I’m sitting on my bed typing this entry in crappy-ass Microsoft Word because it is surprisingly difficult to find internet here in Parana. I must admit I’m disappointed that it’s not spelt the same as the fish. There is a river here, but I don’t think there are any in there. We haven’t tried yet though…
I have had quite a tumultuous few days on the way here, mostly concerning my stupid shite mastercard, but other adventures as well. The morning after seeing the falls we headed back into town to go to the Brazilian consulate to organise a visa. Normally these things take at least a few days, but we were told that this particular consulate organised them within half an hour due its close proximity to the falls. However, when we got there, it was going to take 2 hours, which normally would be fine, but that meant we would be picking up our visas when we were supposed to be at the airport already for our flight. FRICK! To add to the drama I forgot my freaking photo, so I had to run and get my photo taken as well.
We then jumped onto a bus to take us back to the hostel, because we had to pick up our bags and our washing. We figured we should be able to get out and back in again by one and then catch a speedy cab to the airport. That was, at least, until we got on the wrong freaking bus. We asked the bus driver if it went past our hostel, which indeed, it did. It just took the world’s longest fricking detour through a muddy rural area first. I was getting VERY stressed, and through most of it Andrew was great and calming, until the idiot mentioned something about getting bogged. If I wasn’t too stressed to move I would have clawed his damn eyes out! What is it about men that makes them so stupid? Sure, they come from Jupiter, but really!
We raced back into the hostel to be greeted by a HUGE mega long line to pick up washing and all sorts. We thankfully got in and out quickly and even managed to find a cabbie to take us in to the consulate then out to the airport for only $20. We could have kissed him! Well, I could have. I don’t think Andrew was quite up for kissing after having to put up with my dirty stress attack. But, it ended okay because we caught our flight and went back to Buenos Aires.
We hightailed it to a hostel near the obelisk, and it was gorgeous. The hostel in Iguazu was huge and had a pool, but this small hostel had class. It had this beautiful old wrought-iron elevator with the old-school two doors that you pull close. Floorboards abound and cute little windows with doors that open up. We were greeted by the vivacious Danny-Boy who convinced us to sign up for the Tango night that was happening later on, and then went to our room to relax for a while.
The tango-ing was a lot of fun. Starting with a bit of wine-tasting (which wasn’t too bad!) and then off to some swish place to learn how to Tango! It is a LOT harder than other things I’ve done (for me anyway), because it really is just all following what your partner does (for beginners, and women). Plus, Andrew has long legs and stepped on my feet relentlessly. It was a bit of fun though, lots of laughing and switching of partners. After dinner we went to a Milonga (a place where people eat dinner and tango) and watched people amazingly tango. It was fantastic, watching different levels of skill and hotness, and we even got a small show from professionals. HOT!! I would have liked to get up there, but Andrew unfortunately did not look too kindly upon this. Following this disappointment I just decided to go to bed. It WAS 1am, which is WAY past my bedtime.
The next morning we got Snuffy poked with a yellow fever needle, and went through more trauma regarding my Mastercard. I couldn’t access my money at the bank or at another place to withdraw money. Eff-arr-eye-see-kay!! I got stressed again and just gave up on it. So we headed off to Rosario, called Argentina’s second city. It is about 4 hours north of Buenos Aires (or if you caught the bus we did, 6.5 hours) and is a nice little city, although a cabbie did try to convince us that it was full of nothing but factories and was shitehouse. He was WAY off. I liked Rosario, though the two things I’ll remember it for are the plethora of trees (which I obviously hated) and the two absolutely fantastic vegetarian restaurants we ate at. One was a pay-by-the-kilo, about $6 per kilo (ish) for really healthy, really tasty vegetarian dishes. Help yourself to whatever you like and pay at the counter. AWE. SOME. We ate there twice it was so good.
Rosario also has several peatonal (pedestrian only) streets, filled with shops galore. Would have been nice if I had some freaking money. And on that note….spent well over 3 hours in total on the phone to mastercard…wizard…mastercard….wizard trying to find out what is wrong with my card and organise a cash advance. In short, I hate Indian call centres, but discovered that if you ask for a supervisor you get transferred to Australia. Thank freaking goodness. The girl I got was fantastic and I understand why my card wasn’t working, and she organised a cash advance application for me…..to which Mastercard now has no record of (insert loud, very offensive expletives in here). So I give up. I am sick of being on the phone, I am sick of being jerked around. I might feel a little better about this later, but at the moment I hate Mastercard. Thank goodness for my beloved sugar daddy, I tell ya!!
And that brings me up to today – we took another bus to Parana, which is across a river from Santa Fe, another four hours north of Rosario. We got into the shabby little hotel we’re staying at and went for a really long freaking walk, about 4 hours in total. Parana also has a lot of trees and nice walking areas, along with a few massive parks up near the river. We haven’t explored it all yet, but we’ll get there tomorrow.
I did have my first encounter with the famed siesta today though. When we arrived, it was like a ghost town. There was nobody around and everything was shut (even McDonalds!). By the time we got back from our walk the city was BUSTLING. Crazy Smericans. Anyway….we walked up along the ‘beach’ for a while, looking around. We had a quick bite to eat in a little café where some teenage girls got some good practice for their English (one in particular, and they were so proud!) and we met Tikki the dog. I liked Tikki, she was very friendly, but she also appeared to have a sore leg. I then realised that it wasn’t a sore leg, but she was spasming. After talking with the waitress I burst into raucous laughter as I realised that is how she was named – Tick-i. Bahahaha. And they say Argentinians have no sense of humour. Well, I don’t actually know if they say that, but it goes along with my story. Hush.
And…that’s about it. Blah blah walked back blah blah had dinner blah blah here now. Apologies for the long entry, but you should be used to it by now. Hope you’re all enjoying work and stuff. Emphasis on work. Suckers.
Rosario and Parana photos
