One Way United

The latest bus ride was the worst one yet.  It was not because there were many problems.  In fact, not once did the bus have to stop for mechanical problems, which seems almost a rarity down here.  It was not because they did not feed us.  We actually had a first class meal in a restaurant that was included in the bus ticket.  In terms of services and overall quality, this might be the best bus ride we have taken.  So, why am I complaining?  Well, I have about 15,000 reasons.  After leaving Salta, Argentina (at an altitude a shade under 4000 feet), the bus climbed and climbed, reaching its peak at over 15,000 feet.  You read that correctly.  That is over 500 feet higher than the tallest peak in the continental US, Mount Whitney, which stands at 14,494 feet.  For those uneducated in altitude sickness, traveling from under 4000 feet to over 15000 feet in a matter of a few hours can cause problems.  It did not help that we were stopped at the Argentinian customs for over 2 hours at an altitude of over 13000 feet.  While we did receive a lunch that was geared toward high altitude, it probably did not help that I threw it up promptly after getting back in the bus.  It felt like the longest bus ride yet as all my energy was mostly focused on breathing, trying not to pass out, and not throwing up on anyone´s lap.  Adam and Fabrice, who I suspect are secretly sherpas, seemed like superman compared to my miserable state.  Finally we started losing altitude, into San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, and I thanked God that the Chilean customs resided in San Pedro (at about 7700 feet) and not way up in the moutains like the sickening customs of Argentina. 

The past few days before that we were in Salta, Argentina where we did, for the most part, umm, nothing.  We spent a lot of our time hanging out with a couple from England named Sam and Katie.  We had a lot of fun comparing slang words, discussing the merits of the metric system, and trying to figure out what exactly happened in the movie Syriana.  Later in our stay, we met back up with Fabrice and Mounya who had just arrived from Iguazu.  Apparently, they almost got arrested in Iguazu National Park for trespassing but nothing ever came of it.  Sadly we had to say goodbye to Mounya, and then Sam and Katie.  Now, with Fabrice in tow, we are on the verge of exploring the great Atacama desert.  Stay tuned. 

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After seeing the Jesuit ruins in San Ignacio Mini (very cool by the way) we hopped a quick bus to Posadas. This town really doesn’t have too much going for it. Our primary goal was to get visas from the Paraguayan embassy so we could spend a little time traveling through the country on our way to Bolivia. Long story short we could have gotten one but it would have been a rather long difficult process that would have wasted time and money for something not really worth it in the first place. I’m sure Paraguay is a great country in its own right, but we wouldn’t have spent too much time there as there isn’t anything you absolutely have to see. Mostly we would have gone there for the sake of going through another country. Instead we bought tickets to Salta, Argentina.

This is supposed to be a very desired tourist destination, but we had to get there first. The bus ride should have taken 18 hours. Due to various complications including mechanical problems it took over 20. That and the service was terrible. No food, no movies, constant stops for smoke breaks, and the like. I was relieved to finally get off that blasted thing. I don’t mind long bus rides now normally, but this one really was lousy. The end result was good though. Coming over a short mountain pass and having this city appear all-of-a-sudden in this gorgeous green valley is a sight to behold. We walked around for a bit including taking a tram up cerro San Bernardo to see the town from above. That evening we saw Capote at the movies. A good film all around although rather depressing. Now we are going to hang out for a little bit as it seems Fabrice (remember him?) has been racing to catch up with us. So he should be here on Tuesday (or Thursday, we think he might have gotten his English mixed up) and after that we’ll probably go to the Atacama desert in Chile.

Hope everyone is doing well as always. Be sure and check out Argentina photos for the pictures of waterfalls and ruins. There has been an update to the moments page as well. Later!

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So it’s been a little while. Last we posted we’d finished going through Uruguay and were on our way to Puerto Iguazu and their world famous waterfalls. First we had to get there. We arrived in the small town of Parana at around five in the morning and were still a good ways off from our final destination. After a quick scoping of the situation we found we could take a bus to Iguazu around six o’clock…over twelve hours later in the afternoon. Instead we hopped on a bus to a smaller town. This place was way off the tourist radar and was very quiet. We spent a little bit of time wandering around after several ladies helped us decide that the best way to go from here would be to Corrientes. So we had lunch and played cards for a while and got back on the bus. We arrived later that night in Corrientes and stayed just long enough to have dinner and get on ANOTHER bus that would arrive in Puerto Iguazu the next morning. And so it was.

We finally arrived into this very beautiful lush green town and set off to find a hostel. Unlike our usual method of wandering around aimlessly until we find something this time we already had one in mind. We’d heard about this place in Buenos Aires and just had to try it out. This hostel was outside of town a couple kilometers and a taxi drove us there. And we were impressed. This place was the Ritz Carlton of hostels. It had a huge pool, deck chairs, restaurant, bar, laundry service, TV, tourist office, pool and ping pong tables, internet, and even massages you could pay for. We needed no convincing. So we settled in for the day and just enjoyed relaxing, swimming in the pool, and watching The Exorcism of Emily Rose. We would later come to feel that although this hostel looked nice, it definitely had it’s drawbacks. For one thing this place was always swarming with people and could be a bit noisy. That and while the place had a huge staff, the majority of them were inattentive and unhelpful. In fact there was only one really helpful guy there who managed to save us from being charged for a bag of laundry we didn’t do, not to mention being charged a fifty peso deposit just because we might accidentily lose a stupid piece of paper they gave to us.

Anyways the next day we went to the falls. Our first stop was part of an organized tour that started with a jeep trip down a jungle pathway learning about various plants and animals in the area. It was nice (and a little boring) and then we came to a speed boat that took us up the river to where the main falls were. We got some good pictures and the were promptly drenched as the boat went directly underneath some of the falls three seperate times. It was fun, although we later decided it wasn’t quite worth the 90 peso price tag.

Having little time left we made our way to what was supposed to be the best view in the park. We hopped a little train and walked down a series of catwalks that were entirely ove water for half a kilometer at least and finally ended up at Garganua del Diablo or Devil’s Throat. And I must say that hereafter I am completely ruined on waterfalls. No series of falls on earth can compare to this. With up to 275 individual cascades falling up to 70 meters this place just defies all imagination. The water is so calm on the river until the second it goes over in a mad torrent and the sound is incredible. We stayed there watching for a while and taking a zillion pictures, wanting to remember this forever. We then reluctantly made our way back to the hostel where we ended up hanging out with some new friends from Boston, Georgia and Kate, and their guy friend from Australia, Lindon. They told us about this cool hidden place at the falls that they were going back to the next day and invited us along. So the next day we went.

This place was supposedly closed off from the public, and we slipped by a Do not pass sign to get there. And once we were there it was like a whole new world. On this little island that cuts the series of falls in half was a large secluded pool with numerous high falls roaring down. We swam and ate lunch and took lots of pictures and once again reluctantly left to go back to the hostel. We hung out for a bit more and left the next day.

We boarded a bus going to San Ignacio Mini, home of some famous Jesuit mission ruins. We arrived fairly late in the afternoon but tried to see the ruins anyway. The woman at the ticket booth recommended we come back the next day as it would be dark soon. We agreed to do that and walked around town for a bit. It became clear that this place was obviously much more poor than some other towns we’d been to recently. People asked for money fairly regularly. Then we came upon the this small little boy who wanted our attention. It took us a minute to figure out that he wanted bread, of which we had none. We sat down and Jordan tried talking to this very shy kid while I sat back and listened. We were able to figure out that he was seven years old and his name was Leon. He had a mom but no father and wanted us to get bread for him. Finally we walked to the nearest grocery store as he followed tentatively behind at a good distance. We got him some bread and decided to get him a pack of cookies too, only to turn around and find he’d followed us into the store. We asked him what kind was his favorite and he picked out a pack of coconut flavored cookies. He was then promplty told to get out by the manager who didn’t want him stealing or begging from her customers. We paid for the items and gave them to him. He said thank you very quietly and then made his way off. We spent the rest of the day eating dinner and hanging out. Today we intend to go see the ruins and head to Posadas in the afternoon, where we will decide if we want to visit Paraguay or not. Peace to all.

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