In Puerto Iguazu

We arrived at the Hotel Tourbillon in Iguazu after a bus ride of 28 hours.

Crossing the Gap

San Ignacio Mission

Flowers at San Ignacio

At Mar Del Plata we were supposed to be at the bus depot by 8 AM and we thought that the arrangement was that we would see the night watchman Franco at 7 AM and he would telephone a cab for 7.30 AM.  We got up nice and early and got off the boat on time, somewhat apprehensive about threatening rain clouds and getting the luggage across the gap in the jetty using the rowboat without getting it wet.  We did that OK and as we approached the office Franco met us and told us that the cab would arrive in 5 minutes - 7 AM.  We had just enough time to visit the loo before the cab arrived.

The bus ride to Iguazu was a long one, but the seats were comfortable and we had much more leg and elbow room than on an economy class commercial jet.  We stopped for an hour for lunch and again early in the evening for dinner.  Two movies were shown, with the double whammy of Spanish language with Spanish subtitles.

An airplane would have been much faster and no more expensive than the bus, but we were both glad that we took the bus because it gave us the opportunity to see much of the countryside of northern Argentina.  The rural areas that we saw were modern and appeared to be prosperous.  The agricultural land looked superb: flat, lush, with dark rich soil.  There were some small towns that could have been in Australia.  Even the windmills were the same.

This morning the bus stopped for our breakfast and from there we walked to a tour of the ruins of San Ignacio, originally founded in 1632 by the Jesuits and moved to its present location in 1696.  It was a large mission, with an orderly and very hierarchical structure of society as would be expected.  To quote from the brochure, "Similar to the other missions, it suffered the Paraguayan destruction in 1817."

The hotel is a very good one - the best that we've stayed at.  It's got truly free WiFi which I like, a safe which I like almost as much, and a bathroom that includes a bidet and a Jacuzzy bathtub, which are of no use to me.  It has a large balcony overlooking a lush garden and obligatory swimming pool.

After showers and lunch at the hotel restaurant we took the local bus into the center of town where I drew some cash from an ATM and we got some supplies from a grocery store.  I asked a local where I could find a bank and he very helpfully asked whether I wanted Link or Banelco.  By then I knew that I needed a Link bank, which was only 1.5 blocks away.

I had told my bank of my Visa card plight and got only a form letter in return.  The response that they should have sent is very simple:  Anybody who wants to withdraw money from an ATM in Argentina using a Visa card must go to a bank that displays "Link" and avoid the ones that display "Banelco".   None of the banks seem to display the logos of the major cards such as Visa or Master.

Brenda went for an evening stroll along the back garden of the hotel and was rewarded with a good sighting of a toucan labeled in the book as an "aracari".  She said that we can return to Mar Del Plata now, but I knew better.