onto the rocks below. Particular highlights were the viewpoint of the most powerful of the cataracts known as the garganta del diablo (Devil's Throat), but my personal favourite was probably wandering around Isla San Martin, which is an island created in the middle of the Rio Iguazu as it is forced to braid. You have to get a boat across to the island, and hike up about 50 vertical metres of steps, meaning it is less crowded with tourists (given we did the walk in the middle of the day I was sweating buckets afterwards!!).

To share the viewpoints with relatively few tourists is a great experience, and because you are at the centre of the falls there is a 180 degree plus panaroma as the falls curve around you which cannot be truly captured in a photo – you have to have been there to truly experience it. From Isla San Martin I even recognised the “private” waterfall which we went rock-hopping to get to last time around. Since then they've put up some bigger barriers to stop you getting there so I was a good boy and didn't head back – must be a sign of age!! (http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Uruguay/District-of-Montevideo/Montevideo/blog-133095.html)



I also threw some money at a wet 'n' wild adventure speedboat ride which took you right up to – and into – one of the larger cataracts. Suffice to say the spray is so strong that you don't actually get to see anything as you are forced to screw your eyes tight shut! Even though it only lasts 12 minutes and costs more than the park entry – it was definitely a highlight of my time at the falls.

Its often forgotten that the Iguazu falls form part of a much larger national park with wide and varied wildlife. To try and experience this a bit more closely I took a great raft trip on one of the more tranquil parts of the river. It was a very relaxed experience (we were being paddled by our guide!) and saw a host of bird and marine life as well as monkeys and a toucan so it was definitely a great way to round off a day at the falls!

On the Argentinian side of the falls I was staying at Mango Tree Bar Hostel (http://www.facebook.com/MangoTreeHostelBar?filter=3), with a great pool, great people, friendly staff and most of all Ed – the cocktail and grill man. He ran everything to do with food and drink there, and while his menu may not have been extensive (steak, fish, ice cold beer, fresh passion fruit cocktails) it was absolutely sublime. I stayed there four nights, and ate and drank at the bar four nights - including a random Thursday when, after one too many of Ed's passion fruit haymakers, we were heading onto town, getting bantered about the Falklands by a group of Argentinian Air Force guys that were on leave, getting back and only stopping when the sun came up and we realised that the staff were looking to lay out the breakfast for the “normal” guests!!

However, the highlight was definitely the steak. Ed had dreamed of opening a steak house in Venice Beach, but there was no way he could get the capital to start that, so after selling his business pre-financial crash him and him girlfriend were setting out to provide surely the best steaks in Argentina (and I know how big a claim that is!). A “regular” steak was 700 grammes, and as a “loyal customer” on my final night Ed selected a prime 900 gram slab to see me on my way. Cooked on the parilla exactly to your liking (rare in my case or blue for the frenchmen next to me!!) I was in culinary heaven!!

After another border crossing to stay a couple of nights and view the falls from the Brazilian side, I headed to Paraguay. Why I headed to Paraguay is a good question, and one I don't have much of an answer for! I guess it was there, and I'd only ever met one person that have travelled to Paraguay before, so it seemed enticing. I hoped that like some of the small towns in Uruguay, I might stumble across a little gem. In some ways I did, as I had a wonderful time in Asuncion (the capital), but this was again absolutely due to the people I met rather than the intrinsic wonder that is Paraguay!!

Things started well when arriving at the Eco Hostal El Jardin (http://www.hostelbookers.com/hostels/paraguay/asuncion/79402) to find its leafy, shaded garden and hammocks. The owner Thomas was from Sweden and havingmet Carolina (his now wife who is from Paraguay), they had opened the hostel together in January 2012 (meaning it had without doubt the best showers that I had ever experienced in a hostel anywhere!!).

Thomas and Carolina went out of their way to talk to me in Spanish and help me improve, as well as providing ideas to help me get the most out of my trip to Paraguay – although it has to be said that the tools they were working with were slim!! A trip to a “beauty spot” about 40km out of town ended up at a muddy brown lake with signs warning against going swimming due to the pollution!!

Even a storm of biblical proportions that flooded our dorm and sent us rapidly packing our stuff to get it off the floor couldn't dampen our spirits (see pictures via this link (http://www.ultimahora.com/imagenes/581235-Temporal-y-caos-en-imagenes-). Like many of my favourite places, the people are what made the difference, and in Uruguay and Paraguay I certainly found that everyone I met was incredibly friendly – from the hostel/hotel owners to the bus and taxi drivers to the market traders. I guess that's the reason I enjoy South America so much – once you have that (limited) connection in a mutual language, the locals often open their arms to you which can make such an incredible difference...

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Photos

Devil's throat
A view of the most powerful of the many cascades

Fray Bentos...
...the eerie remains of the meat processing plant. The factory was as empty as the guestbook!

Wet n Wild motorboats...
...one of the highlights of the time in the park. This time I was watching someone else take their turn for a soaking!!

Toucan...
...to make this clear I didn't snap this in the national park, but at an aviary I visited in Brazil. My attempts to photograph animals and birds in the wild invariably have to be preceded with "the back end of ....[insert animal here]"!!

The best steak in Argentina...*
* this may not be true but I look forward to trying to better it!

A Paraguayan welcome...
The wonderful sight that greeted me in Asuncion (you'll note that no other photos of Paraguay have made it into the blog!)

Comments

[Danielle]

Food
When I started reading this update, I became a little worried that food would only be alluded to obliquely rather than being the main event, as it were. Then coming upon the Fray Bentos factory description, I decided that maybe I didn\'t want to know about the food at all (I\'ve previously witnessed someone, voluntarily, cooking and eating Fray Bentos pies, and as a person who views food as something to enjoy and possibly even savour, this memory of gloopy pie crust dough and murky meat bits has haunted me somewhat over the years...). So I thank you for then rewarding our faithful reading by including a photo of a nice juicy steak and a lovely description. Yes that is indeed something that cannot be captured, even with a panorama, scratch-and-sniff lens, (I am told those are quite dear) no, one must really be there for that, or so I am told...