I awoke this morning to catch a plane to Iguazu falls. I opted to take a cab because the bus ride would require taking two busses, and having to awake earlier. The cab ride from the apartment to the local domestic airport cost me about $254 american dollars. Divided, that would be $4 for the ride and tip, and $250 for my stupidity. I managed to leave my camera in the rush to get out of the cab at the airport. I conveniently had no receipt, no cab number, nor the name of the driver, as I didn't relize I'd left it until I walked into the airport 2 minutes later. Writing this a day and a half later, I am still fuming. This is my new camera I just purchased 2 months ago. Well, since I now didn't have a camera, dad loaned me his (with a partially charged battery) and it would hopefully last me the weekend. I went through airport security, which amazingly enough, was the least hassle I've had in a long time. They allow liquids here, and you don't have to either undress OR empty your bag when going through. Just put your bag on the belt, walk through the detector. easy peasy. The airport was not too full, but even so, for no particular reason, my flight left 2 hours late. Upon flying over Buenos Aires, I looked down and noticed that all the rivers and channels
flowing through the city were brown. Apparently, they say that their rivers are "latte colored" (see picture). I am not sure why they are all so brown, I don´t think it is pollution. The guy sitting next to me on the plane was traveling with his wife and another couple - both retired from Sweden. They now take a vacation once a year for over a month, and play golf all over the world. That´s their thing. He says they´ve played golf in 21 countries! Anyway, once I finally arrived in Iguazu, everything went pretty well. The shuttle service from the hotel to the town costs 8 pesos, and they actually drop you off where you´re staying if you ask. Not a bad deal. Upon arrival at the hostel at 2:00, I promptly wanted to find out how the best way would be to view the falls over the next day and a half. So I dropped my bags in the mildew smelling, but otherwise very clean and air conditioned room, 
and then met with the girl here that shows you tour options, and decided that today I would go see the Brazillian side of the falls. Iguazu falls is by magnitude, the largest waterfall in the world, and is in the top 5 in all other waterfall categories - yeah, I bet you didn´t know they rank them! they´re ranked in height, bwr, scenic, etc. From Brazil, the view of the entirety of the falls is much better that that from the Argentinian side. You look at the falls, and you can´t even see without a panoramic view of the area, all the falls that exist as part of this one waterfall. It is incredible. The amount of water falling, is beyond comprehension. 
Because going into Brazil requires a $115 visa, if you´re going in and out just for one day, you can get around it by paying a $30 temporary visa, forego the passport stamp, and hire a taxi instead of the bus to take you in. So, seeing this side of the falls requires the $10 entrance to the park, the $15 cab ride, and the $30 visa, but you´re only here once, and it was well worth it.Trying to conserve battery, I was taking all the pictures I could without the display screen on, and minimizing the number of times I turned on and off the camera. I didn´t take any extra pictures in Iguazu, at the risk of it being my last picture to take before the battery died. I even looked into buying a disposable camera, but that would´ve run me $35 for 24 exposures... yeah...no. During my tour on the Brazilian side of the falls, I met a really nice Australian family - Jenny, Chris, and their College age daughter Amanda - who were extremely nice, and we spent about 1/3 of the time together talking and taking pictures. Trying to get as close as we could to take pictures, we got soaking wet from the water in the air that had richoched off the bottom. I also met a group of 7 Brazilians, who on first meeting them I thought they said Barcelonians...my bad, who were all about my age, but we had a really hard time communicating since they spoke very little Spanish, and I speak no Portuguese. Oh well. From what I could understand, one was a minister (the one making out with his girlfriend the whole time), and the one that I talked to the most (the only one that really knew any spanish) was in his third year of law school. They were just all on vacation together.
Upon returning to the hostel, I met a guy and a girl finishing up a three month vacation around South America, and we hung out for a while and had dinner together. We went to this restaurant that for 15pesos ($5) we got a choice of about 7 different salads, a steak that must've weight at least a pound and a half (I ate as much as I could and didn't come near half), and a dessert. it was nice meeting them, and we talked for so long, we didn't get home from dinner until after midnight.
2 comments:
Beautiful photos. I can tell you're typing this on a Spanish keyboard. Where's your laptop? Also, why didn't Dad decide to go to the falls? Was he afraid he wouldn't be able to walk it on his bum foot? Oh yeah, and one last thing, it's ricocheted and buses. Just thought I'd throw that in ;-)
Wow, these are beautiful! What I like best is that they don't look commercialized, like Niagara Falls. Or maybe you just didn't take the picture of the Wax Museum, the tourist shops, restaurants, etc?
Post a Comment