The last couple of days in Salta were great - just relaxing and eating genius Argentinian ice cream (passion fruit, dulce de leche, banana split, chocolate flavour... Mmmmmhh!), and thanks to my generous mom we were able to go horseback riding on a so-called gaucho ranch 50 km south of Salta, which was really amazing. We were riding the real western-way with loose rains and the opposite way of what I am used to, riding dressage. The surroundings were absolutely breathtaking, mountains in the background and big fields with yellow flowers and eagles flying above us. Alex even got to gallop a bit, a quite amusing sight.
It was freezing cold when we got back in the evening, and we had a cup of tea at the ranch before returning to our hostel to leave again for dinner - we were going to a nice restaurant cause Alex needed his Argentinian steak.
Next day we headed towards Iguazu, yet another busride of 24 hours. However, this time we went in a very luxurious (and expensive, but the only one) Argentinian bus with great service and seats that you would think would be for very overweight people. The best bus ride so far!
Arriving in Puerto Iguazu, we checked into a nice, but a bit boring hostel and arranged our tour to the falls for the next day. Got up early and took a bus. Almost not worth it describing how incredible walking around the worlds biggest water fall was, check out the pictures instead - and not even those do it justice. You walk around in a constant drizzle because of the falls surrounding you. Spent the entire morning and some of the afternoon there, going crazy with my camera and getting wet before leaving.
Made the horrible decision of trying to get a cheaper bus ticket to Rio by crossing the border to Brazil and buy a ticket there in stead of on the Argentinian side. Took a bus to the border and had to get the stamp in our passport - and was the bus waiting? No no, gringos can wait an hour for the next bus.......
And so we did! Going to Foz do Iguazu to check out the prices of the bus tickets, only to find out that the stupid Brazilian buses are waaaayyyy more expensive than the luxurious Argentinian ones. Furthermore we just got sent back to the feeling of not being able to communicate in a country - finally just agreed to upgrade our Spanish competences from "un poco" to "mas o menos", and then we have to start all over in Portuguese.
So we had to go back - another half an hour waiting at the border and looking a loooooong time for an ATM in Puerto Iguazu before going back to the bus station to find out that all the Argentinian bus tickets were sold out, so we had to buy the Brazilian ones anyway.. Yay!
So now we have a couple of hours to kill on our hostel before going through the border once again, something we should be prepared to spend about 3 hours doing, before getting on our LAST bus to Rio.
Impossible to describe how much we are looking forward to a week in Rio doing absolutely nothing, except from maybe a football game or a tour to see the statue. We can hear the beaches calling out for us....
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