January 27th & 28th, 2017

Day 304 & 305: Journey to Puerto Iguazú

Our journey to Puerto Iguazú was a long, 2-day affair. Day One was purely a travel day, as we flew from Punta Areas to Puerto Montt to Santiago and finally to Buenos Aires. We arrived pretty late in the evening – it was about 8:30PM by the time we checked into our hotel and we were exhausted. Even though the dinner scene in Buenos Aires doesn’t really get started until 9PM (so we technically had plenty of time to go out), we really just wanted a quiet night in, since we had an early flight the next morning and we still had to repack our bags (we were planning to leave our big suitcase in BA for a few days and only take carry-on luggage with us to Iguazú). Luckily for us, there was a grocery store that was only a block away, so we were able to pick up some pasta, sauce, cheese and wine (very important!) and we enjoyed a simple yet satisfying dinner in our hotel room.

After three flights, we finally arrive in Buenos Aires, feeling a little punchy. We buy a bus/taxi combo deal from EZE airport to our hotel in Recoleta

Igor takes a shower while Lindsay whips up a quick pasta dinner in our little kitchenette

In the morning, we discover that our hotel room has a stunning view of the Recoleta Cemetery! We plan to explore when we return to BA in a few days

The next morning our hotel ordered a USD $10 taxi to the Aeroparque domestic airport (located right in the city). Even though it was a domestic flight, our hotel recommended that we arrive 2hrs early – we soon discovered why. Argentineans LOVE lines. Lines, lines, long, long lines for everything! Long line to check in, long line to get to security, long line to board the plane. We started to grumble to ourselves, but then we had to step back for a moment and reflect that things could be worse: at least Argentineans don’t *cut* in lines, the way the Chinese do!

When we finally got to the head of the line for the security check, we discovered what the holdup was. The actual security station (metal detector & x-ray scanning) was practically empty, so it wasn’t the security team that was taking forever; it was the two agents checking everyone’s ID beforehand. Turns out, domestic airfare is about *half the cost* if you have an Argentinean resident card (thanks to ridiculously high taxes for government subsidies) and they wanted to make sure no foreigners were trying to sneak through with online tickets purchased with the “local” price! We had heard about this before coming to Argentina, so we paid the foreigner fare as we didn’t want to risk getting booted from the plane if we got caught.

Tickets in hand, we are ready to join the loooooong queue for security (we are learning that Argentineans LOVE to wait in lines!)

We enjoy our LAN Argentina snack box (admittedly, food is very good in Argentina) on the short flight to IGR

When we arrived in the Puerto Iguazú Airport, we spent a good 20min trying to find the “local” bus (Igor had read someone’s blog where they claimed to only pay USD $2 for a bus into town). Whether or not this bus exists, we’ll never know – we tried asking the airport staff and transport operators where it was, and they all told us there was no public bus. Our only options for getting into town were a taxi or a shared minibus (granted, the transport operators had a vested interest in lying to us, if there really was a bus – maybe they just don’t want foreigners using their public transportation?). We opted for the minibus since the guy promised it would be leaving in about 5min. I guess “cinco minutos” is a loose term in Spanish, as we actually waited a half an hour for them to get enough customers to fill up the 20-seater bus.

Once the bus was finally loaded up, we finally started making our way into town. About halfway down the road, however, our minibus pulled over to the side of the road, along with a big tourist bus. A guy wearing a “turistica” polo-shirt came on and asked us if we all spoke English. A few of us said, “Yes,” and he then proceeded to inform us that everyone on board had to pay a USD $1.50 Tourist Tax (literally – the receipt says “Tasa Turística” on it). We noticed none of the taxis were pulled over – I guess they only target buses. We made sure to keep our receipt on us for the rest of the trip just in case they tried to hit us up again.

We buy tickets for the shared minibus, which gets pulled over halfway to town for everyone on board to pay a tourist tax

Instead of staying in a hostel, Igor found us a homestay where we would get our own private cabin, with a kitchen, pool & BBQ access and free bike rental. The only catch was that it was not in the downtown area, but located in a residential neighborhood on the edge of town. While the minibus was supposed to make hotel stops, they told us they couldn’t go all the way to our part of town – instead they dropped us off 4 blocks away where the paved road meets gravel. It was a short but very hot walk to our homestay. However, once we go there, we found the cabin to be very comfortable and homey.

Even though they lived in Argentina, we suspected our hosts were actually Brazilians (the mother and daughter wore bikinis all day long, and when we asked them to help us light the BBQ later that night, they were kinda clueless on how to light a grill – not very Argentinean). The daughter, Paola, was the only one who spoke English, but she was incredibly kind and helpful, giving us directions for everything from where to find the best grocery store to how we could catch the bus into the park the next day. She told us we were welcome to borrow their pair of bicycles so we could visit the scenic riverside (where we could see the meeting of the 3 countries: Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay) and do our grocery shopping in town. We picked up a big steak and a bottle of red for dinner – buen provecho, Argentina!

Our cabin in Puerto Iguazú has a full kitchen, two bedrooms, and decent Wifi

We borrow our host’s bicycles and ride into town for groceries, stopping by the “Tres Fronteras” (3 frontiers) where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet