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Leaving Tupiza and heading for the Argentine border, I boarded a proper 'Bolivian Special' of a bus. Clearly a death trap, we headed out of town and into the hills via a network of dry (and not so dry) riverbeds. The bus nearly tipped over on more than one ocassion, and looking at the faces of the locals it was clear that they were as scared as I was.
I had met some English and some Aussies on the bus and once we got to the border it was clear we had been ripped off. We hadn't factored in that Argentine time lags one hour behind Bolivian, giving us no chance of clearing the customs ques and making the connection into Argentina. Are remonstrations with the bus company fell on deaf ears, our tickets were bought through an agency and out of their control apparently. So we had to stump up an extra $20 for the onward trip.
I have blogged on Salta before so no need to go back through it here. We did however enjoy the mother all barbeques at my fave hostel. One day to relax and I was bound for Buenos Aires.
By now I was starting to struggle with a bit of the old travel fatigue. You know, too much time moving around and the delightful sights don't register on you as much as they had previously. Oooh another volcano....you get the picture. So I thought I would try and stay in Buenos Aires for a couple of months, learn some more Spanish and put down some roots for a bit. I looked for a flatshare, but to no result. Seems either the price goes up when they hear a foreign voice, or they require someone to stay longer. I did however complete a couple of weeks Spanish with Luciana. And anyway, why waste time in a big city, even one as cool as Buenos Aires?
By now my friend Adan from Brighton (via Tenerife) was in town on the start of his own five month adventure. Aaah a new frined to play with! We ate, we drank, we made it to the Argentina v Peru qualifier. We had enough, and decided to get out of town! We were heading north, to the mighty Iguazu falls on the Argentina / Paraguay / Brazil border. That's the photo on the front page of my blog.
Uncannily, Kev and Claire were to be there at the same too. They had inadvertantly ended up in Brazil, having 'gotten lost' in Bolivia and wandered out of the other side. They were on the Brazilian side of the border and awaiting our arrival the next day.
We arrived in Iguazu, met the others and stayed at a stinker of a hostel, not that we cared on the first night as we were propping up the bar. We moved the following day, much nicer! Finally the falls themselves - absolutely awesome. Over 300 individual falls of varying height, and as there had been a bout of bad weather the water level was rather high. Hear those falls roar!
Most travellers to Iguazu are either on their way to south Buenos Aires or north into Brazil, giving the surrounding Argentine provinces of Missiones and Corrientes a miss. Shame for them but great for us, as these two provinces are amazing.
We left Iguazu on a five hour bus journey south to San Ignacio. An hour or so into the journey Adan suddenly piped up and realised that he had left his passport in the hostel in Iguazu! So he had to jump off in the middle of nowhere and wait a bus bound in the direction of wence we had come. When he finally turned up in San Ignacio it transpired that he didn't have any money on him when he jumped off the bus, but being a native Spanish speaker the driver took pity upon him!
San Ignacio - here can be found the best preserved ruins of the 16th Century Jesuit missions, hence the provence's name of Missiones. We found a nice place with a pool and lots of space, amd since the sun was shining we decided to make a few days of it. We visited the ruins, enjoyed barbeques, and referred to each other as 'Jesuit' a lot.
The next stop was the even lesser visited Esteros Del Ibera Nation Park. This is a stunning wetland and a heaven for birdwatchers, naturalists and the like. There's no direct bus from the north, so we had to chip in and hire a driver to take us there. We stayed with a family in a spare room, and this place turned out to be a heaven of tranquility. Save the massive thunderstorm the first night, which knocked out the electricity for a day. But this just added to sense of isolation, and we quite happily hung around drinking mate and waiting for the weather to clear up. When it finally did, we enjoyed the horse riding and some country trekking, but the real highlight was the mashland itelf. We had a guide and a boat, and headed off in the warm later afternoon to get aquainted with caiman crocodiles, marsh deer, giant rodents and the like. Truly spectacular place!
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