21st Oct Dirty rainy day today. Had a good laugh at Fiachra getting his hair cut. A Canadian girl in the hostel was doing cheap cuts and Fiachra decided that his Amazonian mop needed trimming. There was tonnes of hair on the ground and after 30 mins she was still cutting and it looked no shorter. She was eventually doing the finishing touches to her lobb-sided creation and he looked more Mick Hucknal than Phil Lynott. When she finished pulling and tucking little bits here and there he just pushed his hand through it and ruffled it all up again.
Later on the cleaner came into the dorm and started gabbeling spanish to me, I kept answering Si, No and then said Dos por favor (2 please) and she stopped what she was doing and looked at me, realising I hadnt a clue what she was talking about for the last 5 minutes. Everybody roared laughing and the cleaner left.
We went into town that afternoon and walked around Buenos Aires. There are amazing old buildings with fabulous European influenced architecture but the newer stuff seems to be in poor order. The footpaths are all cracked and full of potholes and missing manholes and inspection covers are not unusual. Its a fine city though and we walked around the docks and saw a Argentinan Navy sailing vessel (Frigata Sarimento) that was used to train sailors. It had visited Galway on its 40 laps of the Earth many years ago and I remember Dad bringing us to see it.
22nd Oct Went to a place outside BA today on the train. Its a marshy Delta region known as Delta Tigre. It was set alongside a nice little town and we went on a boat trip to see some of the mansions along the canals etc. It was a nice day out even if the trip was a water bus for the locals.
23rd Oct Checked out of our BA hostel bound for Uruguay. We got a taxi to the ferry port but missed our 11.30am ferry by 10 minutes and had to wait until 7.30pm for the next one. We went into the city for another look around and visited Eva Perons grave. Another sight was this huge metal Tulip that petals mechanically close at night and open in the morning. In the fading light red spotlights light it up. It was obviously some commemeration monument but couldnt understand the Spanish explanation to know either way.
The ferry to Uruguay and to the town of Sacriemento De Colonial took 1 hour and we walked to our hostel. It was a bit of a dump but we had the dorm to ourselves.
24th Oct Walked around SDC and saw the sights. Its a nice little town but had not much to hold the average visitor more than a day. We got a bus to the capital, Montevideo, that afternoon. It seems a typical South American city that has had real glory days in the past but is now crumbling graffitied town with some fine old buildings. The hostel here is a bit of a dump too (allowing for the fact that the country is poor and prices are cheap). Our room stank of Vapona (fly spray) and there were 8 of us in a tiny room. The common area incorporated the reception, bar, TV room and pool table. The music was so loud we couldnt sleep, watch TV or read as all the bulbs were glow in the dark 25W jobs. No point complaining. Our whole dorm checked out the following morning.
25th Oct We hoped to get to a coastal town called Punta Del Este today but everywhere was booked out. It is a place famed for its beaches and celebrity sightings. We decided to go to a town called Tacuembro in the interior. We heard of a ranch that took tourists and showed them how to horseride, round up cattle and sheep etc. They were so remote they had no phone or email so they were only contactable when they came into Tacurembo. We emailed them and headed to Tac in the expectation that we could meet them there.
26th Oct Not to be for the city Slickers. We got an email to say that they were fully booked and we couldnt do it until the 07th November. Didnt realise it was so popular in such a remote spot. We looked around town anyway and got the bus to the Uruguayian / Argentinan border bound for the Iguazu falls. We stopped for the night at a town called Pasandu, it was a nice spot but had to leave on a connecting bus at 8am to a town called Colon on the Argentinian side of the border.
27th Oct Arrived at 10am, its a mad country town with dirt streets outside the centre, but we were not done with our run of unfortunate luck. Our next bus was due to leave at 6.15pm, but the lady behind the counter told us that a highway service station 10km out of town was a popular coach stop and we could get a bus coming from BA the rest of the way. Delighted we got a taxi there and 3 hrs later, nothing. We got a taxi back to town and bought tickets for the 6.15pm bus only to be told that we need to go back to the service station to meet that bus. Jesus. Anyway did that and waited for the bus to arrive. At 6.50pm it made its appearence. It was a fine bus... double decker with big plush seats, videos, waitress serving meals and wine. Along the way the bus stopped to pick up more passengers and I saw the waitress giving the leftovers to street kids, nice of her but a sad sight too.
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