Salta to Peurto Iguazu, Argentina

Friday 20 July On Monday night I took another overnight bus journey to the northern Argentinian city of Resistencia, capital of the Chaco region. I didn´t particulalry want to come here but it is a convenient half way point between Salta and Iguassu.

Unusually I arrived in Resistencia without having pre-booked any accommodation. On arriving at the bus terminus at 7am I took a taxi the 3 kms to Hotel Colon, in the city centre, and recommended by Lonely Planet. Happily the hotel had a single ensuite room available at a reasonable price,($18) albeit I had to wait until after 10am to get access. After some breakfast in a local cafe I returned to the hotel to claim my room. It is an old fashioned hotel, built in the 20's I'd guess, with long light corridors and some art deco features such as, high ceilings, beautiful tiled floors in the corridors and a marble top to the wash hand basin in my bathroom. There is a vey nice feel about the place.

As usual when I arrive somewhere I almost immediately start planning my next move, so after dropping my bags into my room I walked round the city centre square to look for bus a company office to book the next leg of the journey to Iguazu. I found the local tourist office first and they informed me the bus companies only had offices in the bus terminal, which was completely different to all the other towns I'd recently visited. As I had little to do I decided I'd walk to the bus terminal. In Resistencia there are less roads asphalted than in Salta. Also there are more motorbikes, mainly small 125's like mine at home, being used than I remember seeing anywhere else so far in South America so far.

The housing I passed wasn't as upmarket as the areas I had seen in Salta but most homes looked reasonably habitable. Further out, closer to the bus terminus and ring road, there was a large social housing development with a mix of single storey homes and flats accessed by metal staircases, giving a bird cage feel to these blocks. Lots of the property looked in poor repair and were painted all colours, suggesting the occupants take reponsibilty, or not, for upkeep of their homes. Many homes had what looks like aluminium foil fixed over large areas of the roofs, presumably some type of cheap repair system.

Having bought my ticket for the next night's journey I took a local bus back to the town centre. The sun was shining and I had a salad lunch and a litre of beer sat out on a pavement cafe watching the world go by. Opposite was an upmarket restaurant and I watched a man and his son with a horse and cart provide a privatised waste collection service presumably to be recycled for animal feed, which reminded me of the UK 30-40 years ago. In the evening I returned to this restaurant for my next delicious Argentinian steak.

Next day, Wednesday, I had 10 hours to kill after checking out and catching my bus. I decided to hit the museums. . This took about 2 hours in total The first museum was closed for repairs. The second, a disused French design railway station, took about 15 mins to look around to see some moth eaten stuffed animals and birds. Resistencia has made a name for itself by placing sculptures everywhere. The sculpture park was being built on. I retreated to the main square which is very large and an unharmonious mix of fountains, palm trees, sculptures and stalls. The cathedral in one corner of the square is unusual for its plainess. It could have been cut out from a cereal packet.

Later I tooka taxi with my luggage tothe bus station.The bus was quite empty although the passengers seemed to be crammed in to one area.Luckily I had a double seat to myself all night and had a relatively good night's rest.

When we arrived in Iguazu, on the border with Brazil and Parguay, at 6am it was dark, damp and misty. I walked a couple of blocks to my hostel. The hostel is a dissppointing. The room had the promised ensuite w.c./shower but it was vitually unventilated and this just added to the damp atmosphere of the bedroom. Nor was there aTV which is useful to pass the time. The common room is barely furnished and isn't comforatble to hang out. Maybe I'm getting too fussy but it is relatively expensive for what I am getting.

Most of yesterday was spent planning the next onward moves with a travel agent, cahnaging money etc. In the evening I wandered about the town and found a little area of stalls specialising in salami, olives, olive oil and vinegar and where they served plates of olives, salami and cheese with litre bottles of beer which was delicious change.

Today I took the bus to see the reason for being here, the Iguazu falls, and spent about 4 hours wandering about the excellent Argentine national park, walking several kilometres, including lots of steps, to see some of the most spectacular falls I've ever seen which includes Victoria and Niagara falls. There are about 260 falls in all as the river crashes down to a lower level over a length of several kilometres.