December 6, 2010

Our flight to Iguassu was originally scheduled for 11am, but once again one of our flights in South America had been moved and the new flight time was 1:15pm. We had a nice, slow morning and got ready to leave without any stress. Even I had to admit this was more pleasant than stressing like headless chickens.

Our airline was the small low cost airline Andes Lineas Aeras, which has its headquarters here in Salta.

I had been warned about them on the net, travelers were reporting that most of the time flying with them went very smoothly. But if something went wrong their performance left much to be desired. I had still chosen them since they had a direct route from Salta to Iguassu. It was too tempting to zip up there in two hours instead of using a whole day and 3 times as much money to travel via Buenos Aires.

Bagage was limited to one piece, max 15 kg, and one hand luggage max 5 kg. They insisted on weighing my electronics carry-on and it stopped at 13.7 kilos. Ouch. We quickly repacked and I removed all the heavy stuff and put it into the other carry-ons, our small back packs. External batteries, home cinema, external hard disks, etc. I managed to get it down to 7 kilos and after some heavy discussion between the check-in staff they let it pass. Not once did it occur to them to weigh the back-packs which by now were loaded with all the heavy stuff. One of them even had our laptops and iPads in addition and must have weighed at least 10 kilos.

Their computer system  was only used to make sure we had a reservation and to print the luggage tags. Seating and boarding passes were manual. They had a sheet with many small stickers, one for each seat on the plane. These were attached to the hand written boarding passes. I got seat 20D. It must be very difficult to reseat several people with this system.

After the security check and boarding control we were brought down some stairs and right in to the arrivals hall were arriving passengers were picking up their luggage. It was a bit confusing to stand there and wait for a door out onto the tarmac to be opened.

The flight was on time, the seats very comfortable, and they even served us a snack of the same kind we get on the other airlines, Thumbs up for Andes Airlines. We flew a Bombardier CRJ900:

On the way in to landing I could see the famous water clouds from the water falls.

On arrival we were greeted by this guy, who advertised for a local casino:

While we were in the US getting cabs was often a problem, because we are 5. Normally we would have to get two of them. Here in South America they are not so picky, and we have to admit that we have done several taxi rides with Iseline on my lap in the back seat. Here´s our taxi from the airport.

The fixed price taxi drove us over the border to Brazil. The Iguassu falls are located on the border between Argentina and Brazil, in addition Paraguay is very close. There is a town on the Argentine side, but it has very little to offer, the Brazilian side has a real city with many lodging and eating possibilities. We had booked a room at a hostel on the Brazilian side. There is an airport on each side, and we arrived on the Argentine side and would leave from the Brazilian side. We did the same trick when we were here 15 years ago. Crossing the border by land means that you can take a domestic flight both coming in and going out and still move from one country to the other. Domestic flights are in general cheaper than international flights. In addition you avoid the Argentine airport tax, which is only paid when you take an international flight.

We did however make one major mistake last time. The travel agency back then had not asked us for our nationalities when they assured us that we did not need visas to Brazil. Hélène, as a French citizen, needed one! We had to go back to the town on the Argentine side and to the Brazilian consulate there. Luckily we had a three hour margin to catch our flight. First they told us we needed to go to Buenos Aires and the embassy. Them after we had mellowed a bit they told us about the “special express option”. For only 400 US dollars we did not have to take the trip to Buenos Aires after all. It was an expensive lesson.

This time we had double checked that we did not need visas.

We will have two full days in Iguassu, and it was too late to go the falls when we arrived, so we chilled out at the hostel swimming pool. We have brought a water proof casing for a digital camera and it was time to test it out in the pool before bringing it to the falls tomorrow:

It was great to just relax at the pool.

For dinner we went to a real Churascaria, the Bufalo Branco, recommended by Lonely Planet. These specialty Brazilian restaurants are really somethnig different. Normally there is a buffet with salads, fries, eggs and other sides. The main dish is served by a small army of waiters. One of them arrives about every 30 seconds and presents to you some type of deliciously barbecued meat. If you agree a thin slice is cut and put on your plate. Its a bit like drinking from a common pitcher. You lose track of how much you have eaten. In addition the meat is of such high quality it is difficult to say no. Iseline is very fond of meat and enjoyed herself:

I was completely and utterly stuffed to the brim when the kids discovered the place also had a dessert buffet:

I am known for my capacity in dessert eating and could not lose face in front of  the children, so I served myself a small portion of dessert:

Iseline also helped herself:

Hardly able to walk we managed to slowly move in the direction of the hostel. Tomorrow we will go see lots of falling water.

Eirik

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