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So a 14 hour comfortable first class bus journey to Buenos Aires from Mendoza was successfully completed. Arriving at 7 am on a Sunday morning to a dead city was accompanied by a tube ride on the relatively safe but slow underground to the Faculty of Medicine. We were greeted by a giant building which looked like an abandoned hospital from the 1920´s. Later we were to find out that this was one of their main tertiary referral centres.

Don´t Cry For Me Argentina

James and Anne Walkington
2006-08-08 17:03:06

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Also went to Cafe Tortoni to see a tango show. James was especially pleased as to the provocative dresses which were worn!

After finishing Spanish school it was time to hit the road again with a 16 hour bus journey (coche cama - meaning bed) upto northern Argentina to Puerto Iguazu.

We ended up in another good hostel with hardly anyone there. Had its own swimming pool but whilst we were there was too cold even for Anne. We had arrived in the afternoon so after watching another English win in the football we had a buffet meal at a nice resturant. We had a spectacular thunder and lightning show - even knocked out the electricity in the hostel. Following this it was to bed.

The Iguazu Falls are described as being the most spectacular waterfall in the world. It is actually a huge series of waterfalls falling over a 2km long cliff. There are two sides to the waterfalls, one in Argentina and the other in Brazil. The first day we went to the Argentinian side. You can get much closer to the falls although don´t get the panaromic views as from Brazil. Unfortunately we had arrived in the dry season and the falls were significantly reduced from their total grandure. However was still a good day walked the 6 km track to the various view points, took a short ride on a boat and train. Also it was very exciting to see a brilliant green humming bird, a racoon thing and a rat thing. Also there were lots of flowers and butterflies.

As we were going to the Brazilian side we decided to take a tour to reduce the hassle of having to go through immigration. After a short bus journey we arrived at Itipu Dam the largest functioning hydroelectric scheme in the world (until the Chinese dam starts to work). It is a joint construction between Paraguay and Brazil. It supplies 95% of the electricity to the whole of Paraguay and 25% of the electricity to Brazil - suggests how big this thing was. It had a total dam length of over 8 km and a rather big lake to go with it!

We then drove to a duty free shop on the border and a very expensive resturant. As we didn´t have any Brazilian currency we refused to pay an outrageous exchange rate so did without lunch. Over to the waterfalls for good panoramic views of the whole area. We had been told that we would visit a bird park on the way back but this didn´t materialise as the operators claim that they never do this.

This gave James an excuse to go back to the shop and complain. After making a scene in the shop he managed to get some money back!! James was happy with his $5!!

So it was time to leave for Salta around 2000 km away in north west Argentina. 30 hours on three separate buses and we arrived in Salta la Linda (Salta the Fair). A really nice city, surrounded by little hills. Unfortunately our stay has been marred by the early exit of Argentina from the World Cup. The lovely receptionist was so upset she had to cry on James´ shoulder.

At the moment we are still undecided as to whether we will stay here a few more days or go over to San Pedro in the Atacama desert in Chile. Another 12 hours bus journey away.

Sorry this is a few days late we have had problems trying to upload photos.