Weather: Hot, hot, hot
The end of the cruise...but not the end of our trip.
After breakfast in the buffet we went to our cabins to wait for our group to be called for disembarkation. Two of the things I like most about Holland America are that the cabins are ready right away when you start the cruise...and you can stay in your cabins until the last minute at the end of the cruise. It always makes a cruise end on a bad note when you have to leave your cabin and find someplace to sit in a public area when waiting to disembark. Usually these places are crowded and full of grumpy people...not fun.
The four of us had booked a package deal with 01Argentina to go to Iguazu Falls and we were scheduled to be picked up at 9:30 am at Gate 4 for our ride to the airport. Just like yesterday, the area around the gate was a madhouse. Lots of people were there waiting for their shuttle or tours...basically a mess. To make things worse (much worse) was all of the construction around the port was making it hard for the buses, vans, cars, etc. to get close to the gate. The small semi-circle drive in front of the gate was way too small for the full size coach buses to get through, but yet they were doing it.
We took turns walking around the area trying to find our driver while the others stood and watched over our mountain of luggage. Finally one of the drivers arrived but there was no room for him to pull into the loading area. He was parked on the busy street and trying to quickly get us loaded. He was in a smaller sized car and said he would take two of us and the another driver would be there in 5 minutes.
He was grabbing luggage so fast that he ended up putting one of Kent & Laurel's bags in along with one of our bags. I didn't like the idea of getting separated, but he was insistent that he needed to get his car moved so Bob and I climbed into the car and left Kent and Laurel waiting for the second driver. The plan was to drop off our luggage at a hotel in Buenos Aires (where we would be staying later) and only take our smaller carry-ons with us to Iguazu.
Thank goodness for cell phones. The driver eventually showed up to get Kent and Laurel, but there was more mix-ups over their luggage that got put into our car. That suitcase was to go to Iguazu but almost got left at the hotel in Buenos Aires. Several phone calls and multiple texts between us and Kent & Laurel and things got straightened out. This is the shortened version. In real life it was much more stressful and hectic than I would have liked.
After dropping off our extra luggage at the Hotel Dazzler Maipu in Buenos Aires, we were taken to the domestic airport (AEP) in Buenos Aires. After a short while Kent and Laurel also arrived. Our flight wasn't until 2 pm so we had quite a wait. Lunch was a cold, premade "milanesa" sandwich. I love the definition of this on wikipedia..."The milanesa is a South American variation of an Italian dish where generic types of breaded meat fillet preparations are known as a milanesa." Haha...generic meat was a good description. The sandwich was nearly inedible and certainly a change from the cruise food we had enjoyed for the last 3 weeks!
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| Waiting for our flight with noses stuck in our technology. |
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| Our flight To Puerto Iguazu was on Aerolineas Argentinas. We boarded the plane out on the tarmac. |
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| Aerial view of Buenos Aires. If you look closely you can see the obelisk in the middle of the wide avenue 9 de Julio. |
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| The Zaandam (and an MSC ship) waiting for a new group of cruisers to begin the next journey around South America. |
The flight took less than two hours and then we landed at the very small (but under construction) airport in Puerto Iguazu. Finding our driver was easy, but we were presented with another glitch. He said we would need cash to pay our entry fee into Iguazu Falls the next day. I had been very careful in my research and according to the park website, credit cards were accepted so we did not have enough local currency for the admission fee.
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| This bag was hanging on the seat back of the van. All of our transportation and tour in Iguazu was handled by Caracol. |
The ATM machines in the airport were not working but he assured us there would be someplace in town where we could get money...but it was the end of the day so banks would not be open much longer. We were dropped off at the Arami Hotel and Lodge in the town of Puerto Iguazu where we would be spending the next two nights. I had pulled up the Iguazu Falls website on my phone and showed our driver that credit cards could be used for payment but he insisted we needed cash.
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| The drive to Puerto Iguazu took us through the national park. |
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| A screen shot showing credit cards are accepted at the park. |
Our rooms were on the second floor of the hotel and to say they were hot would be an understatement. To operate the lights and AC, the room card had to be put into a slot by the door. I prayed that the room would get remotely comfortable by the time we had to go to bed. Bob and Kent left shortly after we arrived to find an ATM. Our room overlooked the pool and I was kicking myself that I hadn't brought my swimsuit. A dip in the pool would have felt so nice.
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| Source: http://www.aramihotel.com.ar/ |
Kent and Bob returned in about 30 minutes. They were successful and had been able to find a working ATM on their second try. Using our Charles Schwab card, Bob withdrew $1500 Argentinian pesos ($38.20 USD) and the fee was $404 pesos ($10.29). Yikes! That is over 25%!! The card rebates all fees so we got a refund, but still...that is a hefty ATM fee.
While the guys were out on their "money run" they had scouted out some of the restaurants nearby. With the heat, none of us were in the mood to go far. We walked by a few small restaurants that were just opening and decided the easiest and quickest plan was to eat at Subway. The restaurant was only slightly cooler than the outdoor temps, but the familiar menu made it easy to order. As the sun started to set, we noticed the city coming to life. More and more people were walking around and many large buses were going down the rough city streets. We assumed it was tour buses returning people after a day at the falls.
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| This is how the streets were "paved" in Puerto Iguazu. Very rough!! |
On the way back to the hotel we stopped and looked in a couple of shops. Not trusting the water at our hotel, we bought a couple of large bottles of water at a convenience store.
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| I found this so interesting!! This hot water vending machine was in front of the convenience store. Seeing people walking around with thermoses of hot water tucked under their arms (to make yerba mate) was very common in Argentina. |
The hotel was designed to be "energy efficient" so that all of the hallway lights were on motion sensors. So weird to have lights turning on and off as you walked through. Our room had finally gotten comfortable before we left for dinner and I didn't want to start all over with the AC when we returned so we substituted an old gift card (in place of our room key) in the slot that operates the power. In my mind less electricity was used "keeping" the room cool instead of letting it get warm while we were gone and cooling it down all over again.
An early night...we were scheduled to get picked up at 7 am for our day at Iguazu Falls!
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