More Argentina - Buenos Aires, Iguazu Falls

Following an action packed six week itinerary living in various hostels, it was time for a little bit of R&R in beautiful Buenos Aires for the start of our 5 week east coast adventure.

We jetted into BA and found our way to our 8th floor apartment in the trendy Palermo neighbourhood. After being a bit sleep deprived, a tad hungry and wandering the airport for what seemed like hours to find some currency cait and I found ourselves sitting on the doorstep of our apartment building waiting for the keys to be dropped off having a pointless argument about something. The state of "Sleepy and Hungry" is a brutal cocktail when you are travelling, like a tinder forest ready to ignite with the smallest spark. A quick wander over to a nearby cafe, two coffees and 5 minutes later we were happy as Larry again. Anyway where was I....

One of the cafes we visited in Palermo

Enjoying breaky in our apartment

For our scheduled week in BA (10 days in the end) we had plenty of time to explore the beautiful tree lined streets chocked full of boutique shops, trendy and hipster; cafes, restaurants, bars and other nightspots, as well as do some of the touristy things and chill out in our apartment.

We enjoyed some of the simple delights a backpacker is deprived of, to name a few; a private kitchen with our own fridge (not a mouldy smelly hostel kitchen) our own bathroom and lounge room with a dining table, and walls that were not paper thin....

BA turned on the weather for us and we had a week straight of blue sky's which reminded me of home, allowing us to explore the city. We were astounded by a trip to the historical and famous Recoletta Cemetery, a final resting place and memorial for most important people in Argentina including, Generals, Presidents, Evita, Nobel Loriets, heaps of Engineers...., one or two Doctors maybe. The Cemetery has narrow "streets" and lined with morsoliams one after the next. Each morsoliam is owned by a famous or rich family and were generally huge with large statues ontop, chapels inside and staircases leading down to rooms for coffins. A truly remarkable place that has to be seen to be believed.

One of the streets of the Recoletta Cemetery

Another morsoliam

Statue of someone in their dressing gown

We had some delicious beef (a few times..Argentinians know how to cook a steak!) as you do in Argentina but most notably at La Cabrera, a restaurant famous amongst locals and tourists for its large and succulent flame grilled ( Parrilla) steak and large selection of delicious condiments, it did not disappoint us. We luckily booked a few weeks in advance as people cue for hours at this place every night of the week.

Caity with her amazing portion of steak and delicious condiments at La Cabrera

We also went along to a "must do" but very touristy Tango show at night to learn all about this traditional dance which the Argentinians are very proud of. After consuming copious quantities of red wine we had a short lesson at the end of the show and carved up the dance floor... Surrounded by tables the dance floor proved to be far too confined for our energetic free wielding spirits and just as we were getting into the swing of it in one swift and graceful movement of the feet and hips we managed to send 5 tall stem wine glasses flying off a table smashing on the ground and suddenly stoping the three stringed quartet from playing. It was a little awkward.....to our defence they said it happens all the time.

Tango tango tango

We included a visit to the San Talmo market where I attempted to pick up a small antique trinket as a momento only to find out the cufflinks were worth over $1000 oz dollars. We picked up some postcards instead.

Yummy street food at the San Telmo market

After a week of sunshine the weather turned, of course when we were half way through a city bike tour, so we rode around through the city in our Ponchos, getting thoroughly soaked, but still wearing a smile. Later we found out BA had its worst flooding in 100 years with cars washed away in the streets and shops flooded in some suburbs, luckily we avoided the majority of it.

Me and my bike RIPPER on the bike tour of BA

At the oddly shaped La Boca Stadium, they ran out of land to build it

We had heard all about the BA nightlife and headed out a couple of times to various night spots, including a performance by a 14 member percusion band which was very good. The Argentinians are famous for eating very late and going out late, we were happy enought to call it quits in the early hours of the morning while other locals told us they can spot the tourists because the eat prior to 10pm and they also stay at home pre-drinking until 4am when they eventually venture out to the clubs and stay there until morning tea time, maybe we missed out on some fun but we were very happy tucked up in bed during the wee hours of the night.

Caity before the performance by the percusion band with her one litre vodka red bull!!

Feeling refreshed from our stay in BA we jumped on a bus for 18 hours ( as you do in South America) to Puerto Iguazu. It was not too bad at all, on the bus we kicked back in our fully reclined chairs, being waited on and being served an assortment of beverages including hampagne and whiskey, we watched several movies in a row including the Dark Knight Rises and Battleships for the second time on a bus, the later movie in English this time rather than Espaniol was rather entertaining (classic American flick- truly Oscar worthy...not really).

The attraction at Puerto Iguazu is the spectacular Iguazu Falls which straddle the border of Argentina and Brazil and are South America's Niagra or Victoria Falls. We enjoyed the falls from multiple perspectives over the next three days in the tourist parks on the Argentinian and Brazilian side. The falls have been created by a geological fault and comprise 275 waterfalls in total. The Argentinian side got us up close to the falls from above and below along the multitude of walkways and bridges where you can feel the immense power of the water, while the Brazil side gave a panoramic view of all the falls along more walkways. A couple of highlights; we took a 12 minute powerboat ride to the foot of the falls ( On the Argentina side) and got completely drenched and blown away by the force of the water, the boat struggles to keep its position in the turbulent and fast flowing water, we also got some food out of our bag at a bad time ( and I may have thrown a peanut under the nose of one of these furry creatures) while boarding the small train and got suddenly surrounded by Coaties, much to Caitlin's horror, we hadn't seen the sign telling us about these to not offer the creatures food, luckily the situation was quickly defused with some shewing gestures.

So much water

One of the nasty food stealing Coaties

very wet from the spray of the falls

Thundering water at the Devils Throat on the Argentian side of the falls

Hundreds of tourists at the Devils Throat competing for a view of the falls

Drenched after the boat ride.

A view from the Brazilian side

A beautiful Tucan

After visiting the Falls from the Brazilian side in Foz De Iguazu we found out about Itaupu Power Plant, the biggest operating hydroelectric scheme in the world, run by Brazil and Paraguy. How I did not have this on the itinerary until know is still beyond me but luckily we found out about it and Caitlin was so excited she made us go on the "special" tour getting you a tour of the outside of the impressive 9km long and 200m high dam and the inside comprising 20 x 30m in diameter turbines generating 14,000 MW of power. I reluctantly went along with it......

The people here are very proud of the project and for good reason, it is an amazing feat of engineering and international collaboration, the first sod was turned in 1979 with a whopping loan of $12 Billion US from World Bank. The project was finally completed in 2007 with the workforce totalling 110,000 people and 136 lives lost. The power plant is half owned and operated by Brazil and half by Paraguay and provides an astonishing 17 % of Brazil's power and 80 % of Paraguay's.

After being in the high mountains of the Andies earlier in our trip and seeing the energy of the raging rivers they produce it was hard to believe that human hands could tame this wild beast.

Huge pipes

Huge dam

Dr Evils Lair - Digital and old analogue systems on display in main control room

We are now visiting Brazil knowing very little (none to put it bluntly) of the language, but we are confident we can stumble through ok. We are a little sad we will not be speaking Spanish for while.

Until next time, adios amigos.

Nick