Phil & Nic's big adventure

We made it! The bus was great, blankets and bus food! Like aeroplane food but better, and the bus far far more comfortable, we went cama and the seat reclined almost flat. We arrived in Puerto Iguazu 10am ish and wandered off uphill to find a hostel, the first one we came across was cool and had space. The kitchen was outside...but then it is nearly in the rain forest.

After a much needed shower we headed straigt out to the national park, a public bus from the bus station that leaves every 20 minutes or so and is only ARG$15 per person return. The bus journey itself was cool, heading into the rain forest, damp, humid, red red mud and lots of trees (suprise?!). The park was huge, (you can get a stamp for a second day return at half price) we started walking down one of the routes, unsure where it would lead us and the first thing we saw was a cotis (like a big ant eater like animal), then another and another, hastelling everyone for food. I was blown away, our first animal in South America. We kept walking on the lower route to the waterfalls, AMAZING! Totally huge and breathtaking, pictures and words just don't do them justice. The amount of water flowing along all peacefully then crash, it all goes over the edge making a huge noise, creating so much spray, Phil and I were drenched!

We kept on going over the top of the waterfalls, taking a little train to Gargantum, the biggest fall, and oh my gosh it was. You couldn't see the bottom for all the spray, or hear each other too well for the noise, we have it on video. The park was even better as it is low season there wasn't hoards of people so you could get to the front of the viwing platforms and see easily.

Had a pretty quiet night after all the drama, had some dinner and a cheeky bottle of Argentinian Malbec in the hostel. Perfect end to a perfect day.

Phil wants to say 'stay chooned for Paraguay'.

We caught the 9:30 ferry (Buquebus) across from Buenos Aires, it took about 3 hours and was totally brilliant, the seats we comfey, the coffee good, the sun was shining and the views were stunning. Pulling out of the harbor we totally realized how big Buenos Aires was! We arrived in Colonia, to get on a bus to take us to Montivideo, being semi-organized for once we had booked our accommodation ahead and jumped in a taxi to take us there.

The hostel was cool, but everyone was very quiet, not a brilliant place to meet people. We had a wander around to city, down to the coast, it's small, but really good to feel that you are not going to get hugely lost, and good not to have to look at a map every 2 minutes. Went out for some dinner and a couple of beers, a really good (and uneventful) day.

The following day we went to book our bus tickets, not fun! We were hoping to get straight up to Puerto Iguazu, apparently not possible so we booked a bus to Salto (Agencia Central S.A), a popular crossing back into Argentina. The bus left at midnight the following day. We took a walk down to the port, Phil wanted to see the cranes and trucks. The trucks are nuts, some are shiny new ones, others look like old American ones, that make you want to pull and imaginary string and go parp parp!

We found a really cool street that had stalls selling everything! There was a big building with a huge chimney coming out of it with plumes of smoke. We went to investigate and it was loads of bbq restaurants! We had Parilla, which was lots of meat! There was steak, choripan, chicken, the nicest black pudding, lamb and intestines (chewy and not nice), all with bread, baked potatoes and salad, it was awesome! So much for loosing weight on the trip.

We took a public bus to the station, so proud of ourselves! The conductor shouted down when we needed to get off, the buses are so old and high up. They proper chug along, kicking exhaust fumes out with gusto. So we got on the bus sat in our seats, the driver came to check our tickets, and they were for Riveria, totally opposite side of the country bordering Brazil! We have never run back to a ticket office so fast, and then trying to explain via a combination of very poor Spanish, English, hand actions, a phrase book and a map was ridiculous!

They changed our tickets though, and we still made the midnight bus just not sat together. There was a horrific snorer sat right behind me, I could hear him through earplugs, horrific! Getting off the bus was brilliant. We arrived in Salto at 5am. We waited around in the station for a wee bit until it came light. We needed to exchange some money so we could pay for the next bus, and we had a few hours to kill so walked down into town with our bags on, about a mile or so, but the sun was still rising and it was brilliant!

We caught a bus that same morning to Concordia in Argentina (Flecha bus), were we managed to book another bus that night to take is to Puerto Iguazu, 12 hours but we booked cama (fully reclining) seat that included dinner and brekky. Concordia was ok. Everything closes from 12ish until about 3pm which is slightly annoying when you are trying to find lunch...and the bus station is not the nicest place to sit around and wait, doesn't feel the safest, but then what bus station does? To make us a even more on edge, England v Argentina was showing on all the TV's (South Americans love their futbol), it went to penalties and England chose that moment to get good...never in my life have I felt so English. Bring on the bus....

Friday was drama drama drama!! So we decided to go and book a ferry to take us to Uruguay, got the directions on a map from reception of the hostel (who are totally brilliant!) and set off on an epic walk right across Buenos Aires Centro, all good! Then the map went on it's own little adventure...cue minor panic and we only had Friday to get to book (closed all weekend). A few miles, stop off at an internet cafe, and frantic ponting later we found the Buquebus office got the ferry and bus booked and set off on our merry way.

Saturday night we had a tango lession, so much fun! Phil and I definatly have two left feet, but a couple of Vinos sorted that out. The lesson was followed by dinner, an open bar and a totally brilliant tango show. The dancers were amazing, especially the gouchos. A little tiddley we got the bus back to the hotel to realise that we had lost The purse.

The purse was not just an ordinary purse, oh no, it was full of goodies like credit cards, debit cards and driving licences...not to panic, we can cancel the cards and get new ones sent out. Oh no, not so simple, the delightful banks can only send them to our home address, and can do nothing to help. Brillo. No money, no cards, panic time (even more so as we had taken advantage of the open bar...). The hostel were great, and came up with a plan so we can wire ourselves money. So all is now good again in the Big Adventure world.

Went to a market in San Telmo today, and had a really great and suprisingly relaxing time. Had the best chopins for lunch from a bbq stall and bought a spangle bangle.

So off to Montievido tomorrow monring, really looking forward to going on a ferry.

So day 3...succesfully navigated our way through customs and managed to get a bus from the airport to our hostel. We were stopping in Hotel Bolivar, lovely but far too quiet. Moved today to Hostel Tango City, still in San Telmo, Buenos Aires, but much more lively, been sat in the hostel bar drinking Quilmes in big big litre bottles!

So far been on a tourist open top bus to get our bearings (bloody freezing!), been to La Recoleta and seen Evita's grave (very ornate, goregeous and peaceful), got lost a few times...ate Empanadas (little pasty's that I seem to love!), found out that a pancho is a hot dog, and wandered around the city taking it all in. The traffic is immesnse, 14 lanes wide! Crossing the roads is dicing with life!! Phil is loving the exhaust fumes...(I'm sure that is the only way he is putting up with me!).

Oh and saw a massivo thunder and lighening storm last night, the rain was bouncing, stood on our balcony in Bolivar taking it all in, the sky literally lit up!

Adios, for now...
xxxx