Iguazu falls

From Santa Fe to Iguazu is well over 1100 kms that we covered in 2 days.

The first 800 kms once again are on a straight road with 40 degrees and no sign of shade.

The ruta 127 is full of bumps and holes for a good 50 kms after Federal, then around 3pm we find some road works for the construction of a bridge and we get redirected into the ruta 119.

We realise that we are off track as we reach the small town of Curuzu where we make a quick u turn and head back to the ruta 127.

Finally, after 1 hr we are back at the bridge under construction where a nice man this time points us in the right direction to ruta 14.

It is still a long way to Posadas, where we get well after dark.

In the meantime the rear light has stopped working and we drive the last 25 kms in the dark using the BMW blinkers to signal our presence in the night.

The following morning we change the rear light and leave Posadas heading to Iguazu on the ruta 12.

Finally the scenery around us changes.

The ground is red, bright red like a brick.

There is a weird but nice mix of trees from pines to palms

It feels like being at the tropics again, and in fact the tropic of Capricorn is only 500 kms north as the bird flies.

Thanks to the shade produced by these tall trees it no longer feels so hot.

This area has been originally colonised by the Jesuit missionaries.

If we had time we would have loved to visit a couple of missions on the road, but unfortunately today we are on a very tight schedule.

We get to Puerto Iguazu around lunch time but we don’t really feel like eating.

We are so excited to be here that we drop our luggage at the hotel and head immediately to the Iguazu National Park entrance.

The entrance costs around £15 per person per day, but you can get a 50% discount on the price of the entrance for the following day.

That is quite useful as 1 day is certainly not enough to visit this beautiful park.

The waterfalls are of course the central piece of the park

The falls can be divided almost in 2 parts.

The first section on the right side of the Isla San Martin can be visited via the “circuito superiore” which takes you right above the falls

and the “circuito inferiore” . (below the falls)

The second section is the “garganta del Diablo”

that can be reached by a short train ride.

Once again in this circumstance words are not good enough to describe what we see. Luckily we took well over 400 pictures.

As you walk around the park you can only fall in admiration of flora and fauna that surrounds you.

Among others we were able to spot monkeys,parrots, toucans and the coati (of the raccoon family)

Colourful butterflies are not afraid to land on your hand and walk around with you for minutes.

Something that in our opinion should not be missed is certainly the ride on the boat under the falls.

Unfortunately it only lasts 15 minutes but that is more than enough to get a monumental shower.

Don’t even think to keep your camera out when they tell you to put it away in the waterproof bags provided.

If you want some pictures or a video to remind you of this amazing boat ride you can always buy the DVD at the end. They will deliver it to your hotel in the evening.

We truly loved every second we spent in the park.

The facilities are excellent and the suspended catwalks take you safely right to the edge of the falls.

The only negative comment we can make is about the ugly Sheraton hotel placed right in the middle of the park.

We seriously wonder how many politicians they must have greased back in the years to obtain the permission to build the hotel right in the middle of this national park.

And if they really had to do it at least they could have built it in a style a bit less offensive to the eye.

Santa Fe

We spent almost one week in Santa Fe enjoying the unbeatable hospitality of the Ponce family.

Pic 1: Norma and Jorge Ponce
They own a beautiful house in Sauce Viejo, 15 kms south of Santa Fe.

Pic 2: In Sauce Viejo even cats and dog (Pancho) live in harmony
Since the sun was always out and the temperature was close to 40 degrees we took full advantage of the pool in the garden.

Pic 3: The pool
Jorge Ponce is an excellent cook. He has built a huge barbecue at the back of the house where day after day he cooked for us the famous Argentinean meat.

Pic 4: Jorge and his big barbecue behind him.
On the 30^th, our friend Paola took us out clubbing with some of her friends.

You need to know that in Argentina (like in Spain) people don’t go out clubbing until 2/3am in the morning!

Pic 5: Paola Fernanda and Hernan
At 5 am we were still dancing in a club full of people, waiting for the sun to rise.

Nothing would have stopped us, except the fact of course that poor Paola stepped on a broken glass and cut her foot.

Pic 6: First Aid
Initially her friend Hernan stopped the bleeding with some bandages, operating  like a professional doctor, then we took her to the near hospital where they took care of her in no time.
That was the end of our first night out in Santa Fe.

On NYE we had the honour to be invited at the gathering of the whole Ponce family for the celebration of the New Year.

When we asked what should we bring to the party we were told ONLY FIREWORKS!!!.

Argentineans are quite keen on fireworks. On the 31^st of December you might not be able to find bread on the streets of Santa Fe, but certainly there was no shortage of stalls selling all sorts of weaponry,  from ordinary fireworks to the most advanced bombs, rockets, intercontinental missiles.....you get it.
We stocked up and went to the Ponce party.

Once again we truly felt at home.

At midnight we launched some balloons in the air with attached our wish for the New Year, then joined the war in the streets with our artillery.

Pic 7: Baloons
I only burnt my right thumb in the occasion which, given my inexperience on the matter was certainly good news.

Pic 8: Fireworks
Back in the house we joined 85 years old grandma and the rest of the family on the dance floor until 4am.

Pic 9: Dancing
All Argentineans are of course excellent dancers, so this time, instead of giving them a lesson on the “chicken steps” I thought I would step it up a notch to the more skilful “limbo step”.

Pic 10: The limbo step
When we thought it was all over Paola told us that she would meet her friends at 5am to go clubbing!

Since she was in good company and since we were feeling quite tired from the night before and our trip from Bariloche we decided it would be safer for us to stay with her parents......well, not exactly safe: at 6am they were still up, including grandma!

On the 2nd, after recovering from the NYE party we went out at the Santa Fe Brewery to taste the local beer.

Pic 11: Beer directions
We truly enjoyed the local production

Pic 12: Paolo, Paola and Eric

and the atmosphere

Pic 13: Santa Fe brewery
Then we moved to another bar, where already partially plastered Elena finished us off by ordering some Chandon.

Pic 14: Elena only drinks champagne
In our last day in Santa Fe we hit the river Parana for some fishing on the boat.

Pic 15: Elena on the boat
This time we were more successful than our previous attempts on the Chilean rivers.

First, somehow, I managed to catch a CRAB! How do you manage to catch a crab with a fishing line is still a mystery. Did it get stuck with a claw or was it stubbornly trying to steal some chicken from the hook?

Pic 16: Hooking a crab?
Then Elena caught several Palomitas, a fish of the Piranha family.

Pic 17: palomita
Late in the morning we successfully filled our lunch box with some reasonably sized fish.

Pic 18: Big catch and (thanks to Jorge cooking) big belly!!
We then stopped to a little shack on the island to cook

Pic 19: Cooking in the shack

and eat our catch of the day.

Pic 20: Proudly eating the catch of the day
Back at the villa it was time to pack the bike for the following day departure, only after taking Norma for a ride around the neighbourhood.

Pic 21: Norma on the BMW
We don’t have enough words to say thank you to Paola and her family for the amazing time we had in Sauce Viejo.
We felt so relaxed that somehow we had the feeling that in Sauce Viejo our trip to South America ended and our Holiday in South America began.

The road to Santa Fe

This is where our new plan of travel begins.

In our original plans, after Antarctica we would have spent Xmas and NYE in southern Patagonia visiting the Perito Moreno glacier and the Torres del Paine NP, then we would have driven north on the ruta 3, stopped at Punta Tombo and Peninsula Valdes to reach Buenos Ayres around the 15^th of January.

However, after reshuffling things around we find ourselves 2000 kms up north with 2 extra weeks to spare.

As the bike is working fine we have decided to cover an extra 5000 kms, and drive all the way to the Iguazu falls, then enter Brasil and reach Florianopolis and finally drive down to Montevideo in Uruguay, where we can catch a ferry to Buenos Ayres around the 20^th of January.

But first, ahead of us is 2000 kms of “Pampas Argentina” that we need to cover in 2 days to reach our friend Paola and her family in Santa Fe.

When we look at the road on the map what strikes us immediately is the fact that there are sections, as long as 250 kms, with not a single pueblo in sight The problem for us is the usual one: no pueblo, no petrol.

If you draw a line between Bariloche and Santa Fe, half way through you can see a town called Santa Rosa.

We decide that Santa Rosa is going to be the place where we sleep tonight, no matter what!

The first 100 kms, after leaving Bariloche on the Ruta 40 are very pleasant, with gentle bends, a fast road, forests rivers and lakes.

We wish it was all like that.

Then the landscape dries up, the road becomes straight and the heat is kind of unbearable.

We can now understand why there are no pueblos around here and why the lonely planet does not say a word about this area. There is TRULY NOTHING TO REPORT. Just a straight road, 40 degrees and dry bushes at both sides of the road

...........after 4 hrs, straight road, 40 degrees and dry bushes

........finally, wait.......a corner!

Then another 4 hrs, straight road, 40 degrees and dry bushes.

As the sun comes down we finally enter the Santa Rosa region.

After all that desert land this is what we can call “fertile pampa”. The grass is green and cows roam freely.

To be perfectly honest this place is so famous for its meat that we expected to see millions of cows, migrating from one field to another, a bit like the buffaloes in the Serengeti.

Not quite like it. In fairness it was a bit of a disappointment. It was just like being back in the “pianura padana” south of Milan, only 40 times bigger.

....................................................................................................................

It is day 2 and we still have another 1000 kms to cover.

The lower back is aching a bit due to the effort of the previous day.

We try to hydrate as often as we can.

On a positive note the number of pueblos on the road has increased and therefore it is no longer a concern of ours to fill up the bike.

The road, I am afraid, is still very straight and it is still very hot, just a bit greener dotted with cows.

The news is that there is plenty of dragonflies whizzing around.

We are ever so grateful to them as they feed of mosquitoes.

However I must confess they can hurt a bit when they hit you as bullets while you travel at 120 kms/hr
When we finally get to Rosario we see something that we haven’t seen in a while: road traffic.
This one is the heavy traffic made of lorries stuck in a long line.
The road is quite dangerous as the passage of these lorries have created parallel depressions in the asphalt where the wheels of the bike often get trapped.
When we finally make it to the motorway it’s 8 pm.

We call Paola and agree to meet at 9pm at Santa Fe airport.

As they get off their car, in summer clothes, with hair combed and thoroughly perfumed they approach us to give us a hug.

Initially we feel a bit embarrassed, all sweaty, smelly fully geared in our gore tex clothes completely covered in dead insects.

The embarrassment only lasts few seconds: deep in our hearts we know that we are really going to enjoy 6 days of Argentinean hospitality.

Bariloche

We spend Xmas in Bariloche in a nice chalet just outside town with lake’s view.

As expected the town is completely deserted due to the festivities, so we take a stroll around in search of a place open where we can eat a bite.

Unfortunately we could not eat at this restaurant for hobbits as they celebrate Xmas too.

The town revolves around the high street where you can find plenty of chocolate shops.

The main square is actually quite disappointing with a huge, ugly 1970 tower block looming on the east side.

We now understand that the purpose of Bariloche is to provide food and accommodation to the thousands of tourists that come here every year to explore the beautiful surrounding.

After sleeping almost 20 hrs and having recharged our batteries we jump on the BMW to spend the day in the “circuito chico”.

It is a glorious day with not a single cloud in the sky and even the volcanic ashes have been swept away temporarily by the wind.

We stop almost at every corner to take pictures after pictures and in fact there is not much else to say. This time we would rather let the images talk for us.