Ahmad: We had booked the most basic bus from Sao Paulo to the Iguazu falls, so we were expecting something of an African chicken bus, we got the bus station and the bus was actually really comfortable. One thing about overland travel in South America (so far at least) is that whilst it’s relatively expensive it’s also pretty comfortable (so long as you don’t forget your sleeping bag – the air conditioning on the bus was on full blast all night, it was actually warmer outside so I froze all night)
We got to the bus station in Foz do Iguazu in Brazil before sunrise, getting off the bus I shimmied into some trousers and shoes (I foolishly was wearing shorts and flip flops on the bus) followed by coffee in the gullet (made me feel immediately better) . We hung around the bus station till a little after sunrise and got on to the bus to the town centre, following a quick change (and some sage advice from a local tour guide) we got through the Brazilian / Argentinean immigration and eventually to Puerto Iguazu.
We arrived at the hostel (called Iguazu falls Hostel) and grabbed some (more) coffee and had a look around the town. The town itself was very quaint; we immediately went to the supermarket to sample Argentina’s most famous exports – Wine and steak.
We went for the cheapest cut of steak (three steaks for a little over three pounds) and the cheapest wine (again) a little over a pound. Being nearer the end of our trip we are very conscious of our budget so we thought if we can live on the very basic of steak and wine then we are laughing. On the way back to the hostel we visited an ATM. Now ATM’s here all charge a 17 Peso fee, this isn’t a massive amount (£3.55 per withdrawal) but makes you slightly bitter about withdrawing your own cash.
We got back to the hostel and chilled out for the rest of the day, we opened the wine and it was drinkable (barley) and quickly decided that that we would spend a little more and go for the 10 Peso bottle of wine next time (rather than 6 Pesos). The steak on the other hand was a treat; even the cheapest cut was pretty good. We met an Argentinean guy from Buenos Aires called Javier who was pretty cool, he had popped to Puerto Iguazu for the weekend and was on a very tight schedule but we exchanged details and agreed to meet in Buenos Aires.
The beds in the dorm were really nice, and the hostel gave you lots of blankets (there was no heating in the rooms and it was around 5°C). We did pretty much nothing the following day (apart from drinking more wine in the evening).
The next day we went to Iguazu falls, they were absolutely huge, the largest falls we had seen since Zambia all those months ago. I don’t know, perhaps I’m a little jaded after 8 months travelling but I don’t think that they were as beautiful as Victoria falls. Throughout Iguazu falls national park there are these animals that look like a cross between an ant eater and a badger, they potter around bothering tourists for food (which inevitably some idiot gives them). They were pretty menacing and aggressive in order to get food (not as bad as the baboons in Victoria Falls).
We got back to the hostel and met some nice travellers – Crystal (from Canada), Clio and Adrian (from Switzerland), and drank yet another bottle of cheap but good wine. We were both heading to Buenos Aires so decided to meet up again there.
We spent our final night in Puerto Iguazu hanging around the hostel and (you guessed it) drinking more wine. Wine is a real treat for us after eight months in Africa and Asia so we’ve been ‘quaffing’ it in large quantities (for us at least, our drinking stamina these days is pathetic).
We had booked a bus from Puerto Iguazu to Buenos Aires on one of the previous days, we opted to travel by a class called Cama, this is where the seat on the bus turns into a bed that’s almost flat (think about first class on some airlines). Funnily enough this was actually cheaper than going via almost all the other bus companies’ cheapest option, either way £55 for a 18 hour journey in comfort is pretty good.