Feliz año nuevo! So I celebrated the new year here in Buenos Aires with some Australians that I met at my hostel. I was determined to stay in and just relax, as I was tired from traveling and walking around the city, but they would have none of that. The hostel had organized a little fiesta for everyone, followed by a shuttle to a club/bar nearby. It was a fun introduction to the nightlife in Buenos Aires!
I woke up just in time to check out of the hostel and catch my flight to Puerto Iguazu, where I was going to visit the famous Iguazu Falls, located on the Argentina/Brazil border. There was a problem with my ticket and I had to wait for an hour and half for the airline to clear things and then had to rush to my gate to catch the flight. I had never gotten around to eating dinner the night before, and had no time for breakfast before leaving for the airport so I was extremely hungry (and a little hungover as well) by the time I made it to the gate. Luckily I had 5 minutes to spare and I saw a cafe nearby. I quickly ordered something and was promplty told that the kitchen had just closed. Exhausted and hungry, I was about to walk away when a man who could see the hunger on my face offered me half his sandwich. I gladly accepted, ate the Argentine man´s sandwich and ran to the gate.
Eventually I did make it to Puerto Iguazu and the following day I went to check out Argentina´s side of the falls. I started off the morning as my guidebook instructed, and went to visit the falls from a lower trail first. On the lower trail, along with hiking, there is an option to take a boat ride, called the ¨Adventura Nautical,¨ to the bottom of some of the falls. I had heard it was pretty cool, so I went for it. What I had not been told was that the boat actually takes you up into the falls and consequently, you get 100% completely soaked. I was not prepared for this (but should had gotten a clue when they put my backpack in a drybag for me) and was wearing kakis and my hiking boots. Anyways, I got completely drenched, first thing in the morning. Luckily its extremely hot there and after about an hour of laying out on some rocks everything besides my boots had dried up. So I walked around barefoot with my boots in hand for a while allowing them some more time to dry up.
Another boat taking the ¨Adventura Nautical¨
Checking out some more of the falls while drying out
From the top of the ¨Garganta del Diablo¨(Devil´s Throat) waterfall, the largest of them all
So after spending a whole day on the Argentine side of the falls, I decided to head out the next morning to check out the Brazilian side. That morning I got up to try and book a shuttle through the hostel and was promtly told that without a Brazilian visa (which is 100 dollars for Americans) I could not go. My guidebook said otherwise, and eventually I got the guy to admit that was possible to go, but to do so would be illegal, which is why the hostel would not allow me to join their trip. So after a little debating in my mind, I decided that I came all that way to see the falls, and I wanted to see all of them, so to Brazil I went. It actually turned out to be really easy to do. Basically I just hoped on a bus that didnt stop at the Brazilian border, so I never got an entry stamp into the country and I hoped on one that did the same thing on the way back to Argentina, hence not getting an exit stamp either. I will admit though that I got a little nervous as the bus was crossing out of Brazil, but all was well and I made it without a hitch.
A view of the falls from Brazil
After making my way back into Argentina, I grabbed my bags from the hostel and headed to the bus terminal to start my 18 hour busride back to Buenos Aires. I got the ¨cama¨bus, which means that the seats lay out to almost flat so sleeping isn´t too difficult. Besides the bus leaving an hour late, the hour and a half stop we had in the middle of the night when an older man got sick, and the fact that the bus was from Brazil and no one spoke english or spanish and the movies were in portugese which I understand none of, it was not so bad.
After arriving in Buenos Aires I decided to try and find the Bolivian consulate to work on getting a visa (Bolivia is the only country that I´ll be visiting that requires americans to have visas). Long story short, I walked 30 blocks to the address listed in my guidebook only to find that the office had moved, to 3 blocks down from my hostel! So I walked the 30 blocks back, found the office, and was then told I had to go to another building, even farther than the first address. Luckily I was told there was a subway that could take me there. After struggling a little bit figuring out the subway, I made it to the next building and found lots of lines of people, and had no idea which one I needed to be in. I decided to admit defeat and headed back to where I started. It was basically a waste of three hours, but I did get to see a lot of the city and experience the subway so thats cool.
The weather here is amazingly nice today, and not the sweltering heat that it has been, so I´m off to enjoy it!
