I joined a group in Buenos Aires. I was a day late so missed all the boring group meetings which was good. I met my room mate the following morning, she invited me to go watch a football match in a local pub with the other girls. I said yes first but changed my mind later and I’m so glad I did. Sixth sense is a good thing when it happens. I had a great day exploring this huge city from dodging dog shit alley to gawping at the amazing buildings and stumbling onto a Bolivian Independence Day Parade.
Managed to catch a tango show in the evening. Didn’t expect it to be quite so intimate but it was fun. Met my guide and was a little annoyed by her obvious bipolar personality. They are so frustrating as I can’t keep up with their moods. One minute she’s nice as pie then next she’s angry because we did something that she forgot she told us to do in the first place. She was adamant that I told her something when I didn’t and this happened at least three times. Not once did she ever say sorry or that It was a misunderstanding, she just kept on and implied that we were in the wrong and not her. Like I said she’s a complete nut job.
The next day were leaving the city to get a ferry to Uruguay. After that we went back into Argentina to visit the fabulous IguassuFalls. I had the most fun on the trip so far. Much better than the Brazilian side, for one thing it was a damn sight warmer. The falls were a lot bigger or maybe we were just able to get closer, whatever the reason this side of the falls was the best. I also learned of the several suicides that took place in just a year. I guess it’s one way to go but just standing so close to the barrier was scary enough. I couldn’t imagine wanting to jump off. Although I did have a disaster movie scenario running through my mind for a little while. The place was crowded so when I got to the edge of the walkway I was completely crushed by the huge number of people that were already there. The barriers were just wooden fences, it could easily have given way and about 100 people including myself would have just plunged into the waterfall and died.
After this little visit we had a mini safari which was hugely farcical and disappointing. It was thirty minutes long in a huge truck with lots of people and a lady speaking in a microphone. There was no way we were going to see any wildlife with the noise we were making and we didn’t and I don’t count the tiny little Cayman we saw in the river…it was so small and it didn’t move. Might as well have been dead or plastic.
The fun started straight after when we boarded the speed boat which was going to take us close up to the waterfalls. I didn’t realise we would be going so close to them…it was scary and cold and very wet. I had the best time screaming my head off. It was so much. After I had to change out of my wet clothes but the line to the toilets were so long…I changed behind the café instead with the raccoons staring at me and one of the girls in the group standing on watch.
The hotel we stayed in Iguassu was rubbish…no heating or hot water when you needed it. I used all the spare blankets in the room to keep warm. Dinner was fun as we went for a traditional buffet where they serve you lots of meat at the table. Every imaginable meat was barbequed and offered to us. Even cheese balls, garlic bread and whole pineapples were barbequed. The worst had to be the chicken hearts…oh the smell just made me nauseous. But really it was so tasty much nicer than any of the meat back home. In fact I have never eaten so much meat in my life before this trip…I may have eaten the equivalent of a whole cow.
