It Takes Two to Tango

Aug 11, 2005

This morning, I changed my accomodations to the Corre Caminos hostel just down the road from Hosterìa los Helechos. Sean was headed back to BsAs this evening.

We decided to check out the Hito Tres Fronteras — where you can see Argentina, Brasil, and Paraguay which are separated by the river Paraná. We visited our friends at Agencia Noelia once again. A guy helped us out and told us we could walk to it. We also discovered that there is more to town! There is actually a town here. We had only explored the immediate area around the bus station.

The walk down to the Hito Tres Fronteras was a leisurly stroll. The landscape — red earth so characteristic of the Missiones region that we had seen thus far. The Hito Tres Fronteras was tranquil. There was only one couple there when we arrived. On the Argentinian side, there is a monument with the Argentinian flag colors, on the Brazil side, the monument is yellow and green, and on the Paraguayan side, the monument is red, white, and blue. It is lush green on all sides, with a few buildings. We enjoyed the sun for a while, then visited the artisans booths nearby.

For lunch, we found a restaurant with an outdoor patio. We split a really yummy cheese, onion, and tomato pizza for 8 pessos — so cheap and so good! There was a crazy guy lurking around, thought, that made me feel uneasy. You could tell he had some problems. He was looking at everyone´s food, pacing back and forth. He took a half empty Sprite bottle from a table that had not been cleared off. He drank the Sprite, paced around people´s tables, paced to the front of the patio, then paced around all the tables. It was an extremely repetative pattern. Crazy man. I just wanted him to go away. After a long time, he finally went away with his Sprite bottle in hand, and walked to a nearby bus stop. There, he paced around the bus stop. But at least he was away from us!!!

We headed back to the hotel to grab Sean´s stuff, then hung out at the hostel. Then later walked to the bus terminal, where we saw the crazy guy again! Sean and I said our goodbyes, and Sean got on the bus to BsAs.

It was nice to travel with him for those 2 weeks. It was his first time in a non-English speaking country. But I tried to make it as easy as possible for him 😉 Gosh, I´m such a good girlfriend :p

Angie and Steve met me at the hostel in the evening. I told them that I had found town, and we went for a walkabout, then went back to the hostel to hang out. We played cards, drank Quilmes, and played pool. It was good times.

I was going to *try* to wake up at 5:55am, so I could get the 6:30am bus to Posadas…

Aug 10, 2005

I was really surprised at how much we were able to do yesterday. Today, we planned on doing the Adventura Nautica — the boat that takes you under the falls, Circuito Inferior, Isla San Martìn, and the Sendero Macuco. We got moving around 1am, ate breakfast at the hosterìa, then headed to the bus station, bought our tix from Noelia again.

This time, the bus bypassed the booth and dropped us off at the entrance, where we all queued up. The 2nd day pass is 15 pesos (half off with validated ticket).

Our first mission was to do the Aventura Nautica boat ride, so we took the train to Estaciòn Cataratas and then walked along the Circuito Inferior. We ran into Angie and Steve, and we planned to meat at the entrance at 6pm. The Circuito Inferior was great. We were able to see the waterfalls in front of us, rather than from above. They are so magnificent. We had pretty cloudy weather yesterday, but today was perfect — warm and very few clouds in the sky. At the waterfalls, you could see a brilliant rainbow from the mist that sprayed up. It is so beautiful there. So many miradors of the different falls.

We went down the path that took us to the Aventura Nautica. We put on our ponchos and put everything else in a drysack that they provided. The wait was not very long, about 10 minutes or so. We jumped on the boat, took our shoes off and put them in another dry sack, as they told us to do. There´s no commentary on board, just a guy taking pictures and video trying to get you to buy it. Our boat driver took us near some of the falls, backed up, went a little way down, then dunked us under the falls. He took us to a few more falls, and the last dunking was under a huge set of falls. Even though I had a poncho on, my ass and back of my legs were soaked. But at least it wasn´t all over! It was such a nice day, so my ass dried pretty quickly.

Since we were already at the boat launch, we decided to take the boat over to Isla San Martìn, just across the river. The boat came and dropped off passengers, but then went away about 50 meters and tied up to a rock. The captain and his mate were taking their lunch break, so we had to wait a bit.

We went over to Isla San Martìn, where people stripped down to dry their clothes from the soaking under the waterfalls. Many people were taking in the sun, some were playing in the river. Sean and I took a snack break and vegged for a while. Then we walked up the many stairs to the pathways along the island. Our first stop was to a mirador of the San Martìn falls. It was so gorgeous. To the left, there was a vibrant rainbow with the lush greenery and waterfalls in the background. Like I said before, no words can describe the stunning beauty of Iguazù Falls.

We walked the rest of the paths of Isla San Martìn, walked back down to shore where the sand is glittery black (basalt rock) and waited for the ferry over. We didn´t make it on the first boat, but were at the beginning of the line for the next one. We were almost squeezed out of the boat by a group of teens who swarmed in and cut everyon off. Annoying little fucks!

We continued on the Circuito Inferior, found Twin Falls, and made our way to an area with eateries. We saw a coatimundi that sneaked behind one of the buildings. Then saw another — it was there because a girl was feeding it crackers. Great. I wanted it to bite her. Her friend was feeding it, too, and the coati climbed up his leg. Stupid people. I took a bathroom break and Sean said that he saw a tapir in the woods.

We didn´t have enough time to do the Sendero Macuco. We found the Sheraton, acted like we were patrons there, and sat on a bench admiring the view they had. We then strolled along the Sendero Verde, where we saw a toucan and three monkeys from far away, then headed towards the entrance. We found Angie and Steve at an eatery having a beer and joined them. We planned on meeting at our hosterìa at 9pm.

The line for the El Practico bus back to town was so long. All 4 of us were able to squeeze on, barely. I ended up feeling a bit claustrophobic and felt like I was going to pass out or throw up. but was able to hold out and got a seat in the front, then started to feel better.

Angie and Steve met us at our hosterìa. We had no idea what to do, and it didn´t seem like a happening place. We visited the artisans down the street and walked around town to find nothing to do. We ended up calling it a night, and I planned to meet them again at Corre Caminos hostel the next evening.

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