Welcome to the Jungle

Sunday night my journey to Iguazu Falls began. At the onset the thought of an 18 hour bus ride was a little bit daunting, but as my friend Anna had mentioned to me the busses are pretty comfortable and it won´t be that bad. That sounded crazy to me at the time, but it turns out she was right. I had booked a Cama Suite seat on Crucero del Norte. It was a giant leather seat that turned into a bed (almost identical to those first class seats you see on airplanes). It was comfortable and I also had my own tv above the seat. Unfortunately the movie selection was pretty terrible. When I got on it was halfway into a generic Jean-Claude Van Damme flick and went downhill from there. Material Girls dubbed in Spanish, literally and figuratively put me to sleep. Despite the terrible movie selection, I was impressed by the service. It started with my choice of drink, I started with a beer. Hot dinner service included several glasses of wine, and post dinner I was served champagne. I actually started laughing when I saw the server guy handing out champagne. En serio, champagne on a bus? I was able to sleep through most of the night, but unfortunately breakfast service began around 6:30 in the morning. I arrived in the small town of Puerta Iguazu at about 11 and headed over to the hostel.

The main part of the hostel was actually quite nice, it is a giant lodge type building with a bunch of pool tables, Foosball and a giant pool out front. The dorms left something to be desired but at $12 for the night, who was I to complain. I had heard that this was the nicest hostel in Iguazu which made me wonder how bad the rooms were at the $8 hostels. After settling in I headed out towards the Iguazu National Park. I ended up going around the park with two girls from Glasglow who were staying at the hostel. This worked out well as I was able to get pictures of me in the park which you should definitely check out once I post them.

From Iguazu Falls

Our first destination at the park was the Garganta del Diablo trial. This trail leads you to views above the biggest group of the waterfalls. There isn´t really anyway to describe them. They are just absolutely awesome. It is just an amazing amount of water going over the falls and crashing down. It is simply breathtaking. After that we went to two of the other trails, the Upper and Lower. These gave us views of several different sets of waterfalls which were also amazing. The Lower Trail puts you below one of the waterfalls and if you dare to, you can get close and get soaking wet just from the effects of the water crashing down near you. All in all, the falls were amazing. If you are ever in this part of the world you have to make it out to them, it is totally worthwhile.

From Iguazu Falls

I flew back into Buenos Aires this evening. Domestic flights are routed through to Aeroparque which is closer into the city than the international airport. The main advantage of this is you get an incredible view of Buenos Aires as you fly along the Rio de la Plata towards the airport. I didn´t realize how big the city was from the drive in when I first got here. When we landed many of the Argentine´s applauded. That caught me slightly off guard as I was thinking to myself, ¨Is a successful landing an uncommon occurrence in this country?¨