Sometimes there´s a puddle in your mattress...

Trip Start Aug 31, 2008
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32
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Trip End Feb 02, 2009


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Where I stayed
Residencial Missiones
(Posadas hotels)

Flag of Argentina  ,
Tuesday, October 28, 2008

After being chewed on by a staggering variety of insects in both Carlos Pellegrini and Calilegua, we thought we´d head on back to civilization for a couple of days and see what we´d been missing. It would be pleasant to dry out, we thought. A sturdy roof over our heads to shelter us from the rain would be all we needed. Little did we know that the otherwise pleasant residencial hotel we´d chosen soley based on it´s rock-bottom prices would prove to have a leaky roof (boy was it cheap!), and that the entire Missiones province where we´d been travelling (Posadas is the capital) was in the midst of a torrential, bibical downpour. We thought it was just rainy season. More on that later. Posadas was otherwise a lovely place situated just across the enormous Rio Paraná from Paraguay. We were tempted to run across the international bridge just to see what happened, but I have to admit that crossing an imaginary line just to say "I´m in Paraguay! Yeah! Bye now!" seemed rather silly. Until I have some concrete plans on what I might care to see or do there, I think I´ll stick to Argentina. Paraguay is the contraband capital of the world, however, and apparently a great place to buy super cheap, semi-legal electronics. Also sounds like a great place to get my passport stolen. Posadas was a nice place on it´s own, anyway. The specialty down here is Surubi, a plentiful fish from the river, who, from his pictures pasted up everywhere, looks suspiciously like a catfish. Seems like the love of catfish may be universal. I haven´t tried any yet, but I´ll let you guys know.
I can tell that we´re close to the Brazilian border by all the folks excercising around Posadas. With the exception of a few dedicated vacationers, I haven´t witnessed a single human being working out since we left the states. Here, however, when Nathan and I got the idea to take an evening stroll down by the river, it seemed the whole city joined us. Brazilians are notoriously obsessed with their looks (one of the plastic surgery capitals of the world), and Argentines don´t seem to be far behind. Those few who didn´t chose to take part in the power walking had lawn chairs set up around the perimeter of the river to take in the sunset, along with, of course, their jug of mate (this tea is apparently more addictive than coffee, according to some sources. I´ll testify. It´s true). Several schools worth of teenagers were practicing their drum line routines along the boulevard as well, contributing to the unique atmosphere.
We retired to our room, marveled at the taxidermy (there´s alot of it going around down here), and got ready for a long, hot, night (no air conditioning outside of 4 star hotels around here). I was awoken a few hours later, however, by a puddle in my bed from the leaky roof above. After I discussed this interruption with the girl at reception, she traipsed in the room, nonchalantly turned the mattress over against the wall, and demanded full price for the night with a straight face. Nice place, anyway, Posadas.
Here´s a few shots of it:soggy city
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