Las Spinsters Storm South America 2010: Part II

Well, here's part two of the Spinsters in South America 2010 trip.  This episode will star not only Kate....

Kate enjoying the lovely curtains at Hotel Colon in Resistencia, Argentina.  She wanted to make a dress out of them like in the Sound of Music, but we were short on time.

but also Corinne, who joined up with us in Sao Paulo.  

Corinne coming out of a telefonica (place where you make phone calls from).  We planned a lot of the trip along the way so there were several trips to telefonicas to make reservations for our next night's stay.  Corinne speaks Spanish better than me (due to having a Latin Lover at one time) so I made her make most of the phone calls.  

Anyway, lest I get ahead of myself...first Kate and I had to take a night bus from Rio to Sao Paulo.  It was a pretty nice bus and I think I would have slept well had one of our fellow bus riders not been snoring LOUDER THAN I'VE EVER HEARD ANY HUMAN SNORE!  All night.  


But, we made it to the airport in Sao Paulo where we met up with Corinne and also ran into my parents who were on their way back to Fortaleza.  So, that was fun.  It was nice to get to see them one more time.  


Oh, I forgot...Kate and I found this AMAZING little store at the main bus station in Sao Paulo.  They sell a nice variety of weapons at affordable prices.  

Yes, those are Chinese stars and giant killer knifes you are seeing.  And, if you zoom in you'll see that the prices are way too cheap for comfort...only about 15 or 20 dollars for a knife big enough to skin a deer with.  Scary! 

These guys below were just a little too interested in the weapons for our comfort.  I think we were both glad we weren't spending much time in Sao Paulo.  No wonder Sao Paulo is a sketchy place.  You can't sell weapons in bus stops for really cheap...you are just asking for trouble Sao Paulo!  

Kate and I both regretted later that we didn't buy a Chinese star.  How many times in your life do you have the opportunity to buy a Chinese star at a bus station?  Opportunity missed. 

Anyway, from Sao Paulo we flew to Foz do Iguaçu, which is the city on the Brazilian side of Iguassu Falls.  On the flight we met a fellow Mormon singleton flight attendant who thought this, 

about being single.  

This picture is actually a reenactment.  This is how it really happened...

We boarded the plane and before we could even sit down the flight attendant in the picture above says to us, "Are you Mormon?"

To which we answered: "Yes."

"Still single?" he asked.  

We nod yes.  

And then he frowns and puts a pretend gun to his head and pretend shoots himself.  

Maybe you had to be there but it was so funny.  Within minutes of boarding the plane he tagged us as Mormon, as single, and let us know that he felt our pain as a fellow singleton.  I guess it's a small world.  Oh, and randomly he's from Fortaleza too.  I guess sometimes it's a really small world.  

Anyway, we made it to Foz do Iguaçu, hopped off the plane and I grabbed a taxi and took our luggage to our hostel while Corinne and Kate hightailed it to the Brazilian side of the falls so they'd have enough time to see that side.  I went to the Brazilian side in July of 2008 so I decided it was too soon after to go back.  Click here to see my pictures from that side of the falls if you are interested.  

So, here are a bunch of pictures from the Argentine side of the falls.  And, just for the record, if Iguassu Falls is on your list of future travel destinations make sure to leave time for both the Brazilian side and Argentine side of the falls.  I think that the Brazilian side is more picturesque but that the Argentine side is also a must see because you get a bit closer to the falls and it is also very beautiful.  The falls are the same, just your viewpoint of the falls changes.  

Las tres Spinsters at Iguassu Falls, Argentina.  

The falls just go on and on and on...like my blog posts. 

Proof we were there.

Same place, the next day.  We decided to go back to the falls on Sunday morning since we couldn't find where the LDS church was on the Argentine side so we thought we'd commune with nature a bit instead.

These guys wanted to take a picture with us for some reason, so we did.  I'm not sure what's up with the half naked guy in the picture but I guess if I had abs like his I'd probably want to walk around half naked too.  

I love Iguassu Falls.  It is so beautiful.  I'd put it high on the list of places that everyone should see.  

A vertical shot just to mix things up a bit.  

Me again.  Looking nice and sweaty.  

More falls...

What the?  Apparently the park service hasn't replaced the park wheelchairs since 1872.  I've never seen anything quite like it.  

More of me.  You might say I'm vain but I would say, "no, it's my blog and I can have as many pictures of myself on my blog as I want."

A whole pack of Coatis.  They are everywhere on both sides of the falls.  When you see the first one you think they're cute and then you see more and more and by the end of the day you're planning a trip back to launch an NGO with the sole purpose of providing birth control for Coatis.  

Somewhere over the rainbow...

We took a boat ride down on the water.  I did this in 2008 on the Brazilian side too but somehow Corinne and Kate convinced me to do it again.  Basically you get to see the falls from water level and then a Kamikaze boat driver drives the boat right under the falls SEVERAL times and you get completely soaked and think you might die at times.   This is a picture we took from the water.  

We didn't stay at this hostel but it was near our hostel and we thought that the pool was hilariously small.  You might be able to fit 4 people in that pool and that is only if they are skinny and suck in too.  I bet you a dollar that if you go to this hostel's website that somehow they've taken a picture that makes this pool look big, or at least bigger.  They probably got tiny chairs and hired midgets to lay out on the chairs to make the pool look normal.  That's just me speculating though.   

Well, after we saw Iguassu we began our bus journey across Argentina.  Here's a little summary of our bus journey across Argentina...

*Took a 9 hour bus ride from Iguassu to Resistencia (aka: the ride with the really stinky air freshener)
*Took an 11 hour bus ride from Resistencia to Tucuman (aka: 11 hours of hell in a sweat lodge)
*Took a 4 hour bus ride from Tucuman to Salta (aka: the ride where we dined and slept with cockroaches)
*Took a 15.5 hour bus ride from Salta to San Juan (aka: the ride where they didn't stop to let us use the bathroom and we didn't want to use the gross bathroom on the bus so we all almost died)
*Took a 2.5 hour bus ride from San Juan to Mendoza (aka: the lap of luxury)
*Took a 4.5 hour bus ride from Mendoza to Villa Mercedes
*Took a 4.5 hour bus ride from Villa Mercedes to Mendoza
*Vowed to never ride a bus again

Here we are at the bus station in Iguassu.  The beginning of it all.  They were mopping the floors in case you're wondering why our feet are sticking straight out.  

We thought that this picture of the temple in the bus station was a nice touch.  I guess they are hoping for business from Mormon temple trips.  

Us after a 15.5 hour bus ride.  We are looking a little rough, or at least I am.  

You're probably asking yourself, "why didn't they just fly?...are these girls masochists?"  

Let me answer your question.  

First of all flying in Argentina isn't very convenient because pretty much all flights (that I know of anyway) go through Buenos Aires.  So, even if you want to fly from one city in the west to another city in the west you have to go all the way east to Buenos Aires, have a stopover there and then head west again.  So, it takes all day and is expensive.  

Secondly the buses are cheap.

Thirdly, you can buy bus tickets at the last minute so you can travel spontaneously.   

Fourthly you get to see the countryside when you take a bus.  

Fifthly there are just crazy adventures that wouldn't happen if you weren't taking a bus across a country.  

And, sixthly, you don't get views like this...

on a plane.

I love sitting upstairs in the bus in the very front seats.  You get such a great panoramic view.  

There is, however, one downside to the very front seats...and that is that if, for example, you're on an 11 hour bus ride from Resistencia to Tucuman and the air conditioning is not working (even though the bus driver assures you that it is working), those nice panoramic windows will cook you like a vegetable in a green house and, if you don't die of heat exhaustion, you will wish you did.  

At one point we even made a little sign in Spanish that said "HELP US, We need air!"  We put it up in the window when we went through police checkpoints but I think our sign was too small and unfortunately we didn't have any bigger paper.  

And, in the end, we survived even though there were moments of deliriousness and of seeing white lights.  

Here Kate and I are fixing the air freshener on the bus to Resistencia.  Every 15 minutes (exactly) the air freshener would squirt out air "freshener" that smelled like cheap Hispanic man cologne.  We were right in the back seats and thought we'd die if we had to smell it for the 9 hour bus ride.  So, we folded up a bunch of tissues, put them over the hole and covered the whole thing with tape and a water bottle label.  And, it worked and the day was saved!

Just brushing my teeth on the 15.5 hour long bus where they didn't stop.  There was a little sink in the back so I spit into that but then when I turned on the water to wash it down the sink started foaming everywhere but I didn't care because the least they could have done is given us a rest stop on that ride.  

At one of the bus stations they had shopping carts to push your luggage around in .  It was weird.  I think this is right before we got on the bus full of cockroaches.  

In our journey across Argentina we found that there are BIG differences between the quality and cleanliness of the buses and the comfort of the bus ride.  But, unfortunately, we couldn't predict the type of bus ride we'd have based on price (because the prices were all so similar) or bus companies (because there was a lot of variability even between the same company's buses depending on what city you were in), and it seemed that every region of Argentina has completely different bus lines.  

So, every time we bought a bus ticket it was a big gamble as to whether we were going to have a comfortable ride or spend the whole time wishing we were dead rather than on a bus in the Middle of Nowhere, Argentina.  

We got to take one SUPER fantastic luxury bus ride from San Juan to Mendoza.  Too bad it was the shortest bus ride we took the whole trip! 

We enjoyed all 2.5 hours in the lap of luxury.  It was the best bus ride of my life!

We took the bus to Resistencia but didn't stay long because we just didn't like it there very much.  We decided that it was the armpit of Argentina (at least of the parts of Argentina that we saw).  Maybe we should have given it more of a chance but instead we pushed on toward Salta because we'd heard it was beautiful and nice there, and it was.  

I really liked Salta.  I thought it would be miserably hot since it is so far north but really it wasn't bad.  San Juan, which is farther south than Salta is way worse.  We spent a couple days in Salta and had a great time.  Here are some pictures we took in Salta...

We took a cable car to the top of a mountain to see Salta and the surrounding area.  

Here's one of the views from the top.  

Here we are at the top.

Here Kate and I are with our magic Mary (and other Saints) bracelets we bought in Salta.  Mine turned my wrist orange.  Serves me right I guess for donning Catholic garb.  

Corinne and I in downtown Salta.  They have a ton of cool old buildings and churches, pretty plazas, and a really nice museum that even has Incan mummies in it. 

Kate and I in one of Salta's plazas.  As you can see we don't have a Rick Steves guidebook because Rick doesn't do South American guidebooks.  I wish he would.  Maybe I'll just have to become the Rick Steves of South America!  I wish.  

Well, that's all for now.  More coming in Part III of Spinsters Storm South America 2010.