Iguazu
Friday November 17, 2023
After a very early flight with much turbulence and old people coughing, we arrived into the town of Puerto Iguazu on the Argentinian side of the Iguazu River. We met with our driver and he took us to the Iguazu National Park where Phoebe and I immediately signed up for the boat tour.
It took a while for everything to get started, but after a short journey on the road, we walked down a small path to the pier and boarded the boats. We took off at speed up the river; the water had turned a brown colour from the amount of mud that the river had taken on from recent heavy rainfalls. I remember that feeling of awe as the falls slowly came into view. It just kept getting bigger and bigger, the thunderous roar of ten million litres of water rushing over the several cascades, the massive amount of spray hitting us as we drove in and out of the two areas. The sheer force of the falls is truly something you have to experience up close. By the end, we were soaked; and this may have been due to the captain being a bit cheeky by purposely steering through some big waves.
The rest of the day was spent walking the upper and lower trails of the falls. Part of those sections were closed due to damage from the flooding a few weeks ago, which was a pity, and the Devil’s Throat was also inaccessible. The viewpoints along the trails were excellent, and everything was so well placed and built. We also saw many reptiles and coatis!
We had a nice slow start the next day to go to the Brazilian side. Immigration was simple and now I’m at 32 countries visited. We spent a few hours at Parque das Aves, a fantastic bird park by the Brazilian falls. I thought it was so well planned - there’s a single linear route that takes you through a plethora of enclosures and you can really get up and close with some of them. The colours of the parakeets and macaws were absolutely stunning, as was the scarlet ibis.
We walked over to the Brazilian falls park and had lunch, then took the bus to the hiking area. While less impressive than the Argentinian side, the Brazilian side makes up for it with its proximity to the other set of falls and some stunning angles of the Devil’s Throat, which was also unfortunately closed from the flood damage. However, there’s one section where you can practically bathe in the spray of the falls, so I did just that, and got soaked. It was a welcome shower on a humid day that hit 37C.
Our driver took us for a quick tour of downtown, and then we got some food from a supermarket before heading to the airport. We’ve got some rough night flights to Patagonia over the next few hours!
Posted by Jeremy at 2:51am on Friday November 17, 2023 :: 0 comments :: 
Buenos Aires 2
Wednesday November 15, 2023
Caminito is a really colourful area spoiled by the dozens of tourists aimlessly blocking all the roads and taking pictures of the beautiful and vibrant façades. Of note is the balcony with a statue of Lionel Messi holding the World Cup, which has a queue of people waiting for the perfect Instagram moment. There’s lots of cool craft shops and a lot of touristy merchandise too, especially for the local soccer team, Boca.
We walked from Caminito to San Telmo and had lunch. The group had no cash so I had to pay for our empanadas and then had to go find an ATM to top up my own reserves. The first bank wouldn’t dispense any money so I had to walk further, but I managed to get some sweet peso bills and make it back to the market for more food. We continued north towards the Plaza de Mayo and the Obelisk. I wanted to check out the trendy Madero neighbourhood so we walked east, stopping at the Galerias Pacifico briefly.
We were still kinda full from lunch, so we decided to head back to the Airbnb and I was desperate to try some world-famous parrilla, so we split up and I went with Phoebe to La Cabrera. The wait was two hours, but ultimately worth it. I passed out from the steak overdose and the glass of Malbec.
The next day, we went around Floralis Generica and the Cemetery Recoleta, famous for the tomb of Eva Peron, the famous First Lady of Argentina, who has a movie about her life and was played by Madonna singing “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina”. Afterwards, we walked to Retiro station and took a train to Tigre, a town by the delta of the Parana River.
Tigre is quaint and picturesque. We had lunch at a cafe by the station; my Spanish was so bad that the waitress just straight up said she spoke English. We wandered around the craft market for a while and then took a boat back to Buenos Aires, exploring some of the many river ways in the area. My friends all fell asleep, which was an interesting way to spend $60 CAD.
We had to be up early the next day to go to the airport, so it was a quick solo dinner at a Mexican place before crashing for the night.
Posted by Jeremy at 9:09am on Wednesday November 15, 2023 :: 0 comments ::
Buenos Aires 1
Monday November 13, 2023
We arrived 45 minutes before schedule so we hung around the airport for a bit, cleaning ourselves up before heading to the Airbnb. The host wouldn’t let us have an early check in because of previous guests, but he let us drop our bags so we could walk around the city. We had some issues trying to get Uber to work; apparently the Argentinian government cracked down on it by banning credit card payments, so we opted to walk around instead. We headed towards Palermo, the Italian neighbourhood and walked through the Botanic Gardens and the Ecological Park where we spotted some wild maras, some flamingoes and a tapir.
We were wondering what to do next; we tried to use the subway but couldn’t figure out where to buy a card from. My poor Spanish skills were unable to find out from the transit operators, and we didn’t have cash, so we decided to stay in the area for lunch.
Since we were in the Italian neighbourhood, I decided to try this pasta restaurant which was pretty decent. The group was tired so we walked back and dozed off for a bit at the Airbnb. Eventually I decided I wanted some time to myself so I left the group and wandered over to Centennial Park where it was buzzing with activity. Locals were sitting on the grass, enjoying the beautiful weather. There was a busy flea market, a lot of dancing and people playing soccer, it was really cool to just walk around and people watch.
I ended up in Caballito, where I got dinner from a local burger chain. It was not great. My Spanish skills were really struggling and deep down inside I felt anxious about committing to spending so much time in Barcelona. But I know it’s a much more international city, especially with all the different European nations, so I should be okay. I made up for a disappointing dinner with a ball of chocolate ice cream with a dulce de leche center!
Today has been a slow start for the group, but we’re heading to Caminito and San Telmo Market.
Posted by Jeremy at 12:00pm on Monday November 13, 2023 :: 0 comments ::