Yesterday, was the first
time in a month that the two of us separated to work on various projects. Karen
set out to figure out our travel plans for Iguazu Falls and I worked on the
computer. All the travel planning books warn the traveler to pick your travel
partner well because you will either want to kill them during and at the end of
the trip or you will want to spend the rest of your life with them. So far we
are headed down the path of eternal bliss. However, a lot can change in the
next 10 months of travel.
The only problem we had with visiting Iguazu
Falls was getting to the Brazilian side. As US citizens you are required to
have a Visa but the guide books point out that you do not need a Visa if you
are only visiting the Brazilian side of the falls. If you inquire with the
local travel companies about getting to the falls they want to charge at least
$90-$120 a person. The excuse given for the high cost is the Brazil
customs/visa fee. This all sounded a little hokey so we hired a taxi for six
hours at a total cost of $50. We never could figure out if some rule allows
taxi drivers or tour operators to bring non-Visa holders into Brazil or if
customs does it as a courtesy to a guy trying to make a buck from a neighboring
country.
The bus left that afternoon around 4:00 PM so we
spent a leisure day wondering around before our bus ride to Buenos Aires. The
really nice buses are double deckers and it definitely pays to sit up top. The
bottom is fairly small but is probably the better choice if you easily get
motion sickness. As promised in the brochure, the seats were large and
comfortable but still no replacement for a good horizontal bed. They have a
person who serves drinks and meals and is all done in a first class manner
considering your riding a bus. If the United States had this kind of bus
service we would have no problem taking a bus ride instead of a plane flight.
The evening provided us with a full moon and the drive South is along a two
lane highway through the grasslands of Argentina. It reminded me of the
Everglades in Florida with water everywhere and it is probably worth taking the
bus during the day to truly enjoy it.
The taxi driver picked us up at the hotel at
8:00 AM and we departed for the Brazil border. The taxi driver explained to the
Brazil customs agent that he was taking us on a tour and we were allowed to go
through. The customs official did not stamp our passports so it would appear
that we never entered Brazil. Rodrigo, our taxi driver, speaks no English but is
eager and carried a big smile. Fist stop of the day is Itaipu Dam and we are
the first ones there. The Itaipu Dam has a very nice visitor center that offers
a "Making of the Itaipu Dam" movie and a bus tour around the dam. The
Itaipu Dam is the world's largest hydroelectric dam and stretches over four
miles across the river between Paraguay and Brazil. The dam was built as a
fifty-fifty partnership between Brazil and Paraguay but now the dam provides
most of its power generation to Brazil. The visit to the dam is definitely
worth the trip.
Next stop is the Iguazu falls on the Brazilian
side. The travel books all recommended going to the Brazil side first to take
in the true magnificence of the falls. The Argentinian side of the falls is
more developed as a natural park but the Brazil side allows you to see the
falls as Mother Nature intended. The Brazil side of the falls has only one
walkway from the top to the bottom of the falls. Karen and I walked up and
could not believe the size and magnitude of the falls. It was truly impressive.
We stopped for the mandatory couple picture and headed down the walkway. We
discovered that the previous view of the falls was only 20% of the actual
falls. Every corner and observation point yielded an even larger view of the falls.
Taking pictures became a little difficult because water vapor is everywhere and
covers your camera lens before you have a chance to focus. The end of the
walkway takes you into the middle of the river and at the edge of a large
horseshoe shaped fall. If you venture into the center of the fall you need a
good poncho because you will get soaking wet in a few minutes. The waterfalls
are very wide and the area is covered with unusual landscaping that seems out
of place with such tremendous water power everywhere you turn. The Brazil side
of the falls does not require more than an hour visit so we joined up with our
taxi driver and set off for the 60 mile drive to get to the Argentina side of
the falls. It is kind of weird to see that the place your going is less than a
mile away across the river but you must drive an hour to get there.
As we drove out the park exit we tried to
communicate to the driver that we wanted to go to Bird Park which is only a few
miles from the Brazil park entrance. The sign read "Parque Aves" and
we tried repeating this as our destination. It took a few minutes for the
driver to comprehend our request but he figured it out and we stopped in for a
quick detour. The park entrance was $8 US and at first we thought it would only
take five minutes to see the birds in the various cages. As we got to the end
of the bird house we went through a door that took us on a hour worth of bird
habitats inside huge cages. This allows you to actually walk through and stand
next to some beautiful birds of many different species. I think the birds are
use to the human visitors because they did not seem bothered at all by people
walking through their home. For bird lovers this is a real treat and a great
way to get some pictures of some very colorful birds. I think I enjoyed the
Bird Park more than the waterfalls.
It is now getting close to 1:00 PM and I am
getting hungry but we did not want to kill an hour of our cab ride by eating.
We still had to go to the Argentina side of the waterfall. The cab driver asked
us if we wanted to eat and he knew of a place on the Brazil side. We at first
declined but he kept asking so we gave him the OK. He pulled into the parking
lot not to far from the Argentina border of a very large building and tried to
explain that it was a buffet and cost $12 US a person. I am not a fan of
buffets and definitely did not want to pay $12 US. Since we could not explain
our reasons for objection we decided to go along. We entered a large banquet
hall filled with people and waiters in all directions. We invited the taxi
driver to sit with us but he was able to explain that if he sat with us he
would have to pay for his meal. Great we got sucked into a tourist trap so that
our taxi driver could get a free meal. The place turned out to be well worth
the $12 US. The buffet was a normal buffet with 25 side dished and I loaded up
on some food. Then the first waiter came with a knife in one hand a large piece
of meat on a skewer in the other. Argentina is famous for their consumption of
meat and this restaurant fit the bill. Every three minutes a different waiter
would show up with another meat to carve out on my plate. At one time I counted
nine different kinds of meet on my plate. It was being delivered faster than I
could keep up with. I was full and the meat kept on coming. Karen the
vegetarian was having more fun with the meat variety than I was. We signaled to
the driver that he did good and we were on our way.
The Taxi driver did not know it yet but we
wanted him to take us to the Argentinian side of the falls. In hindsight we
probably should have negotiated this in our original price but it only cost us
an extra $10 US and we would catch the bus back from the falls. The Argentinean
side of the falls is definitely setup for tourists. They have put a lot of
effort into building very nice walkways over the various waterfalls and down to
the river's edge. Each waterfall is separated by a small island or patch of
land that forces the river to divide into many smaller waterways. This natural
formation of rocks and small islands made it easy for the park service to build
bridges and walkways connecting a majority of the waterfalls on the Argentina
side. It is a surreal feeling to stand a foot above the drop off point of a
roaring waterfall. I don't think Disney could have built a nicer waterfall for
tourists to enjoy. The walkways also take you down to the river's edge giving
you plenty of opportunities to get soaking wet. The climbs are steep and we
found ourselves short of breath on more than one occasion. We had a nice
solution for our shortness of breath. We would sit down and enjoy the
sites-and-sounds and the cool mist of a raging waterfall. Not a bad way to
spend the afternoon.
We had become old pros at this bus thing and got
on the local bus from the falls back to the bus terminal. Karen and I had both
wanted to camp but the speed at which we were traveling did not really give us
enough time. The guide books and local tourist information list numerous spots
to camp in the area and on our bus ride back from the falls we passed what
appeared to be a first-class campground. It looked nice and had a mixture of
rustic camping, modern facilities and is on the bus route.
Our next stop was Buenos Aires, Argentina flying
from Asuncion, Paraguay only a short five hour miserable bus ride away. The
last thing we wanted to do was catch another uncomfortable bus to get on an
airplane and deal with all the Paraguayan customs hassles. Because we had
exited Paraguay without getting an exit stamp on our passport we did not know
if this would create a problem entering back into Paraguay to catch the bus
back to the airport in Asuncion, Paraguay for our flight to Buenos Aires,
Argentina. The bus ride to Buenos Aires from Puerto Iguazu was fifteen hours
and the thought of that was also not very exciting. Karen had read about a
deluxe sleeper bus called a Coche Cama. The brochure pictured big reclining
seats with food and drink and a couple of movies thrown in. The price for this
deluxe bus ride was $50 US so we decided to give it a shot. We also felt
confident that if we tried to leave from Paraguay the Passport problem would
cost us $50 a piece so we really could not lose. As it turns out when we got to
Buenos Aires a population of three million people we ran into Sean and the two
guys from Denmark. These were the guys we met up with at the airport in
Asuncion. They had a real customs horror story to tell us. Sean being from the
United States did not have a visa to Brazil but got on a bus that was headed
for the Brazil side of the falls. When he went through customs they would not
let him in so they had to get off the bus and head back to Ciudad Del Este,
Paraguay where they all got a $50 fine for not having an exit stamp on their
passport. So they got pissed off at the whole thing and jumped on a bus to
Buenos Aires without seeing a waterfall. It sure does pay to read the guide
books cover to cover and ask as many dumb questions as possible.
The bus left that afternoon around 4:00 PM so we
spent a leisure day wondering around before our bus ride to Buenos Aires. The
really nice buses are double deckers and it definitely pays to sit up top. The
bottom is fairly small but is probably the better choice if you easily get
motion sickness. As promised in the brochure, the seats were large and
comfortable but still no replacement for a good horizontal bed. They have a
person who serves drinks and meals and is all done in a first class manner
considering your riding a bus. If the United States had this kind of bus
service we would have no problem taking a bus ride instead of a plane flight.
The evening provided us with a full moon and the drive South is along a two
lane highway through the grasslands of Argentina. It reminded me of the
Everglades in Florida with water everywhere and it is probably worth taking the
bus during the day to truly enjoy it.
