From Mendoza to Puerto Iguazu: DAY 17

We left our hostel in Mendoza around 9am. The hostel was nice, but again the noise…. I don’t get people who get up early and make a hell of a noise. There was this guy talking just outside our door for like half hour. Like seriously don’t you have any respect? There is nothing that annoys me more than being up and not be able to go back to sleep because of some kind of asshole.

The breakfast was very poor comparing to what we had in previous hostels. Overall Mendoza did disappoint. We took a ca and went straight to the airport. A tiny airport surrounded by a vineyard.

The plane was small but very comfortable, we had drinks and food. It felt so good being back on a plane! We had a layover at salta. But stopped for only 30min. Some people came on board and we took off again. It took in total about 3hours30 to get to Puerto Iguazu. When we were about to land we tried to spot the falls but couldn’t see them, instead we had this amazing view on the jungle. It seriously felt like we were landing straight in the jungle. And the feeling did not go away when we stepped out of the plane.  The humidity was even worse than in Buenos Aires.

We took a bus transfer that drove us to the hostel for 30pesos each. Kinda expensive but it was the only option.

Got to a crowded hostel, it’s HUGE! It seriously look like a resort. It has everything, bar, restaurant, pool and a dj playing. It’s nice but for the 1^st time, we are going to experience something new: Sleeping in a dorm. It’s a small one but it is still a dorm ( for 6 people). We went to check out the room (the dorm) it’s small but ok.  1^st sight of relief the temperature in the room was cool (AC is on). I was afraid we were going to die in there.

We dropped the backpacks (So tired of the backpack!). We had one last thing to book, the bs ticket for Rio de Janeiro. The last step. We talked to the girl at the reception who said it was going to be difficult to find ticket at this time, because of the carnival and a lot of Brazilians are on vacation here, she said the agency they work with can maybe find us something but it was closed until the morning.

We were on panic mode! We decided to go downtown and check at the bus station. The hostel is just outside the city so we had to take a bus, it wasn’t a long ride but a terrible one! OMG, we almost died about a hundred times. The roads are so bad!

Anyway, we got to the terminal; the first company we stopped at had availability for the day we wanted to leave. 2^nd sight of relief of the day!

Went back to the hostel, but this time the ride was even worse. The guy took a detour, he drove around the local houses, and there wasn’t even a road in there! The entire city is dirty and very poor. I don’t get it. How come a city that owns the best falls in the world can be so poor? It’s the worst we have seen so far. It looks like we’re in some three world country. With kids half naked playing around and asking for money to everyone who looks like a tourist!

Back at the Hostel we enjoyed the swimming pool.

Mendoza: DAY 16

This morning, we almost didn’t make it to the bus. We woke up early enough, had breakfast and got ready to leave. We took the subway, but we got off one stop early because it said Terminal station, so we thought the station was big enough and would be easy to find our way from there. BIG MISTAKE!

It was the train station, but we couldn’t be far away as it was just one stop before the one we were supposed to get off. So we walked and got to the bus station, it was huge, and crowded, and no signs anywhere, on our ticket it said the bus was leaving from platform 22. Went there, waiting a couple of minutes, something was wrong. No Turbus around, every other company was there but ours. We remembered that when we arrived it was outside and all Turbus buses were there. We weren’t sure how to get there. We asked some guy, but didn’t get a word of what he said, we just followed the direction he pointed us toward to, which was on the opposite side of the station, went there, asked another guy, who pointed us the direction were we came from. Went back there, waited a couple of minutes, but still not convinced we were at the right place. Time was running and at this time I’m almost certain that somehow we missed the freaking bus.

By chance, there was this tiny minivan from Turbus so I thought he might know better about other buses! So walked up to him and showed him our tickets, and THANK GOD we did, he was there to pick up people travelling with Turbus, and drove us to the other terminal ( the one we came from when we arrived). The bus was supposed to leave at 8.40 but it was rescheduled for 9am, so we made in just on time!!!

We drove for about 7hours to get to Mendoza, Argentina. The bus was once again very nice, and comfy enough to sleep. The scenery was magnificent, couldn’t keep my eyes off the window.  We spent about too boring and long hours at the border! So busy up there.

We arrived around 4pm in Mendoza, went straight to the hostel. SUPER NICE! It’s always nice to arrive somewhere and not be disappointed. Dropped the bags and left straight away. We are leaving Mendoza tomorrow am so we had not time to lose. We went to San Martin Parques. The French couple we met in Bariloche told us about it. It was designed by a French guy.

The park was about 10min walk for the hostel. It’s super big and crowded, really enjoyed walking around. There was a festival going on, bbqs everywhere. We stopped there for a drink and listen to a band playing some really cool music.

Went back downtown, walked around the busy streets, it was around 8pm, all the shops was still open. It didn’t felt safe at all, I don’t know there was a weird atmosphere, maybe too many people. Everybody was looking at my camera like Jesus just came back! I put it back in my backpack and kept walking looking for a place to have dinner. We decided to leave the area and go somewhere quiet. We spotted earlier a couple of restaurant on the same street as the hostel and made our way back there.

There isn’t much to do in Mendoza unless you want to do wines tours, the region is very well known for its wines. SO I’m glad we aren’t staying any longer in here. We enjoyed the day and the night here but I’m ready to move on to our next step.

Tomorrow am we are upgrading to a plane! Youhou! We are flying from Mendoza to Iguazu falls, up north, 6hours flight. We were going to do it by bus (36hours) but the flights weren’t that expense comparing to the bus. Time is flying! We only have about a week left!

Moment of the day: While having dinner a bunch of kids surrounded our table, selling God knows what. One of them almost grabbed my phone. But got it on time! This is the 1^st time that I don’t feel safe at all. That’s probably why I’m glad we are taking off tomorrow!