Last day in BA

OK this is my last post before heading to Ushuaia.  Yesterday was a pretty busy day.  After only a few hours’ sleep, went for a run down in the parks.  There is a large cluster of parks about 1.5 miles from my hotel.  Then, after breakfast I met Oliver and we explored Buenos Aires by bus, foot, taxi, and subway.  We went to the Recoleta cemetery (Where Evita is interred) and had coffee in a number of cafes, explored Ave 9 de Julio, Plaza de Mayo, watched tango dancers, looked at Antique shops and had extremely yummy ice cream.  We covered an awful lot of ground in one day.  Then last night I went to a fancy (and likely overpriced, not sure how much I paid for it) tango show.  I was so exhausted though that I found myself distracted throughout.  The couple next to me was from France and one of them spoke English so I had someone to talk to.  Then finally back to the hotel.

Figuring out flavors was a bit tough in Spanish.  I decided anything with chocolat or dulce de leche was a good start.  

This morning I explored the parks some more while running.  There is a fitness path that is a 10K with stops for exercises.   Since it was Saturday joggers were out in full force.  Very much like central park in NYC.

Tango show.  

Happy Thanksgiving! Food coma...

Ahh, what a meal.  Comes on a wooden cutting board basically. Fries with an egg, grilled red pepper, steak, slab of grilled cheese, rice, a grilled onion and mashed sweet potato.    Top it off with some malbec!
Los Caberos restaurant in Palermo.
The best part of this meal was the price.  About 85 pesos which is $12 or so.

Brazilian side of Iguazu falls

Looking over the edge, this rainbow was more than 180 degrees!

Wall of rushing water...

Today we had a 1/2 day on the Brazil side of Iguazu falls.  This meant exiting Argentina, entering Brazil (stamp, stamp), and then back to Argentina (stamp).  Kind of fun getting all of those stamps in my passport.  It was just two of us today with Silvio.  My new friend for the day is Oliver, who is also from California but living in BA for 6 months or so.  The Brazil side of the falls is less impressive as far as getting close in but it is much better at capturing the full extent of the falls.  Imagine, if you can, a waterfall about 4 times the size of Niagara falls.  A guide said that the only people who go off the falls are suicides, the last one being 3 mos ago.  No way you could do this in a barrel!  There seems to be two main levels, each one a 200+ foot drop.  And of course, you can´t capture the whole thing in just one camera photo so photographs just don´t do it justice.  You can´t even see all of it with just one view point.  You have to walk all over, and they have designed these metal walkways that go over the water so you can feel the roar in your bones and you get soaked by the spray and the rainbows seem just beyond your reach.  And the little tiny falls that would be described as mere rivulets here would be considered very impressive by American standards (say, Yosemite at its best for example).  Would you agree Andrea?  So that was a nice morning and then Oliver and I had lunch at a restaurant in Iguazu.  Turns out we are both headed back to BA today and he lives just down the street from my hotel so may help guide me around BA tomorrow.

A completely random digression if I may- the other night I was in my hotel room and turned on the TV. I was so tired. It was animal planet and I instantly recognized the man on the screen.  Why, it´s Jackson!  He and I used to work together back in the day at the Boulder Humane Society.  He helped me buy my first guitar and here he is playing his guitar for cats.  Wow, that is bizarre, to see his voice dubbed over in Spanish halfway around the world.  I guess I don´t watch that much TV and I had no idea he had his own cat-whisperer type show.  Good for you Jackson!  Definitely a step up from where we were back then.  But then Amanda (Canadian friend from yesterday) was like, oh yeah, Jackson Galaxy, he´s real popular in Canada.  OK then.

Today, will fly to Buenos Aires. No stamps.

Videos and Photos

Iguazu Falls, Argentinian Side

A neat shot from the plane, early AM flying into Lima, the Andes I assume

I made it!

The internet here is a little slow.  I am alive and well, and managed to survive my first two days here.  First was the endless amount of flying and a very long layover in Lima.  I was never so happy to see the piece of paper with my name printed on it at the airport in Brazil.  Silvio picked me up and drove me out of Brazil and into Argentina.  Settled at my hotel which a. does not change money.  b. only has internet in these little cubicles, no WiFi.  C. does not give out maps of the town of Iguazu d. still uses skeleton keys.  I needed pesos (no cards accepted) to get to the park today so I took a cab down to the town last night but I was so exhausted I miscalculated and didn't get enough from the ATM.  So then this morning I was going to walk down to the town to get more.  Except I overslept so I gave up on that idea and went down to breakfast.  But, that's odd, breakfast wasn't ready yet.  Oh wait.  Silvio forgot to mention that the time changes and Brazil is one hour ahead.  I had a whole extra hour!  So I donned some running shoes and made a sprint for town.  About 2.2 miles.  Great, am running home when I realized I had left my debit card in the ATM.  RAN back.  Hallelujah, the people at the bank opened the door when I banged on it and gave me back my card.  Muchas gracias! RAN home.  Shower.

Got to the national park and they had an ATM right there.  I was thinking that happy people generally feel as though the universe is out to support them and maybe if I was happier I would have assumed that of course there would be an ATM at the park entrance and not gone through so much hassle.  On the other hand, I had a nice little adventure with a non English speaking cab driver.I mean, not a word.  ¿And why isn't ATM in my phrase book? 

Iguzu Falls really are impressive.  I will post pictures in a little bit but the videos are probably the best as they capture the roar that goes with it.  It was an exhausting day as it is very muggy here and I was soaked in sweat for pretty much the whole day.  Made some new friends, Canadians from Vancouver on holiday (well, one of them now lives in Vana Watu and owns a zip line there).  It was sort of by default since they were the only other English speakers on the tour.  But they were very nice.

OK more to follow!

All the bags are packed!  Surprisingly there is a little bit of extra space, but must be reserved for both the expedition parka we will receive and gifts, of course.

I’ll be flying tomorrow to Lima where I have a 4-hour layover, and then on to Iguazu Falls, Brazil.  I don’t get to Brazil until 7:15 at night the next day, about 21 hours total of travel time.  I'm tired just thinking about it!