Next stop Puerte Iguazu and Iguazu National Park which includes the world famous falls!    We flew to Puerto Iguazu, population around 85,000, which is about 18km away from the park entrance.  The park was established in 1934 mainly to protect the falls and the surrounding sub-tropical jungle.  According to the pamphlets the  falls are the worlds most dramatic and straddle the border of Argentina and Brazil with over 250 cascades that rumble for a couple of kms over cliffs.  We decided not only to see the falls by hiking into the top but also by taking the boat in and seeing them from the bottom.  This means the boat goes right under and through the falls which of course means you not only get soaking wet but have moments of panic as you can’t see and hope the captain is truly in charge of what he’s doing, which he was or I wouldn’t be typing these words.   Excitement for sure and because the area gets so hot it doesn’t take too long before you’re dry again.   No picture can do the falls justice mainly because there’s no sound but I did my best and of course you can google for more!

One day there is truly enough unless you’re into loads of hiking and then you can come back the next day and hike the jungle, but I didn’t like the way they said “hike the jungle” as I wasn’t sure it meant hiking out.  On our day two we walked the town of Iguazu and must admit there’s not a whole lot to see except for the three frontiers where you are standing in Argentina, looking to the right to see Brazil and to the left towards Paraquay – pretty neat actually!

Standing in Argentina and looking towards Brazil and Paraguay – intersect at Rio Iguazu and Parana Rivers

Apparently there’s no dry season in Iguazu and due to all the rain there are great rainforests surrounding Puerto Iguazu so it is actually quite lush.  On our second day there it did rain quite a bit even during our walk so we headed back to our apartment, Ocio, which we really liked and we all read our books and had a nap.   By suppertime it was clear again and off we go for dinner, and once again Jim and I had the tenderloin and Marilyn tried the fish…….and of course Malbec.

Spent most of the next day travelling by air between Iguazu and Mendoza and due to  flight delays we did not arrive at our air BnB until 11pm and were quite exhausted.   Our wonderful landlord, Carlos, was introducing us to the apartment in terms of the hot water, wifi, how the stove works, where everything is, the damage deposit, etc. and this was all in Spanish.   The three of us were dazed and the more we said “no comprehende” the harder he tried and went on and on until we wanted to kick him out of his own place!   Finally he left and once again I wish I had taken Spanish as a second language and actually paid attention.   We all have the little phrase books but not finding them too helpful so we struggle along with many surprises along the way.

Our first day in Mendoza was a slow start in that we didn’t get out until 10:30 but managed to cover quite a bit of territory on foot.  One of the highlights was the walk to Cerro de Gloria(Hill of Glory) which is a tribute to General San Martin and his army who freed Argentina.   It was a long walk with several discussions about our crappy map, the lack of road signs, some discrepancies among the three of us in terms of where to go ie. right, left, straight or home to bed, asking people for directions and not really understanding but nodding and smiling and you get the drift.  Anyway Jim finally tried to confirm with a man who was getting into his car that we were on the right track when the guy offered to drive us up the hill.   My response was “no gracias”(the extent of my Spanish) when Jim said “get in the car” which we did and off we go for quite a while and up this extremely steep and long hill and we were so grateful when he stopped the car at the very top and let us out.   Who said grey hair and sweat pouring down your brow isn’t attractive?  What a thoughtful guy he was.

Tribute to General San Martin and his army

Continued on with our walking tour of Mendoza and then out for dinner and you guessed it ‘more malbec’ – trying to find one we don’t like – no luck so far!

On day two in Mendoza we thought we would do a wine tour/tasting but the one that was recommended was $250US dollars a person, translated to $750 US approx. for the three of us which was roughly a thousand dollars Canadian and that buys an awful lot of Malbec!  You guessed it, we opted out and decided to go to a small winery on the outskirts of the city that Jim had found and was highly recommended on trip advisor.   We walked for over an hour to find out when we got there that it was closed for the day – life goes on, more wineries ahead.  We decided to take the tram back into central Mendoza and while waiting for it we met an older lady, ie.older than us, who helped us figure out the train schedule and although she didn’t speak very good English she spoke excellent French, as well as several other languages so she and Jim sorted out the details…….in broken French, Spanish and English.  She was delightful and told us a bit about her life, father from Syria, mother from Lebanon and in fleeing the war all those years ago she had lived in many places and spoke several languages but not English and what she described as her terrible French was much, much better than our terrible Spanish.   She came to Argentina because she fell in love with, and married, a man from Mendoza and has lived there ever since although she is now a widow.  I told her my brother-in-law’s family was from Lebanon and she asked me the sur name and she smiled and went on in great details about Mansours but I wasn’t sure exactly what she was saying but it all sounded very positive as she seemed quite happy.  Her name was Jeanette and I told her my friend was Jeanette Mansour and she smiled once again and indicated she knew Mansours way back when and it was a very common name from Lebanon.  As we got on the very busy train there was a group of  adolescent boys in team football uniforms who found it quite humorous that we were talking in English, and attempting Spanish, and as it is with adolescence everything like this sounds funny and so they chimed in asking questions with Jeanette translating.   So there was much laughter and as they were very interested in Canada there were lots of questions.  As we departed they told us to watch the next world cup and be sure to cheer for Argentina as they were going to win……..and others listening on the tram agreed!

Our last evening in Argentina was spent enjoying dinner at a very old Argentinian restaurant that came highly recommended on Trip Advisor and by a couple of locals we also asked.  Argentina has a strong Italian influence and so Fluente y Flores had a menu that had Italian and Argentinian dishes and was excellent.  So with that we say “good- bye” to Argentina and what a great country it has been to visit.  We enjoyed the food, the people,  the weather and need I say it……..the Malbec and would highly recommend it as a tourist destination.  One minor challenge hardly worth mentioning, except it might save your life, is crossing the street at crosswalks.  They don’t want to stop!   So you have to start out as the traffic is rushing towards you and pray that they’ll see you and take pity on your life.  Although we didn’t encounter street begging too frequently it is worth noting that poverty here, like many places we’ve been, is an issue and by some government estimates almost a third of the population live below the poverty line.  President Macro’s goal is “zero poverty” but we know how long we have struggled in Canada to reach a similar goal.  In  Buenos Aries we saw a lot of homeless people not too far from our residence but did not notice this as much in the smaller cities.  We always felt safe and never felt threatened in any way other than crossing the street and on occasion when I tried too hard in my broken Spanish which was spoken way too fast and sounded nothing like any language they ever heard before!  So  it’s time to go and as the song says “Don’t cry for me Argentina”………..as we’re on our way to Chile!!!!!