Advertisement
Published: December 26th 2006
Nick:
Well, suffice to say lesson learnt in Santa Cruz Province. This time we forked out and booked the best coach seats we could afford! Out bound this turned out to be a more plush, more horizontal seat with dinner, drinks, blanket and pillow included. We boarded the coach that evening after a rather hazardous experience which is shopping in BA: very easy to spend. The coach pulled away at 21.00 and started its charge North. The meal came, the movie played, and we slept as well as could be expected: and by default this was far more so than on the way to El Calafate. The next morning breakfast was served and we read away the hours until our arrival. I often looked out of the window at the road ahead of us as it hurled itself under the coach, and wished that the bike was our means. But of course this could not be. The scenery we saw had changed dramatically since it hid under the cloak of night the previous evening. Greenery abounded and every patch of bare earth was a deep rich red colour visibly bursting with fertility.
We arrived at around midday, and alighted
from our cocoon to be smacked in the face by a wall of humidity and heat. Its seems not just the scenery had changed... and there we were thinking it was hot in BA! We managed to crawl through the thick air as far as the bus station cafe and collapsed, wondering why our bodies were leaking so much from every pore!! I braved the temperatures after a bite to eat and went to look for a place to sleep that night, leaving Kristina to sit in the cafe a little longer. Given the tourist attraction status of the area, we had decided to allow ourselves a bit of flexibility on the budget front. Armed with this veritable gold mine, I soon found a nice little hotel with aircon rooms, return with Kris and we then settled down. By now it was about 13.30 and we decided that it would be far better to investigate the area's facilities, research what we should see over the next coulple of days and how much it would cost. With this in mind we went downstairs and lounged by the pool ordering a steady stream of beer and cold water in nifty polystyrene containers,
and read our books. We also dive bombed each other in the pool so , all things considered, you can imagine we were now a formidable repository of knowledge on Puerto Iguazu and around!!
The next day we woke and headed for the bus station. There a bus took us to the National Park of the falls and we started our visit. On the Argentine side there are several paths to follow and we walked along all but one on that first day. We were a veritable o whirlwind of focusing and shutter releasing as every step revealed yet another amazing view of the falls or yet another beautifully coloured bird, lizard, or butterfly. We had been told that the falls were worth seeing, but that statement really doesn't come close to doing Iguazu justice. For full affect, the persons concerned should have attached electrodes to my earlobes and screamed "Go to Iguazu!" through a megaphone.
This was the first time that I had been in anything that even resembled a jungle, but the dense vegetaion that crowded the road to the Park, the pathes that we walked along and the banks for the rivers feeding the falls all
These guys were all over the place
And given the temperatures, these cold-blooded reptiles moved like lightninglooked as they should: impenetrable undergrowth, tall trees draped with vines, with reptiles climbing their limbs or sunning themsleves on rocks below. That evening we returned full of amazement at what we had seen, ready for day 2.
As with the previous morning, we felt ,as we left our room for breakfast, that all our energy was still in a pile beside the bed, such was the difference between the aircon within and the stifling heat in the corridor. Unfortunately, Kristina was not feeling on top of the world and so we opted for a lazy morning in the hotel to see if she felt better later that day. Improve she did, and we left under a hot yet cloudy sky. As we drove to the Peark in the bus, we were blessed with something that allegedly happened very infrequently according to the hotel owner: rain... sub-tropical rain. The first fat drops moistened and cooled our hands as we stuck them out of the bus window. The same fat drops then intensyfied to drench us in the 30 paces between the bus and the entrance building. Fortunately, we were told by one of the park wardens that the rains
In London, cafes have pigeons...
...in Iguazu, they have these. At least these fellow have the decency not to fly off and poo on your head in the process would be over in about 30 mins. 210 mins, 4 near slides, one Guarani cotton rucksack purchase, and 2 coffee and snacks later we decided the rains were not abating and that we should see the last of the Argentine attractions regardless and took the small train to the farthest station. From there, now in our swimming gear, as we would have been no wetter in the river itself, we walked the kilometer of elevated walkways to the edge of the star attraction: "La Garganta Del Diablo", or Devil's Throat; a huge arch carved into the cliff face over which an uminaginable amount of water fell into an abyss of spray and noise. And all the while, hundreds of swifts dove in and out of the torrents to reach their perches and nests under the actual falls! Its worth remembering that the spray from one of the smaller tributaries has stung our skin during a boat ride to its base, and the full force of the water would crush anyone under it, yet these little lunatics were blasting around the biggest part, regardless. I also think they must be deaf by now: the noise was immense. After exposig my poor
camera to all this spray and rain we then walked back to the train and then onto the bus home: it never fully stopped raining once...not once!!!
The next day was the day of our return to BA and we only had about 5 hours before it was time to board the bus. We decided to take a calculated risk and agreed a price with a local taxi driver who knew the ropes: we were off to Brazil!! We were soon glad to have paid a few pesos more for the taxi express lane as we saved a lot of time and hassle at the border. The Brazillian side is a lot more plush than the Argentine park, but smaller. In Brasil there is a huge welcome centre, with big buses to ferry you from one end to the other, and so, just wandering feels a bit easier back over the border. Nonetheless, the views are spectacular and we saw some wonderful flora and fauna: Butterflies, milipedes, and the incredibly noisy cicadas that we had not yet managed to spot. Unfortunatly for my nerves, there were also a healthy selection of spiders. The paths led us slowly down to
the waters edges followed by a gangway to the edge of the falls. From there we got a fantastic panorama of this natural amphitheatre. After almost 3 hours we hopped back in the taxi, just as the heavens opened, and we were driven to a local eating house, where we had delicious buffet lunch where a waiter would come out at intervals with a tray and piece of chicken, pork, beef, or lamb, fresh off the spit roast in the kitchen. We were back with a good 30 minutes to spare before the bus left, and we boarded comfortably. The return journey was much the same as the outbound, except that this time, we had booked the Super Cama class where the seats go completely horizontal. We arrived back in BA at 08.00 the next day and slowly made our way back to Emily and Eric's abode, where Emily prepared for her own coach trip to see the rest of clan at the farm; Marahue!! We decided to head off for a spot of shopping and site seeing and ended up walking a good 10 km throughout BsAs. We first went to the botanical gardens, which has mmore cats than
plants, and then on to the athmospheric Recolleta cemetery; full of impressive and sometimes austentatious mausoleums, and reminiscent of Pere Lachaise in Paris. This proved to be a great place for photographic inspiration and Kris and I fired away for over an hour. We then continued on towards Avenida Corrientes famed as a manifestation of the Argentine love affair with literature with its dozens of bookshops. Another 30 mins of walking saw us at the entrance of La Confiteria Ideal. As well as being a confectioners as the name suggests, a climb to the first floor revealed a beautiful first floor Tango ballroom, where its patrons come to have a refreshment and when the mood takes them , they join to dozens of couples Tangoing in the heat of a BsAs december afternoon. The place looked like a timewarp. The 1920's decor was unchanged and often unrefurbished. The chairs have thread-bare padding and the walls and ceiling showed peeling paint and cracked plaster. This all added to the wonderful feeling of a place that had withstood the test of time and political upheaval to remain a place for the Argentines of BsAs to indulge one of their greatest passions with
characteristic devotion.
The next days we continued our discovery of BsAs but this time we simply walked around to see where the roads took us. We found nice markets on the squares and ambled along the old docks of Puerto Madero. Another find was the colourful buildings and vibrant street performances of El Carminito, a small area of La Boca district, originally the home of immigrant Italians from Genoa. There the bright and pastel houses are home to artists, restaurants, shops and they dance tango in the streets, although largely for the visiting tourists. That evening we made our way out of BsAs to a district some 20 km away to meet my mothers friend, Juan and his family who had kindly opened their doors to us on Christmas Eve, a typically family event. This was indeed a charming evening spent with a lovely family. It was a wonderful athmosphere with laughter and fun, good food, good wine, fireworks throughout the neighbourhood and a balmy night outside. This morning we said our goodbyes and returned to Eric and Emily's flat, had a lazy afternoon indoors before a nice walk in the warm evening air.
The bags are now
packed. Tomorrow we plan to make a short stop at Dakar Motos to say our farewells to Javier and Sandra, before making our way to the airport for the trip home.
It is sad to think that the trip has come to an end and I will truely miss Argentina, its landscapes and its people. However, I also feel ready to return home to see family and friends, sleep in our familiar bed and look out at our familiar garden, albeit not as exotic as Iguazu or the Patagonian steppe. With our return to England there will also be the retun to work, and I hope to have good fortune in finding an interesting and enjoyable place to start earning my way, once more. I also hope that this will not be too great a shock to me! Once back in "normality", whatever that is, perhaps inspiration will strike for the next place to visit.
Kriss:
Water. Since the last blog entry we've been at the waterfalls and under the waterfalls and rained on and sweating like mad... Puerto Iguazu welcomed us with +42C and (at least) 90% humidity! Quite a shock to the system, I must say.
We stepped down from the bus into a lush, green part of the country; the earth was deep red and the plants enormous, and the air was thick and loud with tropical bugs. But it was lovely! Even though I am clearly "made" for more "conservative" climate 😉 I felt instantly that I was very far from home - the sensation I had been longing for since the beginning of the journey. Our adventure was now officially complete!
After lazing all afternoon at the hotel pool side and splashing Nick with water we had a nice meal in a nearby restaurant and retired in our air conditioned hotel room. A full night on a horizontal, non-moving, spacious bed - heaven!
The next day was equally hot and humid. We caught a bus to the Iguazu National Park, a 40min bus-drive away and admired the sights. It was truly magnificent. The waterfalls were everywhere, big and small, above and below us! If I am right, the Iguazu riverside with the falls is altogether 7km long (including the Brazilian side). We were both very happy with our desicion to take the long bus ride up to the most northern tip of
the country. Hopefully our attempts to photograph the site will do them justice...
On the following morning I felt like I was coming down with a cold - I blame air conditioning for that, the over 20C difference with outside temperature always seems to have that unfortunate effect on me. I was determined to feel better in the afternoon and it worked. At 2pm we were back at the bus station and ready to return to the national park. We soon realised that Argentina had yet another surprise for us... Once at the park, it started. At first a few big drops, accompanied with some strong wind gusts and then followed with a substantial tropical rain storm. The locals reckoned that it would last about half an hour; 2 hours later, we decided to jump on the sightseeing train and see the most spectaular part of the waterfall park, "The Devil's Throat", with or without rain. It turned out to be
with the rain. In fact, it was so wet that we decided to strip down to our beach clothes, to save the dry clothes for the bus ride back to the hotel. The waterfall was a short walk
away from the final stop of the train and there we were, hiking towards the distant steam of the falls, surrounded by an electric storm - yet another memory that will stay with us for a long time. The Devil's Throat was indeed an outstanding sight. It is a triangle of falls, about 50 meters deep and the sound of the rushing waters is almost deafening. And in the middle of all this you can see some tiny, swallow-like birds flying through the misty air to their nests
under and next to the waterfalls! We were absolutely soaking and happy, taking it all in as much as we could 😊
Our return trip to BsAs was on Wednesday afternoon, and after considering all our options for seeing the Brazilian side of the waterfalls we decided to take a taxi across the border. It might sound extravagant, but the distances were not so big and the taxi prices here in Argentina are quite easy to the European tourists' pockets. Again, once standing on the other side of the river and admiring the sights we were happy with our decision to splash out on the taxi. Even though the falls as
This is only about a third.
The rest of the drop was behind us such were smaller, the views to the Argentine waterfalls were exellent. Courtesy of our driver we had a flying lunch in a Brazilian parrilla restaurant (delicious!) and we were back in the Puerto Iguazu bus station well on time to have a quick coffee before boarding on the coach.
Even though the buses in Argentina are very comfortable, I still felt groggy and grumpy when arriving in BsAs the next morning. In fact, I was so tired that I did not notice the taxi driver giving me a change of false AR$10 when he dropped us off at Emily's & Eric's! Luckily, it was not a big note (~£2) and we learnt our lesson fast.
We launched ourselves onto E&E's couch and turned on the TV to see what's been going on in the world during the last 3 months. War in Africa, fog in Heathrow, a baby-giant squid caught in Japanese sea. Everything seemed to be appropriately negative. So we switched off the TV again. We'll have time to listen to all of this when we are back in the UK.
The next few days we explored a bit of BsAs. Only a bit of it,
as we found it impossible to really get to know a town of 14 million in only 3 days! We must have walked a half marathon but it was all well worth it: the long, european-style streets of Belgrano and Palermo with lovely old houses, the small Botanical Gardens that were a refugee place for about a 100 stray cats, the beautiful Recolleta cemetery with 4000 mausoleums and the final resting place of Evita Peron, the artisain fairs, bookshops, the oldest Tango Club in BsAs called La Ideal, the local docks, and finally, an old part of the town called La Boca that was first inhabited by italian sailors who decided to paint their houses bright red, yellow and blue. La Boca can be a bit of a tourist trap and you should really keep your eye on your belongings when admiring the colorful scenery. There are also numerous elderly tango dancers who try to tempt you to have a lesson on the street, under the eyes of the rest of the wanderers... Unfortunately, our tango lessons will have to wait until until our next visit.
I like Buenos Aires a lot and I hope to have an opportunity
to continue the "exploration" one day.
Also, I am glad to see that after 3 months in South America I am finally starting to get a hint of Spanish and I have promised myself to not to let this skill fade. My dear friends at home - please remind me of this promise when I am back in the UK!!
Green Christmas On the 24th December, the Christmas Eve, we were invited to an Argentine family Christmas Dinner. Juan and Cynthia were colleagues of Nick's mother and we felt honoured for this invitation as Christmas in Argentina is a very family-centered event. We arrived at Juan's parents house 15 min early and learnt that apparently argentines are usually a bit late (a mental for anyone who is planning to visit this country!) 😉 It was a beautiful house with wooden floors and comfortable furniture, the ground floor was an open-space dining and sitting room, leading to a green garden with tall palm trees. Juan's familiy was extremely warm and welcoming - yet another assurance of the hospitality of the argentine people. We met his parents Dalia and Raul, brother Pablo and with his wife Ceciliy and their 5-months
old son Bautista, Ceciliy's parents and of course Juan's wife Cynthia and their 7-year old daughter Denise (Juan and Cynthia - please forgive me if I have misspelled some of the names!). We sat in the garden and chatted about life until ~9pm and then moved indoors to enjoy a light but generous meal of salads, meat, flans, fruit and ice cream. At midnight we went out in the garden to have a sip of champagne and admire the fireworks and then, to the great relief of young Denise again back indoors to open the presents. There was a present for everyone. Denise handed out the gifts one by one and once all the presents were opened, the receiver had to guess who had bought the gift for them. If you guessed wrong, you could not keep the present 😉 (for the next 5 minutes, anyway!)
I mentioned mosquitoes in my previous entry - and I was right! I'm not sure if the local mosquitoes were hoping to have their Christmas dinner through my bloodstream, but boy, were they agressive that night! I have exprienced it all now, including the hot Christmas with the hungry flying bugs!
It
was a very special Christmas for us and I was paticularily moved when Juan's father gave a short speach before the dinner and said that he will be thinking about our families back at home that evening.
We have met so many lovely people during this journey, some of which we will hope to stay in touch with for life, some of who have reminded us of important things in life.
Tomorrow we will fly back home.
I am telling myself what a friend of mine once told me when we knew we would not see one another for a long time: Every end is a beginning of something new.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.078s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 10; qc: 59; dbt: 0.0357s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Eliminator
non-member comment
ahh Guys, I've enjoyed reading your well written witty travelblog. I'll miss it. Plus point foy you both about doing this is that it will keep your memories alive better than "just" a set of piccies. Trev