buenos aires to iguazu falls to rio

If there was a list of phrases I thought I was unlikely ever to hear on a coach, then ¨would you like whiskey or champagne, sir?¨, would certainly be high up there.  But this is coach travel Argentina style, where for next to nothing, you can travel with next to no one- and be waited on hand and foot.

I should first explain the timeline. Last Thursday I set off from Buenos Aires, then 18 hours later, stopped for two nights on the Argentinian/Brazillian border.  This was to see Iguazu Falls. Then on my birthday, I set off on a 24 hour trip to Rio.  Now the prospect of spending half you birthday on a coach, may not sound too exciting, but the service from Buenos Aires was so good- how could I complain?

Well, we set off at 1pm and the hours start to roll by, but there was no sign of the food. 4pm-no food, 6pm-no food, 8pm-no food.  Hang on, we´ve gone thru a time zone, maybe its 9pm.  9pm comes and goes-still no food.  At about 9.30pm we get ushered off the bus and into the most dire motorway service station on earth.  At this point I am about ready to chew off my right hand.  I ask a dude, who I had met in the line for Brazillian customs (8 hours ago), ¨whats happended to the food?¨. He cheerily informs me that they can´t serve food on coaches in Brazil, and the next stop is in 10 hours time.  So dear reader, my birthday dinner consisted of some variation of a microwavable pasty and a practically inedible creme caramel type cake.  Now, can anyone find out why Argentinians have perfected this art of eating and moving forward at the same time, and Brazillians haven´t?

But don´t worry too much.  The place I stayed at in Iguaazi was amazing.  I was somewhat flattered to have been placed in the 18-35 ¨fun hostel¨. Hostel is doing it down.  It was more like a resort, and on saturday night it was BBQ night.  Great food, good fun- but just a day too early.

was Argentina, food

now Brazil, no food