18.5 hours on a bus is surprisingly manageable when:

a) it’s overnight
b) you have a pillow and a blanket
c) your seat reclines to 160°, and
d) you love sleeping as much as I do

The journey from Buenos Aires to Puerto Iguazu passed by very painlessly and gave me a chance to read the book Princess by Jean Sasson which I can now highly recommend.

We arrived on Saturday afternoon to blue skies in Puerto Iguazu and after a swift check-in to our hostel and a toilet stop in what we thought was our only available bathroom (outdoor, no toilet paper, grim to say the least) we grabbed a taxi across the border to see the waterfalls from the Brazilian side. I’d seen photos and I’d heard great things about Iguazu Falls but I honestly didn’t think they could be as awesome as they were. They’re just immense. The Brazilian side has a 1km long trail to walk along and a cool viewing platform above one of the waterfalls. We had the whole thing covered in 90 minutes.

On the way back into town I asked the taxi driver where’s the best place to have dinner. He looked at me very seriously in the mirror and asked, “are you one of those vegetarian, femenist types?” “Um, I guess I am yea, why?” “Oooh, you’re gonna have a bad time. A baaaaad time.” So, after establishing that I seemed sporty and independent, which is what led him to believe that I was a vegetarian and a femenist, he recommended a restaurant called Quinta Penas. To be fair they had decent veggie options and it was cheap. I ordered a brownie for dessert. About five minutes later a different waitress came over and I thought she asked if we wanted anything else. I responded in English that I’d ordered a brownie. She shook her head which I thought meant that she didn’t understand English so I said no worries and she left. About fifteen minutes passed with no sign of my brownie so I looked up the Spanish for “I ordered a brownie” and went to investigate. It turns out what she’d actually tried to tell me was that they had no brownies. Note to self – download Duolingo immediately.

The following day we got up early and caught a ride to the Argentinian side of the falls which has a much bigger National Park surrounding it. Every glimpse you catch of the falls is more impressive than the last and I spent the whole day in awe. It’s just so much water!

We took a boat ride which drives you right in under the waterfall three times. You get absolutely saturated but it was worth the damp and the cold ten times over.

The park cost 330 Argentinian pesos to enter on each side (~£17) and we paid 130 pesos (~£7) each day for return taxi rides organised by the hostel. The boat trip was 450 pesos (£23). Worth every penny spent and I’d thoroughly recommend seeing the falls to anybody who’s going to be in Argentina or Brazil.

The hostel, El Guembe Suites cost 86 pesos (~£4.50) and was very basic as expected but once I realised there was a clean, indoor bathroom with hot water I was very happy and after a sound sleep and my free breakfast I was ecstatic!

All in all a seriously awesome experience. I’m on a bus now to Concordia which sits on the border between Argentina and Uruguay. This time I’ve got lots of snacks and music on my phone but no blanket or book like last time. It’s only 12 hours though so it should be grand…..!