Argentina ... ( pronounced as Arr-hen-tee-na )
 

Art 1.1
I found out a B&B from the web which is very homely and totally anonymous and in a very nice area of Buenos Aires (BsAs). As expected from a genius like me the car I booked was on the same day as i booked the flight. As I didn't "visualize" the certain change of date in a 12 hour flight, my car was not there when I reached to the Hertz counter. Result - murder of my credit card and extremely expensive rate.
Anyways I got this wussy old Daewoo ( Die You! ) and cruised down the Ar AutoPista ... where you pay more frequently than GSP*. Somehow I managed to reach to the exact place of Bed & Breakfast but I missed it twice - reason ... no signs on the door!
Bs. As. is a fully planned city with most of the streets are one way ... but many of them have reverse speed bumps ( e.g. speed ditches ) at the end of the street ... result ... you have to slow down and look into the eye of the driver, pedestrian coming into you ... for a contest ... winner has the right of the way!

Art 1.2
a rainbow in the splashes of waterfalls, shower in your dream water and hundreds of butterflies in per inch of air

this catereta ( i.e., the waterfall ) is from river Iguazú and the river happens to be the boundry of Brasil, Paraguay, and Argentina. the water discharge of this river is 20 times than Niagra Falls in US/Canada.

It's so wide and comprising of so many falls that all three countries make money on tourists by showing it! i managed to take pictures of it with a rainbow, from a slit, a close up and a wide angle shot.
also there is a wonderful rainforst and national park surrounding it. as all of it's inhabitants are nocturnal, humans are left with lots of iguanas and butterflies. this rainforest is supposedly filled with pumas, panthers, jaguars, and other wild cats besides 6 species of snakes.
As Argentina has a hard currency, I was totally depressed by the second day of my arrival as things were more expensive than US. In Bs. As. there are buses like Delhi Red Lines and people drive like they are doing a motor boat. There are lanes, but following them would lead into an accident - seriously ... Also during my second day my car broke down on highway and this sattelite traceble car could not be reached by the service people for hours! I was bored in the city so I hit the gas and cruised to Iguazú Falls. That was a sweet risk which changed my life a lot ...

I got a brand new "Daewoo" had only 55 Kms on the meter! Iguazú is like 10 Niagra's together ... don't believe me ... go watch the movie "The Misiones". This "Misiones" state is the forth which borders Brasil, Uruguay and obviously Ar. I have to thru different states Bs.As., Entre Rios, and Corrientes to get to Missiones.
The nature changes from a sea-side place to bare planes and total sub-tropical paradise. A small geese and hundreds of butterflies were killed during my driving thru Misiones.
Once in the Iguaze Falls township, I was introduced to a brazilian girl who showed me around. I spend the night eventless after driving 1280 Kms. In a very small stretch of the road in Corrientes, the road was missing and it became very dangerous!
Next day I went to the falls, and saw the most beautiful fall on earth ( so far) It has 20 times more discharge than Niagra and it's gigantic in it's width. ( waiting for my venezuela trip where they have the highest one! ) I took a $33 package tour ( boat and 4x4 rainforst trip ) which was worth it's every penny.
Meanwhile I spotted that the river has red water but it's very clean as it's transparent if you look into. There are so many fish that they consume even if you spit in the water!
There were Iguanas who were very busy eating butterflies and the butterflies were even busier in their suave movement. On the hired boat I got 100% wet when I went near to the "Devil's Throat".

Art 1.3
A pothole, my wheels, the windshield and my head ... a dream come true ... without closing the eyes - forever!
On my way to Iguazú, there was a stretch of road which was under heavy repair. It was literally an obstacle course with heavy vehicles coming into your car in order to avoid the obstacles on their side. It was in Corrientes, 5 Kms long and it was dusky when I hit it. Seriously in my life, I thought for sure that I won't survive. On my way back, I hit it again and I was quite confident of passing it this time. Bitch! Never be confident ... that's the rule. It was raining and there were no shoulders except the red mud followed by the green pampas grass and I hit the pothole of my life. Before I knew the car was driving me into that and I didn't have a clue what's going on. It swerved into left and further left and so much left that it turned it's left over to make it right!

My head banged into the windshield, the 2 Ltr bottle of coke did the same. Two bumps on the windshield, engine and headlight on, slightly injured and confused I was turned upside down. I took off my seat belt, with the help of my hands and head I gradually came out of the still running car.

It's a "vuelco"... $4,000 per piece. I was lucky as I was still in one piece as it happened in green cushioning grass. This whole drama took space in 20-30 mtrs. Next thing I was thinking how would I ever go back to Bs. As.

There was nobody on the road. I went inside the car again and turned off the engine and the lights. Also I took out my wallet. You get materialistic once you're a material! Then an Argentine gentleman came for rescue and he helped me by calling police, ambulence, and una mecanica!
He used his $20 peso card for me and won't accept money from me. Although my shoes were full of red sticky mud but he invited me in his car in that pouring rain. I felt him like my own comforting brother. We communicated thru everything, most of that was not a language. My planet is beautiful for the species like him! Then a bunch of locals came and I think it was a common case for them. Only three people turned that car over. They changed the tire, and as the wiper handle was broken - the mechanic put it to "Always ON" position and with-in 10 minutes of checkup, I was ready to go.

I covered the rest of the stretch with extreme caution but again I was back to normal. All the time from the windshield, small pieces of glass were falling into my body and the wiper was ON - even when it was not raining!

Art 1.4
delta del piranha, rio iguazú et al. water full of life, and all kinds of species
saw half sunk ships throughout the delta. as they need to travel to places like gujrat,India to be broken up ... and the last journey is very expensive ... they were abandoned everywhere along the delta.wondering when i will go to Bangladesh and Brasil to see bigger deltas.

Art 1.5
a cow can kill you, if you eat it! 1/2 bifo de churizo ... a steak as big as a tent!
argentine women are one of the prettiest and thinnest. this country is one of the major exporters of beef. and in $10 you get a steak as big as one side of the cow. i can bet $100 that you - no matter how big you're ( physically or a meat eater ) you cannot finish this manmouth piece of food in one sitting! yet all the girls are so thin that showing their belly and the belly-button is a part of common dress! these steak houses are called "comida de parida" and the favorite order is vino de tinto ( red wine) / quilmes y isenbeck ( local beer ), and bife steak with a hint of garlic.

I also found a samosa which looks like guzia made of flour and filled with (ham n cheese ) "casse y jamon", pollo, or beef. These are called empanadas.
Also they sell some kinda bagel on roadside which has a hard skin like in US but a soft and chewy inside with some kind of butter/oil. It's very tasty.
One of the main tourist attraction was la boca which were settlement of Italian immigrants in Argentina where they started Tango and other revolutionary art forms. All of them were highly spirited, sexually explicit, and full of vigor.
Now this place is still occupied by the poor people and the road is used by poor artists to display their paintings and make a living
.Their houses were painted in different vivrant colors and there would be tango every night.
I spotted an indian flag too among others hanging off from a souvenir shop which has missing spindles of it's wheel ( should be 24 )

Art 1.6
nightlife, starts at 3:30 AM ... kamasutra en vivo passions ... displayed and felt ... everywhere.

Bs. As. this city never give a shit about working day. you see people hanging out real late even when the next day is a working one. reason - they drink ... paradoxial isn't ? but the catch is - argentine wine and beer are very light in alcohol and if you have it with red meat ... they soak up each other!
there are paved sea beaches and river fronts. at night after 1 AM all the seats are occupied by young couples in all sorts of sexy positions. and the show begins during when you look at it! quite graphic ones too!
Art 1.7
road, lanes, driving, cars and buses there are lanes ... but let's make our own rules ... everytime and all the time :)
Art 1.8
palmitos, pine trees and rainforests 6" inch palmito, a salad for four and down the 50' exotic tree
It's a very tasty, white stem of this palm tree. very exotic in taste and boy it's a delicacy. As I'm bengali and I ate the similiar stuff of banana and other tropical trees it's nothing new to me. At the same time it's a wonderful taste that lingers for a long time.
Art 1.9
the best tango ever, with the mood and background flirt, full of passion, sizzling and full of vigor. women at their best ... dare to leave me ? ... ummm NEVER!
you cannot have your cake and ... in my case i prefered to eat it.

so here i have seen one of the most passionate artforms represented in forms of different styles of tango. it's so fast that you cannot capture on the camera. also it's like a lot of head turning and eye moving excercise as it's so fast and mesmerizing. 
also learning it is fruitful as you bump into other nice people in an alien city full of love! i met one of my girls like this!

6:1 ... six senoritas per caballero!
howto pick up a guy/girl when you're an alien ?
Addresses & Links

Buenas Aires to Puerto Iguazú, Misiones - Roadmap


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