OK, folks - leg #2 of our Argentina trip. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin.
After our arrival in Buenos Aires we settled into our apartment, had a quick peek around the area and used a nearby ATM to get some Argentinian pesos. Although we were both a bit tired after the flight, in the afternoon we had a private guide to take us around the city which had been arranged by the travel planner. We started off in the Recoleta cemetery
mainly because it was due to close within the hour and spent most of that time being shown such delights as Evita’s grave
as well as that of the founder of the Argentinian Navy, William Browne,
an Irishman from the same county as my family. From there we visited the city centre and the Plaza de Maio and the Casa Rosalla, Argentina’s presidential palace before moving on to the very colourful La Boca,
home of soccer
and the tango! We returned via the trendy Puerto Madero wedged between the city centre and the river. That night we enjoyed dinner and our diet for the next couple of weeks of steak and Malbec was confirmed.
Nothing had been planned for the first part of the following day so we headed back to Recoleta to explore more fully. It had been virtually deserted the previous evening but today there were long lines to Evita’s grave.
There were a few Irish graves there and perhaps these were my ancestors?
We strolled back to the city and wandered around, getting a feel for the place before a car came to take us to dinner and a tango show. The show was amazing but Flavia and Vincent can give the dancers a run for their money on SCD and are much more exciting but then they do have a larger floor than the dancers on the small stage. It was excellent and good value for money, especially as the waiters came round regularly re-filling our glasses. We thought it would be two glasses each and then after that you were on your own, but no - the wine flowed freely.
The next day we were off on the first of our side trips to the Iguazu Falls. It seems that every time we go away together we have at least one trip which necessitates a 4.30am or earlier call and this was the one. Oh, we needn’t have been so early but Chris had booked the flight with miles and had typed in EZE into the website completely unaware at the time that there was a second airport nearer the centre of the city which had far greater availability of flights. We were picked up from the apartment (which we held on to while we were away) still bleary-eyed and some 45 minutes later, were deposited at the domestic terminal. We were quickly checked-in but when we arrived at security they refused to let us through until 5am. According to my iPhone it was 4.57am!! At the witching hour we were admitted into that hallowed area and once through we were in an area which was light, modern and airy. Coffee was the order of the day and I must say, the coffee in Argentina was absolutely gorgeous.
We were bussed out to the plane, an A320 and settled in our seats. The plane was a brand new one and had only been in service for a couple of weeks and had mood lighting in the form of blue skies. The cabin was spotless as should be expected and had that “new car” smell. Announcements were in Spanish and English and that seemed to be the norm wherever we went in Argentina. Shortly after take-off we were given snack boxes not dissimilar to those we received in SE
Asia last year and the cabin crew came round with beverages which basically were coffee, tea and soft drinks. I had coffee and enjoyed the snack box thinking all the while that dentists in Argentina must make a fortune as, apart from dinner, all the meals were heavily sugar-laden. And the coffee was sweet too. I quickly learned not to add sugar - and I have a sweet tooth! The flight was uneventful and some 90 minutes later we were arriving in Iguazzu and that’s where the fun began.
This part of our trip had been organised in its entirety by the planner apart from the flights in and out. This included a car to meet us at the airport, the hotel and the trips to the Falls both on the Argentinian and the Brazilian sides as well as the return to the airport. We had been told that we had to pay in cash and in US dollars and given the sum to hand over to the driver of the car. It all seemed rather suspect - or perhaps I have been conditioned by the “brown envelope” culture which had been prevalent among our politicos. In any case, our driver was there to meet us. He was young-ish (Heck, I’m at the age where everyone is young-ish) and his English was not great but we were able to understand him. We handed over the money and he delivered us to the hotel where it was obvious that the staff knew him. We were checked in and he proposed a trip for us in the afternoon and promised that he would call back for us and would also have details of our pick-up for the next day - and that was the last we heard or saw of him!!
Before this happened, we were shown to our cabana which was lovely and I was fascinated to find there was a small oratory in the grounds of the hotel.
There was an animal sanctuary next door so we wandered over to it and spent a pleasant hour or so looking at toucan,
monkeys, coati and other species native to South America. Back in the hotel we waited and waited and waited for yer man who never appeared. To add to our woes, Chris received an email from his cat-sitter to say that his 18 year old cat who had been diagnosed with cancer a couple of weeks previously but had been doing well, had deteriorated rapidly and needed to be put down. Oh dear! We threw ourselves on the mercy of the staff in reception who tried to contact our service provider but to no avail. Unfortunately none of the morning staff were there but we clung to the fact that they had recognised him. Eventually we decided that all we could do was to wait for the morning and cross our fingers in the meantime. Chris made arrangements to dispatch Alex to that great big catnip patch in the sky through the services of a palliative vet (I kid you not) and we decided that food was on the agenda. After all we had had nothing except some snacks since our snackbox on the flight that morning. The hotel recommended a restaurant, organised a taxi and on arrival we were told there would be a 20 minute wait. No problem. We settled down to wait but the next minute we were presented with two glasses of champagne on the house while we waited. Our wait was much less than 20 minutes and soon we were called to our meal where we had the most exquisite piece of meat I have ever, ever, EVER eaten. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. And the malbec was divine also.
The next day everything fell into place. Contact was made with the tour operators and times confirmed. We were part of a small group of about 14 and led by a very knowledgeable man who addressed us as “Familia” or “Family” depending on the language he was speaking. The Falls were simply amazing.
If you have seen the 1986 film, The Mission, it was set there but fortunately it is not trumpeted around the place unlike Petra and the unremitting Indiana Jones advertising. We also did the Grand Adventure which was a rather tame tour through the jungle with a leader who spoke very little English followed by a trip in a RIB under the Falls. We got soaked to the skin and loved every minute of it. There were showers and changing rooms available but in any case it was so warm that our clothes dried quickly. As we waited for the group to gather we watched the coatis scrounging food and laughed as one guy insisted on feeding them and then panicked when they started to beg for more!!
It was a perfect day and a complete antidote to the previous day’s stresses.
Posted: 05 Jan 2013, 00:55
