Iguazu Falls - Day 3 - Foz de Iguacu, Brazil

Friday 2nd May

Today's Lesson.....How to Visit a Country in Four Hours.

We made a very quick visit to Brazil this morning before flying back to BA this afternoon.

We caught a bus over the border to Foz de Iguacu (the falls town on the Brazillian side), and then another bus out to the falls, and got there at 0900. We then had to catch one of the park buses out to the start of the track. The advantage of coming to Brazil to view the falls is that you get to see them all at once (as you are on the opposite side of the river, looking across at them). We got to the first viewing point after about 5 mins walking, and WOW - what an awesome view, there are just so many waterfalls (about 75 altogether). Unfortunately we didn't have as much time as we would have liked on this side (due to getting delayed on the way to Iguazu), so all we had time for was a few quick photos and videos and then it was back on the bus to Argentina, and out to the airport for our flight back to BA.

We got back to Puerto Iguazu at 1130 - exactly four hours after we had left(!), and headed out to the airport at lunchtime. We discovered yet more flight issues when we got to the airport. Because we had missed our flight to Iguazu, bl**dy LAN had cancelled the rest of our reservations! (although somehow our tickets still existed?? - I have no idea how it all works). So it was lucky that the flight was half-empty, or we wouldn't have got back to BA either. So, back in BA, I spent about 15 mins on the phone sorting out our flights home and ensuring that our reservations were re-confirmed. That done we took a taxi to our new hostal "O'Rei" on Calle Lavalle, which is in Retiro - much closer to the centre of the city and has much more night life. The hostal (again) looks like it is stuck in a bit of a 60's time-warp (our room has a lovely baby blue and tan colour scheme going on - nice!) but other than that the location is great and the service has been fab.

We then set out to book a tour to take us to the Tigre Delta tomorrow (a river plains area north of BA). That done, we wandered around the shops for a while and finally managed to get some money out of an ATM (after a couple rejected our card), and found that we can only withdraw A$500 max (which is like NZ$220) which doesn't go far around here, so it looks like we are going to be racking up the bank fees.

We went to a Paradilla called "El Gaucho" for dinner (who have touts dressed up as Gauchos out on the streets enticing you in) and had a huge plate of grilled baby goat in 'special' sauce. It was so flavoursome and tender, but my goodness it was so much meat! After dinner we walked up the street and stumbled on a bit of a night market with musicians and stalls set up in the middle of the peatonal (pedestrian street) selling all kinds of stuff, from socks to scarves to arts and crafts. We also saw our first tango dancers - the old dude had the moves!