Posting from Puerto Iguazú

I left Salta this morning and I’m now in Puerto Iguazú. There were a couple of entries from this trip in Argentina that I started by saying something to the effect of, “This will probably be my shortest ever in this journal.” Well, this will probably be my shortest entry ever in this journal.

I arrived in my hotel at close to 5:30 in the evening and did nothing outside of the hotel for, well, reasons. But I wanted to introduce Puerto Iguazú here.

For one thing, most people don’t come to Puerto Iguazú to come to Puerto Iguazú per se. They come to see the nearby Iguazú Falls and tromp through the national park, a jungle, it’s in.

Before I came here, I was pronouncing “Iguazú” as “ig-wah-zoo.” Based on the announcements for the flight at the Salta airport and the announcements on the plane, that’s not how it’s pronounced.

As far as my ear could hear, it’s pronounced with a hard “e” at the beginning and then, “wazoo.” I couldn’t hear the “g” at all. If it’s there, it’s very faint.

I’ve never known how to write pronunciations like they do in dictionaries, so I’ll use “ea,” as in “each,” “eat,” “teach,” and “beach” as the hard e. So, to my ears, it sounds like “ea-wazoo.”

Iguazú Falls forms part of the border between Argentina and Brazil. I plan to stay on the Argentina side because I haven’t investigated whether I need a visa to go into Brazil. (In truth, I was in Brazil on this trip. As I chronicalled in my first entry from Argentina, my plane to Buenos Aires made a stop in Sao Paolo. I had to get off the plane and go through security again, but not through customs or immigration, before reboarding the same plane and continuing to Buenos Aires. However, visas aren’t required for connecting passengers, even for people who would require them to stay in Brazil.)

Maybe Puerto Iguazú

When I arrived at the Puerto Iguazú airport, I was pleased to see that the Uber app said it works here. But when I tried to get a ride, it first told me there was a 15-minute wait, but when I confirmed that I wanted a ride, it then told me it was trying to connect to a driver. It did that for a while before it told me there were no drivers available and that I should try again later. I tried again, but after waiting a while, I cancelled the ride and got a cab, which fortunately took credit cards because I’m running low on Argentinian cash, and there were no ATMs or currency exchange counters at the airport.

The cab set off along a road through a jungle. It continued through a jungle until I got to my hotel, which is also in a jungle.

When I got to the hotel, I asked at the front desk if Uber actually operates here. She said, yes, but it’s very new here and there aren’t yet a lot of drivers. She suggested it might be more reliable in a few months. A fat lot of good that does me.

There is a town of Puerto Iguazú with real streets and hotels and restuarants. I’m not sure if the jungle my hotel is in is technically within its boundaries. When I looked at a map before booking the hotel, I thought it was in the middle of town, not the jungle. Apparently, I was wrong.

At the front desk, I asked if it’s possible to walk into town. She said it would take about 25 minutes, but she strongly recommended taking a cab because of what I’d have to walk through. I decided to have dinner in the hotel restaurant tonight. I might take a cab into town for dinner one of the three nights I’m here. We’ll see.

The hotel is part of the hotel group I have status with, but it’s one of its mid-range brands. However, this is a very nice resort. I have a room on the ground floor. (I think there are only two floors, and I don’t think the second floor covers the whole hotel. The corridors beyond the reception and restaurant are covered outdoor walkways.

My room has a small patio, with a sliding glass door and a sliding screen door. It looks out into a thick jungle.

There’s a sign on the door that says (with grammar errors as is):

Um. Er. Gulp.

I brought a good-sized container of bug spray. I may go through it over the next couple of days.

I plan to go to the park and see the falls tomorrow and, if the weather holds, the next day as well. There is a bus that goes to the park from the centre of town, but because of the need to take a taxi to get there, the woman at the front desk told me I should take a cab directly to the park. We’ll see how it goes.