The final push to Iguazul Falls

From Salta, Argentina I was almost to the point of meeting my sister Katie in Iguazul Falls, on the Brazilian side. It was on 12 hour night bus to Resistencia, cutting across the north of Argentina with my buddy James, then after a day and a half in Resistencia it was another 12 hour night bus to Puerto Iguazul. Resistencia was a good town with supposedly over 300 public sculptures lining the streets. It was a cool town but the sculptures weren't that great. From Puerto Igualazul I was one step away from the Brazilian border where I would meet Katie a couple of days later. At least that was the plan. It appeared to be unfolding beautifully everything seemed to be set; I was there a couple of days ahead of time, I had my fake yellow fever vaccination card, 140 bucks for the visa, a valid passport, and the visa application all filled out.

The first thing I did after arriving to Puerto Iguazul early in the morning was line up at the Brazilian consulate to get my visa application in the works. In most consulates visas can take several days but on the border they generally get them through the same day. Everything looked good until I gave my passport to the immigration official. After a brief shuffle through my passport he handed everything back with out much of a care and shrugged his shoulders ad muttered something in Portugese. He told me that I didn't have enough space for the Brazilian visa. As it turned out my last exiting stamp, from Bolivia, was hastily put on to the last remaining open page of my passport. I pleaded with the official and made sure that there wasn't another way around the problem but it was no use. My only recourse was to have the US consulate add pages to my passport in Buenas Aires, 19 hours away by bus. Then I would have to come back to the border to get the same day visa. Between a bus or flight to and from Buenas Aires plus waiting for the consulate to add pages I would have been hard pressed to make it back to the falls by the time Katie arrived.

I called my sister and gave her the news. She was great about it and we changed our plan. We would see the falls on the Argentinian side (apparently the better side to view them) then we would head for good beaches and decent carnival in Uruguay before heading to Buenas Aires. Relieved that I didn't have to rush around I took it easy at Puerto Iguazul and waited for my sister to make it to Brazil, fly to the falls, then catch a taxi across the border to Argentina.















Wagon wheel

Bungee jumping in Salta, Argentina

After more than 30 hours of travel or waiting in immigration lines to make it from Oruro, Bolivia to Salta, Argentina I didn't care to do a whole lot of sight seeing. Besides that, I was fairly certain I would come back through Salta on my way back north. So instead of checking out much of beautiful Salta I decided to go bungee jumping! It was my first time and such a blast. I went with the friends I met in the immigration line or on the bus to Salta. We all jumped off of a bridge and ever so slightly dipped into the lake below before springing back into the air. Such a great time and easily the best twenty bucks I've spent in a long time!




























After our bungee jumping excursion we made it back to the city for dinner and a night out. It was a fun place and a great time. Can't wait to come back!






Bungee splash

Taking the train from Oruro, Bolivia to Argentina

From Oruro, Bolivia I left the town festivities to get on an afternoon train bound for the southern border with Argentina. To make it over to Iguazul Falls to meet up with my sister it made sense to go south to the good roads of Argentina then over and up. Between the train to Argentina and the buses to the falls I was looking at another 45 hours of travel. I had a long way to go, but I would be there soon.

The train ride from Oruro to the border was absolutely gorgeous. It looked a lot like home in southern Arizona, but even more wild and remote. It was the “wild west” of Bolivia and interestingly enough the place where Butch Cassady and the Sunset Kid robbed their last train. Apparently they had made it down here to continue doing the business the knew best and ended up meeting their match in Tupizna. Bolivia, one of the stops we would be making on our trip.

The train ride was supposed to take 15 hours from Oruro to the border with Argentina, but ended up taking a little over 20 hours. In the middle of the night the locomotive gave out and we had to wait until they sent another one. Then, early the next morning a section of the tracks was buried in rubble from the previous days rains. It took some time for the railroad to uncover the tracks and let the train continue on. I was a long time to be stuck on a train, but it was comfortable enough and met some nice people. The best part of the whole delay was that we were able to see much of the spectacular scenery that we would have otherwise passed during the night. Besides, what another 5 hours when it it is already a 15 hour trip.






















































At the border in Villazon most people were walking from the train station to the border and then taking a bus into Argentina. My first impression of Argentina wasn't terrific. After quickly making it through the Bolivian immigration to get my exit stamp I had to wait more than two hours to make it through the Argentinian immigration. Everyone from the train crossing the border arrived at lunch time, and it was a nice long lunch. The whole line stopped and we could see the immigration officials leisurely eating at their lunch and drinking mate as there were almost a 100 people waiting to get through. One thing that I have noticed about Argentina is there is very little sense of urgency about almost anything, our two hour wait was a testament to that. On the bright side I got meet some great people waiting in line and we all ended up traveling another 5 hours to the city of Salta.

The bus ride to Salta was a lot of fun. I ended up meeting a lot of great people that I hung out with in Salta for a couple of days. I also met a really great couple from Brazil that spent most of the bus trip helping me with my Portuguese. I had been studying it some and wanted to learn as much as I could before making it to Brazil.





Oil barrels