I'm not going to write a load of negative stuff about Buenos Aires because its not that I disliked it in anyway. But I'll just say it wasn't for me. I just expected a lot more from it. And I know its wrong to have high expectations or any expectations of a place or even to compare places but I can't help it, its just something I do. I kept comparing it to Barcelona, London and New York which its not like these in my opinion but I thought it was going to be. Plus I didn't have the money to enjoy it properly. Statistically its probably cheaper than any of the other cities above but as a backpacker you can find accommodation, food and drink cheaper in the other cities. Obviously you can find cheap stuff here as well but a lot of it was beyond what I could afford at this stage and I guess I just didn't know where to go for other stuff. Its got high class restaurants, people, nightclubs and a booming 24/7 night life. Usually something I'd enjoy. But I like to start early and maybe stay out all night like we did in Barcelona. However here nothing really gets going until 2. So we drank in the hostel before this but sometimes it would be 3 or 4am and then we wouldn't even make it out cause we'd be too tired at that stage and drinking slowly. I don't know was I too lazy or just been travelling too long or what but I prefer the more casual night life scene lately. Not a top end night club that you need to dress up to go to, then queue for hours outside unless you have a special pass or password. Besides all this it has a number of different neighborhoods. Lots of types of nightlife, restaurants, and parks all over the place.
Also even though this is nothing to do with BA in particular but the first hostel we stayed at Milhouse was a bunch of shit. It's one of the top rated ones in BA but this is mainly for partying. The staff weren't the friendliest. It was just a money making place. They had a bar which they tried to get us into upon check in when all we wanted to do was drop our bags in the room and could have checked in at reception. Then every morning they would come into the room and wake us shouting our names thinking we had to check out even though we didn't. The kitchen was small cramped unstocked and dirty. I guess a lot of this had to do with first time travellers who didn't know how to wash dishes. Then one day when I wanted to eat lunch all the staff were crowded around in the kitchen for ages eating when they easily could have sat in the bar. Once they finished they tried to move everyone out of the bar so they could clean the bar (where you sit) and kitchen so we couldn't even make food. Even a small thing like the TV room. They close this between 11pm and 3am just so they can encourage people to drink but I guess at 3am it gives people the opportunity to go have sex on the couches.
With a lot of thinking and pondering and changing my mind every hour about what to do I finally booked a bus to Paraguay not sure if it was the best decision or not but had to do something!!
After a 16 hour bus that turned into 20 hours we arrived in Ciudad del Este in Paraguay. Most other countries need Visas to come here and plus because its out of the way most backpackers don't even come. So I came up with Mallory, the Canadian girl I've been travelling with for a few months. Adrian stayed a bit longer in BA and Amanda was going to meet us here when she got back from the Antarctica. A lot of times in Argentina I feel like I might as well be at home or at least back in Europe. The culture there is such the same. Coming in here I felt like I was really back in South America or even actually in Central America. Statistically its the second poorest country in South America after Bolivia. Its hot and humid which we havn't had in months. There are no hostels here. There are hostels everywhere in South America but this just shows you how little tourists come here. It is literally on the border with Argentina and Brazil and we can see them from our hotel balcony but even still the people are different looking. Argentina is very European looking where as here we are like the only two white people walking around. At times I feel like I'm back in Thailand because of the heat, the motorbikes buzzing around outside, some BBQs on the street, the electronics and the look of the people. Other times it feels like Central America. There is also a big Asian culture here as well. Lots of Chinese and Korean food and even some Japanese. Its huge into Electronics. And I mean huge. South American in general is more expensive than anywhere in USA, Europe actually anywhere I've seen for Electronics. But I guess Paraguay has tax free or something so they have everything and anything here. Including all the fake stuff like phones that take two sim cards and stuff like that. And picture all the packaging that comes with electronics. Boxes and white foam and all that. They just throw that all over the streets!! So I guess a lot of Brazilians and Argentinians come across the border to buy stuff.
I'm finding it hard to get back into Spanish as well. 8 months in now and I've gone through so many stages or getting good and getting bad at it. I feel like now I'm back at stage one. Barely even able to ask for a hotel room or a bus. Everybody we met in Argentina had english so we barely used it and have forgotten everything. And even the bits I know the people reply to quickly I don't have a clue what they are saying!! But today I managed to somehow find this local bus out to Itaipu dam which is a big dam between Paraguay and Brazil.
So the following day I decided I'd head over to Brazil to check out the Brazil side of Iguazu falls. Mallory was sick in bed and going nowhere and Amanda was meant to have arrived on the Argentinian side of the falls. I decided I'd stay an extra night on the Paraguay side as Mal wasn't able to leave the country. The joy about been Irish or European in this sitation and not USA, Canadian Australian or NZ was that I can pass as many times as I want between the countries where as the others have to pay a fortune for visas which you have to get from a consulate or embassy and sometimes only allow one entry. So even though I could walk ten mins down the road to Brazil and possibly another short walk across to Amanda in Argentina the two girls couldn't meet up. Walking across the border was one of those border type towns you see when a really rich expensive country borders a really poor one. It felt in a way like the Tijuana/San Diego border. The paraguayan side was full of huge shops of electronics. People coming across with empty suitcases and big trolleys to fill up with stuff. All sorts of fake brand clothes, cigarettes etc. There is a bridge dividing the two countries across a river which takes less than 5 minutes to cross and even on both sides of the bridge you can see the different in peoples faces and the language people were using on both sides. There was huge lines of traffic and then pedestrians who had bought all sorts of stuff. Luckily for me all I had with me was a water bottle and got to skip all the lines. It was 35 degrees and crazy humid. Little did I know that in this town they took every currency but I didn't have any Reals and just started walking. They were also an hour ahead which I didn't know. I thought there would be a bus right there to take me to the waterfall but I had to go to centre of town first which by the time I walked there I was too late. So had a glimpse of Brazil, nearly walked into Argentina to see Amanda but decided to leave it till the following day when I could do it properly and came back to Paraguay again. Bit of a waste of a day but on the other hand very interesting. Another page wasted in the passport with all the stamps.
The two days after this I had to do the same all over again. But this time to avoid stamps in the passport and stopping and starting at every border I managed to find a way to cross through Brazil unofficially. I got on a bus with locals which drives right through the border. I then changed to another local bus in Brazil to go to Argentina but stupidly got off at the exit of Brazil rather than the entrance to Argentina so had a long sweaty walk through no mans land for a while. But literally managed to walk right through the exit border, passport in hand without them every checking me or caring. The following day coming back myself and Amanda did the same. She's Canadian so needs a visa for Brazil as well so even if she had stopped at the border they wouldn't have stamped her on but we managed to get through ok and even accidently skipped the Paraguay border and had to walk backwards to get stamped in. They are so easy going here its crazy.
So Iguazu was cool enough. Our first impression was bad at the devils throat. Could barely see a thing. But then did lots of walks around and saw other sides of the falls which was pretty cool but decided we'd seen enough and didn't need to see the Brazil side which is just meant to be a panoramic! After this we all headed onto Asuncion the capital of Paraguay.
Paraguay was a lot more normal in Asuncion but because it started raining we didn't do much at all. And we havnt seen proper rain in months. Met a cool English girl here who decided to come along with us to carnival in Encarnacion. I'll let the pictures tell most of it but basically lots of spray foam, like shit loads of it and lots of bare ass and parades.
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