Now That´s What I Call Travelling

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  Buenos Aires, Argentina
Friday, February 8, 2008

Ok so having seen the Brazilian side of Iguazu, the Argentinain side was a must but me being tight and still reeling from the people off the organised tours the day before I decided to go it alone. The chain of events that unfolded made me wonder whether the Lonely Planet had an opening for a ī`how not to travel and how you can learn from itī`addition to their series.

THe problem with going on one`s self is that given there are 2 immigration control points you ahve to go through bus companies are a little unwilling to wait for you (on the Brazilian side at least) and not having a grounding on the way the bus system worked basically meant it took me nearly 5 hours to get there meaning I had to power walk my way through the various trails around the waterfalls taking in all the astounding panoramic views whilst my T'shirt was taking in the astounding amounts of sweat pouring off myself. Because of this I was soaked before I even got on the fantastic speedboat ride that takes you underneath right up close to the various cascading falls that make up the 2nd largest waterfalls i nthe world (when former US President Ronald Reaganīs wife visited the falls her first remark was "poor Niagra" a testamanent to their size and also a testamanent to how much guidebooks regurgitate seeing as this quote appears in several of them and now it also appears in my blog!).

Now I knew the ins and outs of border crossings and Brazilian transportation in this region it only took me a further 2 1-2 hours to get my sun-stroked self back. Shattered from this mini-adventure I had no trouble sleeping, blissfully unaware that the real adventure was going to start the next day.

Thankfully I made the wise decision this mornng to skip breakfast to make the early bus although the main reason for this was not bus timetables but more to do with the embarassing situation that involved me waking from a dream in my dorm (and in the process waking everyone else in my dorm) crawling on the floor uttering the words "SIGNOR, SIGNOR SAIDA POR FAVOR!"(I thought I was stranded in a blacked out Portuguese truck OK!)-very embarassing but a blessing in disguise!

For when I reached immigration Brazilian side the queue was huge because of all the organised tour buses-those frigging tourists!-all coming to the Falls at the same time. THrough complete luck the bus took no time in picking me and my new found optmistic Dutch lady friends on the other side (I had waited 40 minutes the day before). Things flowed fairly well after that until I had to get the bus to the airport unsure about whether the bus would ever show I had a cleft-palated Argentinian taxi driver on standby to take me (it is challenging enough to break a language barrier when both of you can speak relatively properly let alone when one of you has one of the most impeding impediments of them all!) thankfully the bus showed up and after trading my emergency immodium pill for a can of Pepsi with an incredibly poorly American bloke and his wife at the airport (his gingerly waddle from the toilet was another one of the endless sights amusing sights I have seen so far) I made my flight (with an hour to spare) and I am now in the mahoosive metropolis that is Buenos Aires, I have at least 6 nights here so I have decided to take it easy today and catch my breath back from a crazy couple of days and maybe even have a wash so I can work out whether it is an impressive tan I possess or just several days worth of unsoaped grime!