Erin & Regan's South American Adventure

Hola,

The day of our flight finally rolled round so it was off to the airport we go.  Just before leaving we gave some of our food away, to lighten our load.

At the airport we discovered the check in desks, and an enormous queue which didn't seem to be moving very fast.  Nonetheless we joined at the end only to discover just in front of us an english boy (Benjamin Wilson) we met in Platypus hostel, Bogota, Colombia.  Turns out he was heading home having run out of money.  He spent his entire trip in Bogota, not bothering to travel anywhere else... this was not his inital plan of course but he liked Bogota so much... well, there you go.

As we queued we overheard a woman from Brittish Airways telling someone else that there was a mechanical problem with the plane, which was still in Sao Paulo (Brazil) and rooms had been booked for us at a hotel in the event we could not fly today.

Eventually, after several hours queuing we reached the front of the queue, checked our bags and were given vouchers for lunch.  We headed off to lunch and while we waited for service Ben joined us.  Another BA staff member approached our table at lunch and informed us we would need to queue again at 1pm to find out what was going on.

We queued again... this time they made an announcement that we wouldn't fly today and they would be handing out vouchers for a hotel and transport.  This caused a mad rush where everyone ignored the orderly queue they had been in and swamped the ticket desks.

Eventually we made it to the front of the queue again (9 hours queuing so far) and received our vouchers, we were told to collect our bags and head to the transport.  I went to collect our bags only to discover one missing, I asked about it and they took down the details and radioed to another area where it was found and brought to us.  We then headed to the transport and got a private car for just the 3 of us.

Apparently just after we left the queue another airline took over the desks BA was using (because their time slot had expired) and everyone was in a panic until another desk could be obtained.  Some unlucky passengers were queueing for another 5 hours!

We arrived at the hotel and checked in.  As we were doing so a bus load of passengers who had left earlier than us arrived and were quite surprised to see us there.

Our room was grand...

but they suckered me in with a bottle of water which read something like "Our tap water is safe to drink but we would like you to enjoy this bottle of mineral water" only to have a price marked on the bottom of 19 pesos!  Ben fell for this evil trap too.

At 9:30pm they served a buffet dinner which was fabulous.  After that we headed to bed.  Our wake up time was 3:45am the next morning, *sigh*

Back at the airport we queued, again.  After a while they decided to forgo the whole queuing idea and read a list of names, sending us to another airlines check in desks.  We had approximately 45 minutes to check our bags and get on the plane!  Erin and I had tax to claim back from our purchases of suits and so on for work in the UK so I rushed to the counter and explained the hurry and everything was processed nice and quickly.

Finally on a flight we all rejoiced... but it was far too soon for that.  We arrived in Sao Paulo only to be told we had a 3-5 hour wait, but at least they provided lunch vouchers... however Erin cannot eat wheat and all they had was a bakery style deli, which although they had potato chips would not allow us to have those on our vouchers.  Erin found a BA employee and asked if any other food could be found, they said yes and told her to come back in an hour.

We returned in an hour to find.. well nothing, the employee had vanished.  We tried the deli again and eventually someone there realised we were the people for whom a special box had been delivered.  Finally Erin had something to eat.

In the meantime we also did a bit of Duty Free shopping for essentials like perfume and make up, also underwear to replace the stuff we had worn out in 6 months backpacking.

Then it was back into a queue for our boarding passes for the next flight to London.  This process seemed to take an incredibly long time and no reason was given.  It appeared to me that someone or something had stuffed up and lost some boarding passes which then had to be re-issued.  Initially they were processing the queue and searching for the passes but finally someone decided to read the names out loud and that was a little faster.  Unfortunately I was one of the people who pass was missing and a new one had to be issued.  We were some of the last onto the plane.

The flight was excellent, the food was good, and they even had Erin's wheat free meal!  I watched 4 movies and Erin slept a bit but I couldn't, as usual.

Once we arrived we had to wait for a free spot to disembark, then the air bridge was broken and we had to wait for stairs... all this took around 30 minutes.  And I thought we were past all the problems, no such luck.

Finally we made it off the plane and down to the baggage lounge where we collected 2 of our 3 bags... we waited, and waited, worried about Kirsty sitting somewhere and waiting for us, not to mention the parking costs!  Every so often an announcement would be made, apologising for the delay and saying they had found another baggage cart of bags but all to no avail.  Eventually we gave us, filed a missing baggage report (leaving Erin's notebook behind!) and left.  Parking was £10!

Some days later my bag arrived, it was delivered by courier.  Sadly Erin's notebook has not.  So, there ends the disaster that was our flight to the UK.  At least the plane didn't crash I suppose.

And now, the job hunt begins.

Hola,

Back in BA and we had just 3 days (or so we thought, more on that later...) before our flight to London.  Erin was getting itchy feet and so decided we were going sight seeing.

First stop was a great big silver tulip, constructed for some reason which now escapes me.  It would have been cool to see this at night as there were big red lights inside.

Next door was this impressive looking building.

From there we headed to the cemetary.  On the way we spotted this... we suspect the local restaurants do deliveries.

At the cemetary and boy is this place it's own walled city.Inhabitants include, dead people and cats, cats, cats galore.

From the cemetary it was a short walk to the movies where we watched "Mas extrana que la fiction" (Stranger than fiction) which was an excellent film.

Hola,

The next day we headed back to the falls only this time it was the Argentine side.  The entrance fee here also includes transport costs, this time a train which runs the length of the park.

Most people headed straight to the train, however the first leg can be done on foot (it's less than 1km) and so we did.  Those that took the train missed out on some of the wildlife.

From the first train stop it was a modest walk past some small falls to the boats which head into the falls and also across to the small island you can see here.

Erin managed to loose her hat overboard and had to fish it out again, she blames having to wear the "stupid" life vests for her trouble.

On the island most people headed right so we decided to be a little different and head left.  We were rewarded when we stumbled on this guy sunning himself on the path!

From then on I was on the lookout for more lizards but could only manage to spot this little guy.

The island gave us a close up view of these falls.

We headed back on the boat and headed to the next set of falls.

Of course the butterflies were out in force again.

There was another walk along the topside of the falls with some spectacular views.

Then it was on the train to the Devils Throat, at this point were some birds which didn't seem to mind us getting quite close.

The Devils throat itself is a huge circular set of falls which head back down the river to the island (on the left) and the Brazilian side of the falls (on the right).

While waiting for the return train trip I spied a largish green snake meandering through the train station and around.

Hola,

We arrived in Puerto Iguazu only to realise (after having a closer look) that our reservation was for the hostel outside of town, not the one in the middle of town, despite having asked specifically for the one inside town.

We went to the one in town anyway and talked about it, they wouldn't accept the reservation credit of 25 pesos but did have a free room.  We would have to talk to the hostel back in Buenos Aires about a refund or something.  We decided to stay and after a quick lunch in a local restaurant we jumped on the bus to the Brazilian side of the Iguazu Falls.

We went through Argentinean customs getting an exit stamp but didn't have to go through Brazilian customs and get an entry stamp, and we were really looking forward to one of those too!  The bus dropped us on the main road and we had to catch a 2nd bus to get to the falls themselves.

The park entrance included unlimited transport in the form of a bus we could catch at any point on the park road.  We took this bus to the main 1.2km walking track along the falls. 

At the start of the walk we saw signs warning us of these little guys, apparently they can become violent when food is involved.

At the start of the walk you can literally look across the border to the Argentine side.  You can also see all the jet boats taking people as close to the falls as they dare.

There were simply millions of butterflies everywhere!

Not to mention lizards.

Plus waterfalls, waterfalls and more waterfalls. 

You get pretty close to the falls on this side, and we had heard you got even closer on the Argentine so we couldn't wait.  After the walk we took the bus back to the park entrance and again caught 2 busses to return to Puerto Iguazu.  We again passed through only Argentinean customs, not Brazilian.

Hola,

We arrived in Buenos Aires and caught a taxi to our hostel in the "San Telmo" area of Buenos Aires. We had to wait a little bit for the previous couple to vacate our room but finally dumped our gear and had showers and so on. Our room was nice, big enough with a large window onto the street. The only problem, as we found out later that night, was that people would stay up late in the common/dining area, playing loud music, right outside our door!

That afternoon we walked around San Telmo looking at the various stalls in the famous Sunday markets. Erin was very tempted by these leather boxes, but settled for a skirt instead. 

We found interesting empanadas.

We met Zorro.

A dressed up dog.

And some interesting storefronts.

The next day we started shopping for clothes (both for work and casual) in the UK. We took the subway to a big mall and spent all day and a bunch of money on suits and socks and so on. We also decided to see a movie "Musica y Letra" the latest Hugh Grant plays the same old soppy character movie.

The next morning we checked out, putting the majority of our things in storage at the hostel.  We then made reservations at the hostel in Iguazu, bought bus tickets and went out again, this time to get haircuts.

That evening it was off to Iguazu.

Hola,

From Iruya we caught a series of busses including one overnight bus to Cordoba. After an hour of searching we then found a hostel.

This one wasn't too bad, all the double rooms were over the street in a seperate building with seperate facilities. This meant that we, and the other couples were spared the smoking, drinking, singles and their late nights of partying (man we're getting old).

We spent a couple of nights here, going to the movies, catching up on email, the blog and working on our CV's in preparation for the UK. Then, we booked our next hostel and bought bus tickets and off we went to Buenos Aires.

Hola,

From Cafeyate we headed north, spent a night in Salta (which was singularly unimpressive) then headed further north to Humahuaca (also unimpressive and expensive to boot) where we stayed another night.  Finally, the next day we reached our intended destination of Iruya, a town of around 1400 people or so.

We were met at the bus station / large open part of the town by a woman with a hostel (sound familiar) we decided what the heck. It turned out to be an excellent place to stay, the people were nice, the bed comfy, it was quiet and we basically had the run of the place.  Not to mention the fact that the price was cheaper for both of us, with a private room than for one of us in the dorms in Humahuaca.

That afternoon we decided to walk to San Isidro which is an even smaller town of only 75 people.  The walk begins by skirting the side of the hill next to Iruya.

Then it follows the river down the valley, at this point we were a little lost.  We didn´t want to cross the river a million times and we couldn´t see any other trail.  It was just now that a local man, who lived in San Isidro started climbing a nearly invisible trail up the side of the valley, we decided to follow his lead.  The trail skipped past the river and dropped back down to the valley floor.

After several of these trails we reached a part where the valley narrows and the river continues, here there was a sign indicating the path up to San Isidro.  We climbed up a bit then looked back along the river.

There isn´t anything to do in San Isidro except climb to the graveyard and look back down on the town, so that´s what we did.

Then we headed back.  It´s gotta be boring for the dogs here, at least during the day, in the hot sun.  Nothing better to do than sleep I guess.

I decided to snap a few shots of the trail back as it was kinda impressive.

We passed a donkey, molting or something.  My guess is they do this at a certain age because the younger ones were much furrier than the older ones.

The river, and Erin´s smiling face.  She liked this walk much better than in Tafí once the old guy showed us where to go of course.

The next morning we had just enough time to do a short walk, before our bus left.  We climbed to the cross and then a bit higher to get a good view of the town and valleys.

Our hostel, and our pink travel towels.

Some more shots of the town.

And the graveyard.

While on the hill an eagle of some sort shot over my head, at first I wondered if it was going to try and eat me then I decided to take a photo.

Erin trying to decide if she can climb any further.

The sheer sides of the valley.

The highest point.

Erin decided to try climbing round the ridge, in her flip-flops, what a nutter!

Waiting for our bus.

Erin trying to get a reflection in my glasses.

The road from Iruya, switchbacks as far as the eye can see.

This cool shot is the result of the camera behind my sunglasses, behind the window of the bus shooting the sun behind the clouds, gnarly.

Hola,

After Quilmes we decided to do a walk.  Making this a very long day.

This walk is just what we had wanted to do in Tafí del Valle, but couldn´t find.  The woman at the hostel mentioned a guide was possible but said we could do it "solo" so that´s what we did. 

Without a guide you have to walk 6km to the start of the trek, and then 6km back again.  That part was a bit of a bore but otherwise it was an amazing walk/climb.

The walk begins at the end of a local road, near a school.  From here you start to follow the river up a valley/ravine, crossing several times and passing a few small waterfalls and at least two maybe three decent sized ones.

At about halfway along we met two other walkers who had also left it as late as we did (most people were walking back out, in the opposite direction about now).  They were sitting rather dejectedly on a rock due to the other walkers telling them it was too late to go.  We scoffed at this and convinced them to join us.

It was half a walk and half a climb over big rocks, trees and the river itself.  Luckily no-one fell in.  It was, in fact, great fun.  This has prompted Erin to say that we need to take up rock climbing, it seems we´d both enjoy it.  My mother is going to love that!

Finally we reached the largest waterfall where our friends took a photo of us.

Back at the base of the trek the sunset looked grand.

We started on our 6km return trip along the dusty road.