argentina 19

Hello dear friends

Again I write you from rio de janeiro and can tell you, it's simply warm, hot, like oven mood ...
Today I want to take you to my very last week in Argentina. I saved up one of the best things until the end: the waterfalls of iguazu, have fun diving into the adventure in the south!

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1DateA2pja57LOJoFK52BEGDuXJ0hwJzh&usp=sharing

7.1. - 13.1.

Even today, I did not really think to get up early, so I spent the morning sleepy in bed, where I then summarized some days in writing again.
i started moving shortly after noon, I took the bus to retiro and then with an extremely costy express bus to la plata, which was about 4 times as expensive as the trains ...
From here I walked to the apartment of chris, who returned from tigre with marisa yesterday.
I bought some green stuff and then we all marched together to ago and ney, who had invited us to dinner.

It was a nice evening and as Chris has only one bed in his apartment, which is occupied by him and Marisa, ago and Ney were so fond of allowing me to spend the night on their couch.

Well rested, the sun woke me today, which shone to the window. i said goodbye to ney and ago and to picked up chris and marisa at the apartment.
somehow I waited for most of the rest of the morning on chris, who absolutely wanted to buy some fancy seeds.
Then we went to the apartment together and here we spent a relaxing afternoon. cathi, another berlin woman, whom i had met last weekend at a party, then came over and we drank the so-called tererê, which is mate, which is infused with ice water and sometimes with cold fruit juice. just right for this hot season.

later, we were also visited by two brazilian women, who had found me on couchsurfing, they also wanted to see the waterfalls in iguazu, and somehow there was a misunderstanding, because they thought that I have a car and can take them. However, that is not the case and so we just had a beer together and then they made themselves on the way, as chris, marisa and I also had to leave. We were invited by a few guys, we had met at the New Year's Eve party, to share an evening with an asado.
So we booked an uber to drive to Nicolas. that was extremely adventurous, the driver, with whom we connected and had very friendly conversations, unfortunately had little connection with his phone and so the gps didn’t update and we drove about 5 km too far in the right direction. We noticed this after he dropped us off and we were just able to reach the car by running and explain the problem to him. He then took us to the right house and we spent a wonderful evening in the breathtakingly beautiful apartment of Nicolas and his mum.

In addition to the excellent meat that was grilled for hours, we enriched the evening with discussions about our different lives and what I especially enjoyed, we also talked a lot about music and played each other some songs that we especially like.
Around 3 o'clock in the morning we drove home with another uber, this time absolutely without problems, so to speak somewhat boring.
of course, after the great dinner and the long evening we fell directly into the pillows and into a deep sleep.

we slept for a long time again.
chris and marisa then made their way to a hostel nearby, where they wanted to sleep until tomorrow.
I clean the apartment and then met in the park with cathi, after a small breakfast.

We had arranged to visit one of the most secret things (not so secret, but really worth seeing), which I could discover here in buenos aires. the so-called Galería 5ta Avenida, a kind of mall where there are only shops selling used clothes and vintage second-hand stuff. but see for yourself:

Here we found next to some things for Cathi, also a quite handsome new shirt for me, I had just seen this here some time ago, but it was too tight at that time, now it fits perfectly.

we talked again about the idea to drive up to the waterfalls and were joking about to maybe rent a car to go there, that became a more defined plan, after we had checked the prices. we were sure that we want to make a trip there over the weekend.
in the early evening we had arranged to meet chris and marisa in the bosques de palermo, because actually we wanted to visit the planetarium there. unfortunately, chris and marisa had not been able to buy tickets and so we sat in the park and then also told the two of our plan. slight skepticism at the beginning then quickly gave way to anticipation, which corresponded to the one we had experienced when we started our journey in the south with schnilsi.

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I called lorenzo quickly to ask him if this trip might fit into his plans. Incredibly, he had also planned to leave on the weekend, and was then very excited that this opportunity was offered in just the right moment.
He agreed and so the car is filled.
the rest of the evening we spent in the air bnb that cathi had rented, we cooked some noodles, admired the turtles and cats living in their courtyard and of course we booked the rental car, a little chevrolet, which will collect us all tomorrow evening and up bring to this natural spectacle.

Immediately after waking up, I realized that I had forgotten my charging cable at cathi last night and since my phone was already off yesterday, I walked to her air bnb and gave her a little breakfast visit, we discovered a problem very quick...
Unfortunately, I did not receive confirmation from the car rental agency for the rental and since we were supposed to pick it up at 3 pm, I was very worried that something was wrong.
Also, I had no idea where to call as I had forgotten the name of the leasing agency. So I found out via the website, how the name and the address of the agency are. then i could use google-street view to decipher a phone number on the house wall.

I then called this number and the second attempt reached a woman who confirmed to me that everything worked fine, but the credit on my sim was over, at the very moment, when I was about to ask and to clarify my other questions. but with this call I have reached another level of Spanish speaking, I could understand her on the phone and explain her what my problem was. that felt really good and liberating.
I then cleaned the apartment very thoroughly and brought my sheets and towels to a laundry nearby.
at noon, inez arrived with the two brazilian girls, whom i had already met. They would live together in the apartment for the next few days and we have had a few vegetarian milanesas together before saying good bye to ine and leaving the apartment.
i waited a few more minutes and then cathi came by to pick me up. a uber took us to the puerto madero district and to the car rental agency, where we quickly completed all the formalities and then drove to the planetarium to see the show we missed yesterday, together with chris.

After the show we collected marisa at a crossroads and drove to palermo to pick up lorenzo.

we said goodbye to nahuel and then we drove towards north. but only after we turned around again, because Lorenzo had forgotten his mobile phone.

we continued to head north and with the scenery, the music and the mood of the riders changed as well. the mate keeps us alive and after a small dinner pizza stop, cathi and i exchanged places and she drove for some hours.

we drove all the way through.

Unfortunately, I hardly came to sleep during this gigantic car trip and closed my eyes only briefly, as Lorenzo gave the driving seat back to Cathi and I could sit in the back and put my head to the window.

We enjoyed a small good breakfast at a pension only about 4 hours away from the destination.
That gave us a lot of power and the possibility to brush our teeth.

then lorenzo took over the wheel again and we made a small rough round, through the landscape off the main road. As a highlight, we even stopped at a small river and jumped into the water together.

In the early afternoon we reached the hostel in Puerto Iguazu and were able to leave the car for the first time in about 22 hours.
We jumped directly into the pool and then left again nimbly to get something to eat. Then we cooked and we let the long day with beer on the roof terrace of the hostel end.

the breakfast in the hostel was rather simple and immediately afterwards we all climbed into the slightly stinky car and drove the 15 km to the entrance of the national park of the waterfalls.
We followed the recommendations that had been given to me via my beloved schnilsi.

The first thing we did was walk the lower roundabout, then the upper one, and finally we walked to the main attraction, the so-called Devil's Mouth, Garganta del Diablo.

an altogether simply breathtaking, natural landscape that lets gigantic waterfalls plunge up to 84 m into the deep. Nobody wants to miss this spectacle and that's why the whole park is awfully crowded and filled with people from all over the world, who all want to take selfies and poser photos against the background of this uniqueness.

Apart from the whole tourism there are also a lot of interesting animals, especially the mass of butterflies and coaties.

In the afternoon we hiked back to the car and drove back to the hostel, where we cooked together, a really delicious meal and drank a sweet mango white-wine cocktail.
Later, the girl from Israel, who had been hitchhiking back from the park with us, also stopped by. she had birthday today so we had one more thing to celebrate before we went to sleep.

in order to be able to deliver the car on time in buenos aires, the others left at about 4 o'clock in the morning and I came out with them to say goodbye to everyone.

Then I went to sleep again and then got up again to grab some breakfast.

Here I also got some information from the people working in the hostel how to continue my trip to brazil.
I then started walking to the bus station and took a bus to the border, where I then experienced a nasty surprise.
the border officials stamped my passport for another stay in brazil, but just for 1, not for another 90. my heart was already hammering and then i explained very excitedly what my opinion is.
They then told me that I could already enter, but to get the full 90 days i would have to wait until the 16.1., so still three more days to obtain the renewal of the tourist visa for 90 days.
nevertheless i had one day left of my last 90 day period and so i entered, just to leave again to

I was shocked by this information and then drove to the hostel in foz de iguazu, the brazilian border town, which is a lot bigger than the argentinian side.
Here I phoned for a while with the family and then got to know max, he is already on the road for some time and could give me some good recommendations for the further route. Like me, he is in love with this gigantic land of love and hospitality like i am too.
The evening we spent with a good pizza and some other people, also with two rounds of free caipirinhas.
still a little confused, because of the visa story, which hopefully will be answered tomorrow, I fell asleep.

This is where the South American time-out ends and I want to thank you for your attention. thank you very much that you stay tuned!

love
pauli

here my current contact data:

mail: [email protected]
Telephone: ‭+55 (11) 98842-2617‬
whatsapp: +54 9 11 2693-6601
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