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A pick me up … Tikal in the morning!

Photolog link : http://www.rishisankar.com/Travel/Guatemala/Tikal-2008-18th-Jan-2008/4184416_domQF#247106959_XPvhC

Colonia…sleepy but cute…no words necessary

Photolog link : http://www.rishisankar.com/Travel/Uruguay/Colonia-2009-15th-November/10328146_Ewref#714146348_8LHsr

Sunny days in Lujan

The City of Lujan is located 68 Km away from the City of Buenos Aires, and it is characterized by the hospitality offered to travelers. In Lujan we will be able to find the Neo Gothic temple that worships the Virgin of Lujan. This majestic basilica with its two towers can be seen on arrival to the city from the highway leading to Lujan.

Photolog link : http://www.rishisankar.com/Travel/Argentin/Lujan-2009-14th-November-2009/10317916_b6S6Y

 

Milanesas at Kentucky Pizza? Clam bombs on Pizza and Choripan at Retiro train station…

Gotta love the food here! After  a couple day here, I am starting to figure out that BA is a town of many things but the place called Kentucky Pizza is by far a porteno thing. It seems that everyone has a Kentucky Pizza story, it’s like a Rol San story in Toronto, everyone has been there and everyone has an opinion on the place.

The funny thing is that Kentucky and Pizza are not the two words that should every go together in food, unless you are looking for some serious gut rot!

Well they had a gazillion types of pizza, of which none I could have! So instead I ended up with the “Kentucky Special Milanesa”.

This lovely piece of death was basically a fried egg, with fried beef flank in batter, with fried ham and tomatoes and lettuce – who needs a triple Baconator when I have this to eat.

After ingesting said gutbomb, I felt the years drain away from life, like a Harry Potter Death Eater was on me. Was it really good? Well let’s say I won’t have it again, but if I had some alcohol in me again, I also wouldn’t say no to it either.

Later on for dinner prior to meeting Chris and BsAs pub crawl crew, dinner was at this other small restaurant Filo, right around the hotel and the pizza was something out of a Sci-fi convention but so ridiculously good. It was a half Fruitta de mare (Seafood pizza with Claim, shrimp, tomato sauce and garlic) and half Pepperoni pizza.

How awesome is that pizza. The chef basically treated the whole affair like an afterthought. Why bother taking the meat out of the shell, when he could just drop the shells right on to the pizza.

So after the night of drinking with Chris in the Buenos Aires Pub Crawl crew,

then it was off to Retiro train station for early morning Choripan with tons of Chimi. The guys at the train station love me after seeing me wolf down 4 odd of these thing…while they looked in horror and amazement.

Sigh… I will miss this place and the food, ahhhh the lovely food.

Nightshooting in Buenos Aires

Floralis Generica is a beautiful sculpture located in United Nations Park in Buenos Aires.  This Park is right next to the Recoleta district (actually across the street from the Recoleta flea market on weekends) and is next to the Law School.

Floralis Generic is a giant, 23 meter sculpture made of steel and aluminum (its weight is 18 tons). The structure of the flower is made of steel and the shiny panels in the petals are made of aluminum.  The sculpture moves, closing its petals at night and opening them during the day.  It has some lighting for special ocassions too

The law school at night is quite a stunning building

Walking around Recoleta park and walkways around, there are many graffiti style piece of public art all around.

Randomly seeing the nocturnal activity

More memorials….

Taking taxis in Buenos Aires – a general guide.

This should be easy right? You just hold up your hand and a taxi stops. You jump in, taxi takes you to your destination and you pay. End of process and go on with your day.

If you came to Buenos Aires and you believe this, then I have an island to sell you.

Know when to grab a taxi:

If it is raining or it’s the rush hour, forget about that and go out into the street to hail a cab instead. Whilst Buenos Aires is relatively safe by Latin American standards, it is important to remember some basic safety precautions. Wearing flashy jewelry, camcorders etc will get attention anywhere you go, but in neighborhoods like the Once bus station or San Telmo, you’re asking for trouble. Also never take a taxi straight after getting out out an ATM, bank or the like. It’s all about being discreet and not drawing undue attention to yourself.

Remember what I said about rain; well any place where the drainage is suspect or not cleaned regularly, will flood. For instance, today in Buenos Aires, 5cm of rain fell and parts of Avenida Santa Fe and Avenida Alevear flooded! This are posh streets here and yet they flooded, never mind taking the bus in a thunderstorm.

Be smart not paranoid:

99% of the time, your gut will steer you right. If you don’t feel right about a taxi, then polite decline, make an excuse or run back into the shop. That being sad, everyone is not out to rob you or pass you fake money. It is all about being aware and looking the part. Most taxi drivers in Buenos Aires will engage you in a bit of conversation, they will at least ask where you’re from (every taxi I took by myself, invariable ended up with those questions, with the pleased reaction when I say “Trinidad y Tobago”), but of course even if you speak spanish, you probably won’t speak porteno spanish, so they will immediately know that you are a foreigner. I never think it is wise to lie about this, even if you think they will take you around. My experience after many countries of travelling has been to be honest and expect honesty – don’t let the paranoid stories make you afraid of everyone.  The key here is be smart…..

Meter makes it better:

When in doubt do call a radio taxi!  Radio taxi’s are registered taxis and the securest type of taxi in the city. Make sure that the meter is off when you get in and that he resets the meter when you start your journey and make sure that the driver is charging you with the meter (cheaper than a quoted price), unless you are going to the EZE or Aeropuerto or a destination similar whereas then you should have a quote from the person on the phone reserving the taxi.

Taxis in Buenos Aires are cheap:

No matter where you are in Buenos Aires, if you start seeing a taxi ride going above more than 20 pesos, ask him where he is going or confirm with him that he knows where you are going. A couple times here, the taxi driver did not understand “Marriott Plaza” or “Recoleta” or “MALBA” and started either on the wrong route or the bill got a bit much. My approach in every case was to restate where I was going, point to the meter and make the confused face … every single time the taxi driver reduced the rate to something reasonable or expected.

More baggage or pants means more waiting:

Portenos cab drivers are notorious for ignoring guys, foreigners or people with lots of bag or trolleys. I thought it was a joke, until it happened to me over and over and over. Of course, being a big guy with a backpack is not baggage, but why would they pick me instead of the pretty blonde in the short pants. I’m over it now, I just wait extra and move on. I do curse in mind, but I understand, it is what it is

Grey power rocks in Buenos Aires:

The best taxi drivers in the city are the one who have been doing it for all their life. The drivers are insane in Buenos Aires and you will see something in cabs that are out of NASCAR or F1. Porteno taxi driver can do any of the following

• Deliberately cut across other taxi drive
• Make lane signals with only a hand movement
• Invent completely new lanes in a two lane road or 8 lane autopista
• Swear in spanish and english at anything else moving on the road
• Weave in and out of pedestrian flow
• Ignore zebra stripes on the road and maneuver themselves through the other traffic
• Think that taxis can crush trucks

Thankfully, the old taxi drivers, will do all of this but you will feel confident that he knows what he is doing. This is the key, if a taxi driver makes it in Buenos Aires till he has grey hair, this guy will be an awesome taxi driver.

Coming in late at night in the airport :

Book a taxi with the guys inside the airport. Nuff said. You wouldn’t take an unlicensed cab in London, Mumbai, New York or Port of Spain, why would you do in Latin America???? If in doubt, please re-read the post.

Note these are tips not specific to Buenos Aires, but really tips that apply anywhere else in the world, but that I have applied for my time here in Buenos Aires.

What to do in Puerto Iguazu at night??

Someone just asked me what does one do at night in Puerto Iguazu? Like most places that is situated close to the jungle, there isn’t a ton of things to do? Pffffffttt yeah right!! I was amazed at the fact that on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday night there were bars that were open to 5 or 6am. It really makes Toronto look damn shameful, well in fact most North American cities are pretty shameful in this respect, with all our liquor laws and zoning regulations. Of course, one can argue that with the insurance rates, drunk driving, alcohol abuse etc blah blah, that we should have all these laws to keep us safe. Of course, the whole safety thing is just an illusion anyway, closing bars at 2am doesn’t stop drunk driving, it encourages binge drinking .. take a look at the UK for examples on binge drinking. I digress, this is a travel post, not a political waste of time.

The first thing about hanging out in Puerto Iguazu at night, is to never stay at the Sheraton! It is a great hotel, and wonderful if you want to see the falls and have all the conveniences of a modern hotel in the jungle. That being said, the food is decent but nothing comparable to the quality of the food that you will have in the town. The Sheraton’s cuisine is catered for the baseline affluent white tourist – of course absolutely nothing is wrong with this. One pays for consistency across the world and the Sheraton delivers consistently! That being said, the prices of food are stupendous in comparison for food in town. Bife de Chorizo is Bife de Chorizo regardless of whether it is at the Sheraton or at La Mujerda or Color Parilla Pizza, and paying 40USD for a steak vs 9 USD for a steak of similar quality is a bit of a rip off, especially in Argentina.

However, if you want to eat fantastic meals at night, with music and good wine for ridiculously cut rate prices, then I would recommend that one stay in Puerto Iguazu. There are a number of great hostels and medium range hotels in town itself. If I did this trip again, and I didn’t have the hotel points from work, then I would surely stay in town.

Places to eat .. well I can only recommend Color Parilla Pizza and La Mujerda, which are decent places by any standard. The food quality and service at these places is definitely high end.

The train station is also a place to grab food in evening, the pastas are all cheap ($5 CDN) for a plate of Spaghetti Bolognese sin Manteca and a soda. So a great deal there, or one could go to any nearby empanada place and grab a fist full of empanadas @ 2 pesos each (.60 cents CDN) … for me, 7 plus a soda was a bellyful, regular people should be fine with 3

After eating at one of the local joints, you can have two options for nightlife… you can go drinking in the local bars which are all open till dawn or hit the casinos

I finally figured out the secret to staying thin in Buenos Aires…

Since the beginning of this trip, I have been trying to figure out the secret to how the Portenos stay so slim and in shape while eating some of the richest food around. After walking Buenos Aires all day and all night, it was obvious to see – they are all runners and play soccer in the evenings. Yesterday, my friend Raj and I walked and talked from noon till midnight yesterday, and everywhere it was evident that people were milling about their own affairs but once it got dark (7pm or so), then the streets and the parks were filled with portenos of all ages, runnings on the streets, playing pick up soccer or doing some type of physical fitness activity.

The weather, broad promenades and ample green space combine to create a very fitness positive space where people can indulge themselves. Well, I figure they have to, since everyone got dressed up after 9.30 pm to go have a late dinner. As usual, after all the walking, touring and photographing, I had an excellent dinner at a nice little Peruvian restaurant called Chan Chan. This place was picked at random from the book with no reservations accepted, so we were a bit worried when we got there a little after 9.30, and we should have been. The place was full and loud, with a couple large tables formed by shoving smaller tables together. From my perspective, this is a good sign: Folks show up in groups, wanting reasonable prices and an atmosphere conducive to multiple conversations and cross-talk. Chan Chan is basically just a simple, medium-sized room, with white-tiled walls and a multi-colored mosaic over the kitchen. Open and unpretentious, except for maybe the cache of plaster saints that presides over the dining area.

The food however was again cheap and spectacular. Raj and I ordered the Ceviche Sample which consisted for 4 types of Ceviche, 3 of which I have tried before at other Peruvian places across my travels:

• Tiradito Ceviche : This is newer cousin of traditional ceviche, somewhat like Sashimi, in that it was thin, slightly longer strips of marinated raw fish but with no onions. It came garnished with slices of boiled corn, and boiled root veggies.Thankfully, the waitress saw me inhale the salsa picante and she asked me in English, whether I liked it hot… of course my response was for them to kill it with pepper and they did
  
• Ceviche Mixto : This is a bit more traditional ceviche, with a mix of seafood (clams, oysters, octopus) and raw fish diced in 2cm cubes and marinated in lime juice and ajíes (hot peppers), served with raw onions, sweet potato and corn. The volume of onions was ridiculous but so fantastically good and of course this one was also awesomely hot as every bit was infused with chunks of scotch bonnet peppers
• Ceviche de Lenguado: This is tradtional ceviche, just the raw fish, onions, lime, cilantro, and tons of pepper. Crisp, clean and refreshing
• Ceviche in Rocoto Cream sauce : Obviously a newer type of ceviche, but anything creamy I wont touch. Raj was the taster for this one, and she didn’t fancy the whole deal, so this one was left till last and in the end, she couldn’t finish it.

I also had a traditional rice and peas with stewed beef, and it tasted exactly like traditional west indian stewed beef except it wasn’t as sweet or hot, but the cut of beef was ridiculously soft and well done.

Again overall cost of the meal, plus drinks and wine = 100 pesos (28$ CDN). Another fantastic value for the money, as the exact same meal in Toronto, San Francisco or New York, would have cost double or triple that price and surely not as good.

Prior to the Peruvian dinner experience, it was hours and hours of walking through the parks and all across Buenos Aires. From the craft markets in Recoleta to Carlos Gardel Musuem street in Abasto and all along hustle and bustle of Avenida Santa Fe and rich little houses and shops in Avenida Alvare.

Back in BsAs….and I still think the Brazilian side was better

I don’t know why I think that but overall I preferred the imaginary Brazilian side better – I like seeing the entire panorama’s of the falls. However after doing the Devil’s Throat, the power and the fury is amazing. Anyway time for Pizza…. let’s see what adventure awaits in BsAs tonight

Mighty, awe inspiring, frightening waterfalls make me thirsty.

Iguacu means “mighty waters” in the language of the Guarani people who inhabited this area before European settlers arrived in the mid 16th century. When Spanish explorer Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca discovered the falls in 1542, he wanted to call them Santa Maria. The falls are indeed “mighty” though, and locals didn’t care a heck of a lot about Santa Barbara, Santa Maria, Santa Claus, Santana the guitar player, or any other Santas the Spanish might have wanted to inflict on them. The Guarani people regarded Iguazu as a holy place. It is an appropriate attitude.

On Monday, I did the cruise and the Inferior trail and most of the other trails on the Argentine side, leaving the Superior trail for a separate day. In retrospect, I should have pushed the pedal to the metal on Monday as the weather was gloriously sunny and not the garbage weather that we had on Tuesday and Wednesday. I would have a couple better pics, but ce’st la vie.

Heading down from the Sheraton was a simple enough task as behind the hotel, there was a well-marked, paved path down to the entrance to the Jungle expedition and Cataratas train station. Along the way, there were signs showing a stick figure of a man on the path, with snakes on either side of him, threatening to strike at any second.  Since I “no speaka the spanish” I think the signs meant, “Stay on the path or snakes will dance around you”.

Side note: It was only after I got my Sheraton umbrella and raincoat, and boarded the train from the Sheraton, all while the thunder gods were doing a samba routine, that I was truly glad I stayed at hotel. Speaking to friends that I made over the past 3 days, they all wished that they had stayed on day at the falls, just for the convenience. (Forget that I did it on Starwood points!)

Once I got on the little train going towards the falls, the overall tourist population was bit sparse as it was raining quite heavily. The train is an awesome idea, as it is a long hike after that to the actual series of long walkways across different sections of the river. I can’t even imagine how people ever saw the Devil’s Throat before the walkways. It must have been true jungle trekking, not like the “walk and take picture” tourists like me today!

It took about 20 mins for the train to leave Central Station to get the Cataratas Station. From there it is a long series of walkways over the river … not unlike these

Getting to the viewing platform, which stands at the precipice of the Devil’s Throat (Garganta del Diablo) was such a huge challenge, since following walkways is terribly difficult   Of course, the usual tourist infestation was there, just like me and it was crowded with tourists taking pictures, and one dude offered to get up on his little ladder-chair and offered to take pictures above the heads of the crowds.

I managed to last 30 mins on the main walkway, through a combination of factors:

• I was the only person wearing swimming googles. I looked like an idiot, but I also was the only person who could see through the mist.
• I had wrapped my camera lens and barrels in plastic wrap from the hotel. Again, camera looked stupid, but 4 other photographers with their SLR’s commented that they wished they planned like I did. One guy took a picture of my camera for his blog *lol* i.e What to do at huge waterfalls!
• I was the only person there with towels for their camera, which made shooting much easier, especially for cleaning the lens with all the mist. Of course, I offered my towel to the grateful SLR peeps. Experience teaches you in these situations… yesterday’s imaginary Brazilian journey taught me that a photographer should always have a lens cleaner and soft towel in his bag.

It’s hard to describe exactly the feeling that you get standing above something like Iguazu Falls. Millions of tons of rushing water below your feet, the thunderous roar of the water cascading hundreds of feet down into an abyss, is powerful and completely frightening at the same time. I always seem to be hypnotized by this rushing water, I can barely pull myself away from it. It is truly a wonder of nature going to explore waterfalls, they are such simple things, but one has to appreciate that only millions of years to tectonic activity or a melting glacier will allow such phenomenon to occur.  The Devil’s Throat is definitely awe inspiring in its power, you get that feeling like you want to run away and jump in at the same time. Beauty and wonder still exist in the world and I’m glad that I made this trip so far.

Watching into the mouth of the abyss, with the birds flying all around from the mist was powerful, ethereal and creepy, all in one. You think to yourself, “One slip, one jump and that’s it”

The falls aren’t just one waterfall — it is a series of 275 separate cascades spread across a jagged cleft in the Iguazu River. The river is 3km wide at this point, and the falls drop 80 meters. Hence they are “higher than Niagara and wider than Victoria”, as the travel guides say. The complex geography of the site really makes this, a most spectacular waterfall, definitely unique  anywhere in the world. If you’re a religious person, you could stand for hours on the platforms, marveling at the artistry of God’s handiwork, and wondering about the sheer, raw, natural power that the place embodies. One can’t help but a bit humbled.

Photolog link: http://www.rishisankar.com/Travel/Argentin/Devils-Throat/10289656_DKx9F

Foz de Iguacu – I think I like the imaginary pictures from that side better.

When one gets to the Falls,  both the Brazilians and Argentines ask you which one you liked better. Now having not seen the Brazilian side of the falls (since I only imagined what it was like to be over there yesterday) and only seen the Argentine side, one would assume that I would actually like the side that I actually saw rather than a side I imagined I saw, but I guess such is the power of imagination that I actually prefer the falls that I imagined yesterday. It’s unfortunate that there was a raging thunderstorm all day yesterday and it made imagining quite difficult, tedious and very tiring.

It also made proper shooting quite, quite difficult since driving imaginary rain tends to do a couple things to you and your camera

• Gets in your eyes
• Gets in your camera
• Gets in your lens
• Causes misting of the lens
• Causes misting everywhere
• Causes your feet to melt off because in imaginary rain, it has imaginary sulphuric acid

One reason for preferring the imaginary side, is because the Brazilian trail is clearly marked and for the “floating” walkway into the Devil’s Throat. It feels like you’re floating on the falls. The trail consists of a single circuit of walkways facing the falls. The overall panoramas truly give you a feel for the power of the complex set of falls, from the Argentine side of the falls, you get up close and personal also but it is difficult to get one clear picture of all the falls, since in your perspective shots, one set of falls will either overlap or block the other falls.

After walking the runway, then one completes the trail by going to the viewing elevators higher up and getting more personal with the falls

At the top of the viewing elevators, you are treated to a wonderful sight of the river pouring down. It really does make Niagara Falls look pretty petty by comparison, but to be fair good ole Niagara Falls is a “horseshoe falls” with one main cascade (One doesn’t really count the American Falls). It’s like comparing apples to oranges.

Note the “floating platforms” down below and one always needs a fact or two

Walking back through the trail, the rain stopped and go better lighting and visibility conditions.

The weather started changing again for the worse…. but I did manage to get this pic before the rain started pouring again

And meet my friend the” Coatil”

Time to see the Devil’s Throat on the Argentine side… maybe I’ll change my mind.. granted when everything is imaginary, it is pretty easy to do that

Photolog link : http://www.rishisankar.com/Travel/Brazil/Foz-de-Iguacu-2009-11th/10280518_2Sh5E

007 ain’t got nuthin’ on me…How to get from Iguazu Falls to Foz de Iguacu without a visa!

Important note : The following post depicts purely imaginary events that could have happened at some place in time. Any resemblance to actual events, whether real or imagined is purely coincidental. By reading and replicating the imaginary events described, you absolve the author of any possible responsibility.

I woke up quite early and headed to the gym to work out – I tried calling David in the next room but no answer. After the usual workout, I saw the guide advertising tours and events on the Foz de Iguacu. Naturally, I was interested especially since I wanted to see the Brazilian side of the falls, but I did not have a Brazilian visa, as I didn’t want to spend 70$ USD just for a visa to see the falls and I didn’t have the time prior to leaving Toronto to walk to the Brazilian embassy to get the visa. If I had my Trinidadian passport, I would not have needed a visa to get to that side of the falls. Probably, the only time in my life where a Trinidadian passport would have been more useful than a Canadian passport.

So in two minutes, I made the decision to get to Brazil by any means necessary and I probed the guide for answers to my questions.

• Question #1 : Can a Canadian get to the Brazilian side without a visa?
  Guide : Canadians cannot, Trinis can!
  My response :  #@#@#!@$#$#
• Question #2: What if I have my Trini dual citizenship stamp in my cancelled old passport.
  Guide : Let me call the consulate….. 3 mins later…..it is still a Canadian passport. See question#1
  My response : $!$!$!$$$!$$@@
• Question #3 : Is there anyway that you know of to get there without a valid Brazilian visa
  Guide : NO! I cannot help you!
  My response : Oh please kind sir, it would make my vacation, if you could help out a poor Canadian student out.
  Guide : Mr Sankar, you’re staying in Room 370, which is the best room in the hotel. I have never seen a poor student in this hotel before.
  My response: So does that mean, you’re not willing to help me?
  Guide : (Sighs and rolls his eyes, but pauses and…….) A fact I can give you is that there are some taxi drivers who have Brazilian friends and are able to pass through the border without being checked, also I heard that the Brazilian border police does not check all buses going back and forth.
  My response : I need to get breakfast!
  Guide : I can call the Sheraton driver to get you to the Brazilian consulate. (It’s 9.35am, it takes 20 mins to get from the Sheraton to Puerto Iguazu and I need to get pictures and the consulate only processes visa from 7am-10am, no exceptions!!)
  My response: Ok! Sure!

What transpired next, is a bit beyond me, but I made my mind up to get across and no little border and international agreement and politics was going to get in my way of seeing the Brazilian side.

We got to the Brazilian consulate…we were late by 2 mins, the Brazilian guard shut me down, shut the driver down and shut his face. End of story! I tried doing the right thing and it didn’t get me anywhere. Here are the steps I discovered on how any unnamed person could go to the Brazilian side.

Going from Iguazu Falls to Foz de Iguacu

1. Take the “El Practico” bus from your hotel in Puerto Iguazu or the Sheraton to the Puerto Iguazu bus terminal. The “El Practico” is 5 pesos and everyone takes this bus.
2. Once you get to the Puerto Iguazu bus station, then look for Gate 7. All the bus companies that service the Iguazu Falls to Foz de Iguacu route leave from this gate. It costs another 5 pesos (seriously)
3. The bus will cross the river, and reach border control. You have to leave the bus and go through Argentinian customs to get an Exit stamp (SALIDA), this is easy and takes 3-5 mins and then you reboard the bus.
   1. Note that there is NO secondary entrance check on the Brazilian side. This is a key point!
4. Continue on the bus, till there is a fork in the road. Your choices are either to get off the bus at the fork or continue towards the town of Foz de Iguacu – it is important to continue on that path, till you see the Bourbon Cataratas Convention Resort. Get off in front the hotel.
5. Cross the street, so that you are going the opposite direction. You are now looking for a GREY commuter bus. When boarding, ask for ‘Cateratas just to make sure.

   From Foz do Iguaçu buses run every half hour from the bus terminal to the visitor’s centre at the national park entrance, passing many of the main hotels in the city along the way. The face is R$2.20 or 5.5 pesos. From Foz do Iguaçu buses run every half hour from the bus terminal to the visitor’s centre at the national park entrance, passing many of the main hotels in the city along the way. The R$2.20 flat fare makes the bus a very cheap way to visit the falls and it’s also easy to use.

6. Once you’re at the falls visitor center….do your thing and go see some falls.

Going from Foz de Iguacu to Puerto Iguazu then the Sheraton

1. Reversing everything you just did, should be fine with one critical difference.
2. Get the grey bus from the falls back into town.
3. Stop off again at the Bourbon Cataratas Convention Resort.
4. Cross the street, so that you are going the opposite direction. You are now looking for shuttle bus between Iguazu Falls and Foz de Iguacu. Look for the sign in front the bus, it should say “Iguazu Falls/Foz de Iguacu”
5. Continue on this bus. At Brazilian customs, the bus driver will ask everyone who needs to go to immigration to head out, meaning “if you don’t need immigration, because you are Brazilian” then stay on the bus. Hence stay on the bus! Going to Brazilian customs without an entry stamp or a visa if you are Canadian will result in a series of unpleasant experiences. (I’m only guessing here).  Basically, stay on the bus.
6. The bus will then stop at Argentine customs. At this point, you must get out of the bus, since you have exit stamp, you need a new entry stamp, else when your flight out of the country back to Canada is ready, you might find that Argentine customs might have questions.
7. Do not overthink the situation, the Argentines really could not give a damn about whether you have or had a Brazilian visa, but they do care that you have an Argentine entry stamp.
8. Line up, get your stamp.
9. Get to the Puerto Iguazu bus station
10. Take the “El Practico” bus from the Puerto Iguazu bus terminal to your hotel in Puerto Iguazu or the Sheraton. The “El Practico” is another 5 pesos.

Total trip cost

• 5 pesos + 5 pesos + 5.5 peso + 5.5 pesos + 5 pesos + 5 pesos = 31 pesos
• Cost of 3 month Brazilian visa = 273 pesos

End result:
Take savings and buy the following:

• Bowl of Spaghetti Bolognese with bread
• 8 empanadas carne
• 1 bottle of sprite in a glass bottle
• A new backpack for your massive stones!

Anyway, hope this imaginary account of something that could have happened will be useful.

Iguazu – no words necessary.

Photolog link: http://www.rishisankar.com/Travel/Argentin/Iguazu-Day-1-2009-9th-November/10264737_dBppf#708379585_brAaD

Why it pays to have things go wrong, sometimes!!!

In our everyday passages, we spout idioms and cliches;
“It is, what it is”,
“It’ll work out for the best”,
blah blah blah, thinking that sometimes a misstep or misadventure will some how work out for and have a completely positive result. I typically find that one must set and put things in motion for positive results to occur.

Tonight, was one of those mythical nights where good things came out of a complete mistake. After running around the jungle photographing everything in sight, I was starving and had no intention of dining at the Sheraton, with its overpriced buffet. So I thought that I would grab the 5 peso bus into Puerto Iguazu, get a couple snacks and meet up with David and his mother for drinks at the hotel. Wait! Who??

Well it happened that while I was getting into my room, they occupied the suite next door. David and his mother Nadine, were both traveling through Argentina. She happened to be working in the HR field and David is a young lad who works at JP Morgan in NYC. We chit chatted, had a glass of champagne and made plans to share travel stories over dinner at 9pm.

So after getting into town with the 5 peso bus, I was informed by the bus counter staff that there were no more buses back to the Sheraton that evening, even though I specifically asked the front desk staff to confirm that there was bus coming back from town. Naturally, I was livid as this meant that I had to spend 60-70 pesos to get back to the hotel.  So I thought to myself, “Well I’m in town, I might as well look for a nice dinner in this place …  make some lemonade from lemons” and started walking down the street looking for a place to grab a bite.

So I stopped in front this restaurant named Color Parilla Pizza and it looked nice enough, even though I was dressed like a complete backpacking bum. It was 7.30 and the restaurant looked like this.

This was a blessing in disguise as I sat at the two seater table and proceeded to decipher the menu. At that point, the manager/owner Louis comes over and starts chatting and asking where I am from and of course he was quite happy to hear the Trinidadian in Toronto story coming all the way to Puerto Iguazu for a bite. So we continue chatting and he takes me behind the grill to show me the meats and shows me the meat locker and how they store all the river fishes prior to making masterpieces of them.

So order the Bife de Chorizo, which was basically TWO huge tenderloins on his recommendation. The meat that was I had upon completion, ranks in the top 3 pieces of beef I have ever had in my life – an almost spiritual, revelatory application of fire and spice to meat with perfect aging and cooking. Upon experiencing this beef epiphany, I asked Louis to grant me a favour and allow me to use the house phone to send a message to David and Nadine.  Sure enough, I get David, we make arrangements and I spend the next hour savouring the rest of my meal, while having a couple very generous drams of Chivas Regal. All this time, there was a live singer going at his craft with some very respectable renditions adding to the overall dining pleasure.

All this time, the restaurant is packed with diners, Louis grants me another favour and moves from a 2 seater table to a 4 seater to accommodate David and Nadine. He also let me occupy the 4 seater table during a busy time that he could easily have asked me to move to accomodate the diners who had lined up. That never happened! Eventually, we all got together and had more food with tons of stories and conversation.

Now another two young ladies were eating at the table across from us, when this huge flying cockroach (it is a jungle, this happens) flew on top of the women. Of course, we all know what happened … so of course, I make a joke of it and have a couple chuckles and next thing you know, I invited the two young ladies to dine with us. So now the table had gone from 3 to 5… I was still sipping my 4th or 6th dram of Chivas.

Of course, we can’t forget our screaming lass Paloma.

Of course, dinner and conversation continues till 12.30 i.e my 5th hour at dinner, when Nadine decided to head to hotel and left David in “my care” …. additionally Louis gave us free drink pass for two other bars in the area. So Paloma, Itzy (I can’t spell her Basque name), David and myself set out looking for new places to drink. In the end, we decided to head to the Casino in the area, but it was hot and we had walked a bit, so instead we camped out at this complete local dive where we got these massive bottles of Quilmes Cristal.  By the time that all was done, it was about 2.30am and David and I still had to traipse back to the Sheraton.

All in all… one wrong bus ride turning into an amazing night of restaurant tours, new friends, good liquor and spectacular food. This is why I travel!