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Published: March 4th 2007
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After a relaxing but very short visit to beautiful Florianoplis, we arrived on the Argentinian side of the Iguazu falls after yet another long night bus. We decided to leave the falls on a night bus the next day so we had two half days to do the touisty thing and have a good look at these world famous waterfalls.
We arrived at the falls in the afternoon and decided to go for a boat ride to experience the view from water level. Water certainly was the operative word as we didn't anticipate that the boat would actually go under the falls not once but several times. We were a bit concerned when the boat driver gave us a dry sack to put all our valuables in first, before giving us a lifejacket and donning a storm-proof head to toe jacket. Georgie's Tip of the Week: Do NOT wear a baby pink t-shirt with a white bra when coming in contact with lots of water as this nearly equates to a wet t-shirt competition. (Bryce on the other hand only wears black bras so is generally safe in water situations). In between screaming our heads off (mainly Georgie), we took
in the spectuclar falls. There were several of them in the area where we were which made it even more amazing. After hopping off the boat utterly drenched, we slowly walked back and caught the bus back to our hostel as we didn't think it was too ladylike to be parading around with a near see-though top on!
The next day we returned to the falls and saw the devil's throat waterfalls which are basically a semi circle of falls cascading down into the centre. You stand on the top and look down but the view is partially blocked by all the mist which means we got a bit wet again but nothing as bad as the day before. The view is absolutely spectacular and puts to shame all the waterfalls we have seen before. It is not the tallet or largest waterfall in the world but the shape of the semi circle makes it beautiful to look at. After spending some time getting wet, we walked back along the top of the other falls (I think there is about 250 in total). Then we had to hot foot to our next night bus.
The bus from Iguazu
to Buenos Aires is by far the best bus we have been on so far. The seats nearly fully reclined, the toilet (yes there was a toilet!) actually had toilet paper, there were 2 new release movies but by far the best thing was that the bus stopped and everyone got off for a three course meal including free wine and champagne! That helped us get to sleep and we slept most of the way. After 19 hours on the bus we arrived in BA.
We had a look around the city which is a bit more cosmopolitan than Rio and it has thousands of shops with bargain prices so needless to say Georgie was in heaven! Bryce had also been dreaming of arriving in BA, but not for the shopping... he was looking foward to the biggest and juiciest steak you have ever seen and he found it. You know the steak is big when it is at least an inch thick and takes up 3/4 of the plate - and for 2 mains, a salad and wine our meal came to a grand total of $30! How can you beat that??!
After indulging in all of
our dreams in BA, we then decided to have a tango lesson to work off all that meat! Now Georgie and Bryce dancing is like a combination of Simone Warne, Pauline Hansen, Andrew Gaze and Molly Meldrum from Dancing with the Stars all mixed in to make four left feet and the lack of a little thing called rhythm. It was a fun class though and by the end Georgie wasn't standing on Bryce's feet nearly as much and Bryce had nearly perfected his turns. Then we hit a real Tango club and felt all of our self confidience dance right out of the door. The professionals were absolutely amazing and you had to really concentrate to keep up with them (a few drinks didn't help either!). We had one go at getting on the dance floor and were so nervous that we just did the absolutely basics and then got off again in a hurry.... needless to say we need more practice!
The next day we caught the ferry across to Urguay. We landed in Colonia del Sacremento which is a gorgeous little port town which has winding cobble stone streets and old European manisons set on a
pennisula. It was just like we had stepped into a historical English film. Our thee day jaunt to Urguay started off being another opportunity to get another stamp in our passport but it exceeded our expectations. We stayed in Montevideo which is a very small capital city compared to the others we have visited. Food also featured quite highly in our trip to Urguay. Down near the port we found a place where Bryce would be happy eat at everyday for the rest of his life. It is called Puerto Mercardo which is basically a giant food court but all the food stalls are selling meat that has been freshly grilled on the BBQ. We had huge lunches and then couldn't eat dinner. The serving sizes could have possibly fed a family of starving Somalians for a month rather than one person.
We caught the ferry back to BA in time for the beginning of the Saturday night festivities. We arrived back at the hostel at about midnight, settled in and got changed then found ourselves having dinner at 1.45am at a mexican resturant which still had people coming in after us to order food! Anyway after dinner and
a cocktail each, we hit the hottest club in town Ă“pera Bay at 2.30am. It is a huge nightclub on the waters edge and is a bit of a take off of the Opera House with cheesy features like a water fountain. There are 4 rooms with different music in each and it is easily the biggest club we have ever been to. We heard a rumour that it fits 4000 people. The drinks were very expensive though so we took it easy on the alcohol. We lasted until about 6am before calling it a night but the club was still raging when we left.
On Sunday in BA there is a huge sprawling outdoor market which we spent today meandering through. The atmosphere was fantastic with many street performers and musicians.
Tomorrow we head down to Ushuaia, the Southern most city in the world for 3 days and then over to Mendoza (and a 4 star hotel!) for Georgie's birthday then home 😞
DON'T FORGET IT IS GEORGIE'S BIRTHDAY ON 10 MARCH AND IF YOU DON'T SENT ME A HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMAIL YOU WILL BE SHUNNED.
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Jess
non-member comment
Wilson!
Bryce.... castaway eat your heart out! And George, Is that a bit of a tan we're seeing? xxxx