Salta and Iguacu

After leaving Bolivia we spent around 4 days in Salta in northern Argentina. The city was around halfway to Iguacu Falls which was our next planned destination. Rather than spend 40 or more hours on a bus at one time, we figured it would be good to break up the trip with a stop here in Salta for a few days. Salta and the surrounding area is quite a beautiful area of Argentina. The bus ride from the Bolivian border was quite special. We saw beautiful small mountains that had multiple colors of rock surfaces. It was quite striking to see.

The city of Salta was very nice as well. It is quite a big city and very modern compared to Bolivia. We also noticed the drastic price differences. In Bolivia we had pretty much gotten back on track with our budget, but Salta was at least 2 or 3 times more expensive, and after only 4 days the budget was back off track.

While in Salta we took the opportunity to visit a ranch and do some horseback riding. The place we went to was awesome. The ranch was around an hour’s drive out of the city in farm country. There were a lot of tobacco fields everywhere and we got to ride the horses around the fields and through rivers and down peaceful country roads. Neither Joh, nor I have ever ridden on a horse so it was pretty special for us. We both really enjoyed it right from the start and started dreaming about starting our own horse farm and enjoying the gaucho (argentine name for “cowboy”) life. After the ride we were treated to one of the best meals ever. While we were gone they had been roasting meats over a fire and been cooking up all sorts of great vegetables and spicy side dishes. The owner of the farm walked around the table handing out steaks, ribs, and sausages and we ate as much as we could. I found out that it is very difficult to refuse just one more steak and I ended up eating around 5 steaks and even more sausages and other really delicious food. It was one of the best meals of my life and certainly the best steaks I’ve had in Argentina – and that’s saying something.

Salta also had a lot of parks and cool-looking buildings so it was a great city for walking around. There was a big hill/mountain on the outskirts of the city which we hiked up and we had a great view of the surrounding area.

On Monday we left Salta on a 24 hour bus-ride to Puerto Iguacu. This being Argentina, the bus was spectacular and we had some great first-class seats and we watched movies and got fed meals. The bus ride went very smoothly and before we knew it we had arrived. Stepping off the bus in Iguacu it was immediately obvious that we had entered a different climate. It was really nice and hot and humid. The weather was really effected by the nearby rainforest.

We wasted a day waiting for our Brazilian visas to be processed and then spent 2 days exploring the falls. Iguacu Falls are one of the biggest waterfalls on earth and they are absolutely breathtaking. There are hundreds of waterfalls all within one small area of around one or two square kilometers. The Iguacu river also happens to be the border between three countries – Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. We spent the first day on the Argentina side and explored both the falls and the national park. The falls were amazing of course and we got some great pictures even though it rained for most of the morning. The park has a number of hiking trails that all have stopping points where you get some really great views of the falls. It is pretty much impossible to get the entire falls in one picture. You need to walk all around to get different viewpoints of the different parts. On the second day we crossed the border into Brazil an explored Brazil's side of the falls. They also have a National park with a lot of trails an even more great views. Although both sides are great, the Brazilian side gives you a wider view of the falls. On the Argentine side you see the falls from up on the top of the falls, but from Brazil you can see it from the other side. They also have some walkways that allow you to get right up close into the middle of the river. On one of the walkways you were sounded by over 300 degrees of waterfalls. It was quite the experience. You just stand there and you are absolutely in awe and it is literally unbelievable how beautiful it is. We will of course show you some photos but they will hardly suffice to explain it.

After seeing the falls for a few days, It’s time to move on again. We booked another 24 hour bus to leave from Iguacu Falls to go to Rio de Janerio. Rio is pretty high on our list of must-see places in South America, so we’re pretty excited. We can’t wait to hang out on Copacabana beach and check out Sugarloaf mountain. Based on our research, the city is extremely expensive, so it’s likely that we’ll only be there for 2 or 3 days but we’ll try make the most of it.

After Rio, we’ll likely work our way north via the Brazilian coast, but we don’t really have anything or anywhere planned yet. Brazil is so big that it will be a little difficult to see a lot of it. It looks like we’ll end up with a few 40 hour bus trips or some plane trips so we’ll have to plan it carefully and not completely blow our budget.

We’ve also come across another hurdle now, and that is Portuguese. We’ve put in a lot of effort here in the last two or three months to learn Spanish and we’re going to have to put that on hold for the next little while. Obviously we’ll need Spanish again when we just back to the west to visit Peru and the other countries. We’ve been told a few times that Spanish and Portuguese are very similar, but so far it has been pretty much impossible to understand a single word in Portuguese. I think they only are similar if you are a native Spanish speaker. To us they are worlds apart. I’m not sure how much effort we’ll put into learning Portuguese – we’ll only need it for a couple weeks. We’ll see. We’ll try get by with English/Spanish and if that doesn’t work there’s always the point and grunt version of speaking which pretty much everybody can slightly understand.