The Story of our trip to Rio, Iguazu and the Antartic with the MV FRAM, Feb. 09

[caramelo]

Here it is a bit bigger with the zoom....

And from the same place, to the right you can see the symbol with the green and yellow colours for Brazil:

Ivan stopped in a place where we could change currency because in order to reach our hotel we had to pass through and pay for the entrance to the National Park which costs 60 pesos per person and they only accept the local money. It was a distance of 18 km away so if you don´t have the local money then you would have to come back the 18km to change money.

When the car was stopped we were amazed to see that the counter marking the kilometres on the car read more than 800.000 km....... but the car was running perfectly and it didn´t seem very old, and a proud Ivan explained that the car was 8 years old and did an average of 100.000 km each year and that he looked alter it very well, and that he hoped to still manage to do about 500.000 km more!!!! And with the first motor!!!

We arrived at the National Park.

[caramelo]

The location of our hotel was excellent as it was situated directly at the Waterfalls.

This was our first image taken from the reception of the hotel.

Our room was very good and with views as nice as those from the reception.

It was 12 o´clock, and the Argentinian side is one tour ahead of the Brazilian side, which we found out just by chance.

So as not to lose time, we just left our cases in the hotel and headed directly to the Falls.

I found the following sign very interesting:

This time we went on our own without any guide with our map and everything was very well indicated.

[caramelo]

The first that we saw was this group of butterflys:

We took the ecological train from the central station, which was situated, at approx. 500m walking distance from the hotel.

We went to the Waterfalls Station and from there we walked the route to the Devil´s Throat.

On the way we saw a lot of rivers and vegetation, etc.

And we could see our hotel in the middle:

[caramelo]

We also saw some other animals, like this bird for example:

And this Iguana:

And another butterfly whose colours I liked:

And more birds:

[caramelo]

We carried on our route……

Alter we had seen everything so wonderful the day before from the Brazilian side, I had doubts as to whether 2 days at the falls would be too much, or that perhaps the Argentinian side would be disappointing when comparing it to the Brazil side, but this was not in the least so, the Argentinian side was just as beautiful and it turned out to be just as wonderful and an unforgettable day like the previous one…… Both sides are incredible, probably the most beautiful thing we have seen where nature goes up to now. The 2 sides are just totally different, they say that Brazil is great for the photos and the views and Argentina for the closeness and the sensation of nearly being able to touch the water, but each side is beautiful.

[caramelo]

After the Devil´s Throat, we did the “lower circuit”. It is a very nice route and we were very lucky as on the way we saw many Coatis both adults and babys.

You have to be careful when eating on the terrace of the restaurant as the coatis come and take your food!!! Here they were at somebody´s bag:

And this was one of the coati babies:

[caramelo]

The lower trail is really lovely and just when you think you have seen the best, you come across something even nicer. We saw the main Falls such as the “Alvar Núñez”:

The “Two Sisters” Falls:

“Bossetti”:

And with a rainbow:

You can see the excursion boat approaching:

Closer, you can hardly see the boat there:

[caramelo]

And they get soaked…..!!!

We also saw some lizards…..

And a group of 3 of them ……..

When we finished we were totally exhausted and very hot and we arrived back at the hotel at about 5pm. We went urgently for a swim in the pool which was absolutely great.

There were some exotic and elegant birds walking around the pool.

[caramelo]

Later we had dinner at the hotel restaurant which was very good, the well known meat in Argentina:

After dinner we went to our hotel room where we sat having a drink on our terrace watching the sun going down.

It was a magical night with the nice views, the sound of pure nature and the birds singing………

TO BE CONTINUED……………… WITH OUR ARRIVAL IN BUENOS AIRES…………. WHERE WE WOULD MEET UP WITH THE GOUP FOR OUR ANTARCTICA TRIP…………

[janisutx]

I'm enjoying your review. We were in Ushuaia the same day. I was on the Carnival Splendor's 49 day cruise from Fort Lauderdale to San Francisco. I am anxious to read about the rest of your adventure. Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences.

[Jade13]

We also saw some other animals,

 

 

 

And this Iguana:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice review.

 

Btw, this is not an Iguana. It is an Argentinean Giant Black and White Tegu. This one looks like a young female.

 

I know because I have one as a pet.

[marazul]

Muy buenas fotos, Caramelo. Estamos disfrutando su viaje.

Marazul

[chapichapo]

Really beautiful. It looks like you did an astonishing trip! :)

[caramelo]

Thank you all for your comments.

 

Janis, we saw your ship in Ushuaia......later on you will see the photos...... it made our ship look tiny beside it!!!

 

Here I will continue:

 

Monday, 23rd of February, 2.009.

We set the alarm clock for 6 am……. I normally hate to get up so early especially on holidays, this time it wasn´t necessary but we wanted to see our last image of the Falls at Sunrise. Unfortunately we set the clock too early as the sun didn´t rise until 6:45am!

We had breakfast and we had to reorganize our suitcases as this particular flight today has a weight limit of 15 kilos per suitcase per person. We put items that weighed a lot in our hand luggage but even then we were still over the limit but in the end nobody controlled the weight of the suitcases or said anything about being over weight.

Iguazu Airport:

We took the flight with “Aerolíneas Argentina” with the company “Austral” which lasted 1 hour and 50 minutes.

As soon as the plane took off we saw again the Falls. It was very funny as my husband asked me why had we paid for a helicopter trip when one got such a good view now from the aeroplane!!!

[caramelo]

And these were our first views of Buenos Aires:

A representative of the Hurtigruten company, the company organizing the Antarctic Expedtion, was waiting to collect us at Buenos Aires airport when we arrived.

We were taken to our hotel, the NH City Hotel in the Bolivar street.

[caramelo]

The hotel was very central, situated right reside the Plaza de Mayo square. The hotel is quite old and was totally different to the images published in their brochure and was quite inferior comparing it to other hotels that we have known from the NH group

We went out for a walk in the area close to the hotel. It was very hot.

We saw quite quickly the Plaza de Mayo Squire with the National Government House (The Pink House):

The 9th of July Avenue is the widest avenue in the World, approximately 130 meters wide and as far as I can remember about 14 different lanes. You can not see this clearly in my photos as it is impossible to fit in the total width:

However, I bought this postcard and with the view from above, you can get a better idea of the width and the different traffic lanes:

The Obelisk:

[caramelo]

 

 

 

 

And some buildings and general images:

 

 

 

 

 

[caramelo]

The Cathedral:

And this is again the area where our hotel was located:

We only saw everything very briefly considering that we had reserved a city tour excursion to see Buenos Aires on our return back on the 4th of March, 2.009.

We returned to the hotel, had a shower and got ready to go to see the Dinner and Tango Show “Esquina de Carlos Gardel”. We were collected by a minibus which held about 20 people and we spent approximately half an hour collecting all the other clients from the different hotels. This half hour for us was like a “mini city tour” as we saw a lot of the streets and buildings while driving around.

[caramelo]

We arrived at the theater where the Tango Show was going to be held:

 

 

This is the publicity for the Show, although it comes out rather dark:

 

 

 

 

It was really great and we were lucky that our table was in a very good position. We sat between a young couple from Rio de Janeiro and we had a Spanish couple on the other side, all who were very nice and we were chatting together for a long time.

 

 

The dinner started at about 9pm and each dish of the menu had as a title the name of one of Carlos Gardel´s songs.

 

[caramelo]

I can not remember the name of my starter which were the pastry pies typical of Argentina and which were very Nasty, and my main course called “Mi Buenos Aires Querido” which was a sirloin steak ….which was not as good as I expected, maybe because I didn´t have an adequate knife to cut it properly and it was not sufficiently done and had quite a lot of fat. I had read in the forum before going that the dinners at the shows are not always the best and some people advised to have dinner in a different restaurant and then go and to the show at the theatre later without having the dinner there, but for us it was more convenient to have the dinner and the show together

 

The show was really excellent. It lasted from approx. 9:30pm until 00:15am. The dancers were fantastic. They started as if it were back in the years 1930. To me, the tango is not just like any dance as it is far more, I would say it is an art. There is nothing nicer than to watch a couple who can dance the tango properly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We arrived back at the hotel at about 01:00am, and then we had to leave our suitcases outside our hotel door (they would be collected and delivered to the airport, and then to the ship for us). We had to get up the next morning at 5am to give us time to get ready and have breakfast and to meet our group at 6am in the hotel reception to be transferred to the airport.

 

TO BE CONTINUED........ with Ushuaia.

[caramelo]

Tuesday, the 24th of February, 2009.

 

 

 

 

Leaving Buenos Aires:

 

 

 

 

The flight took 3 hours and 40 minutes.

 

 

 

The following image is not one of my photos but I found it on Internet, but it shows well the size of the runway at Ushuaia which we could say is very small:

 

 

This following one is my photo where you can see the runway:

 

[caramelo]

The landscape arriving at Ushuaia seen from the plane is lovely:

We put on the brakes hard ........ as there is no more runway, hihihi:

We arrived at Ushuaia airport at approximately 11am but we wouldn´t have access to the ship until 5pm.

The airport:

[caramelo]

There were 2 options: do the organised excursion offered by Hurtigruten to the National Park or the 2nd option was to do an “orientation tour” free of cost to see Ushuaia very briefly and then have free time from 12 o´clock midday until 5pm to do whatever we want. We took the 2nd option, as we had already seen and done a lot between Rio de Janeiro and Iguazu and we were quite tired.

 

This 2nd option was very good and was convenient for us, as we didn´t have to worry about our suitcases and we could leave our hand luggage on the bus until we met back with the group at 5pm.

 

These were the first images which we had of Ushuaia, its streets and typical houses:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the first image ……. That we were getting closer to seeing the penguins!:

 

[caramelo]

The orientation tour was very good as we got to see some panoramic views of the town and we also could see the location of the main places of interest for us to go back and find them later. The local guide was very efficient and explained us a lot about the place.

In the background of this panoramic photo, on the right hand side, you can see the airport, recognizable by the sloping glass roof:

And in this photo you can also see the airport, not so clearly as it is further away, but the runway is just behind it .......... and you can calculate the size of this as you can see where the land begins on the left hand side and where it finishes on the right, so then you can calculate the total length! :

Other panoramic views of the town:

And its beautiful mountains in the background:

[caramelo]

The bus parked and left us very close to the Port, where we got our first images of our ship. Just beside it was docked the ship Carnaval Splendor which is a very large ship, so our ship beside it looked absolutely tiny!

We were very lucky with the weather as we had a lovely sunny day and seemingly there are only about 8 sunny days with no clouds each year and about 25 sunny days with some clouds and the rest can be rainy days, and we managed to get one of the 25 days!

We started taking photos of the ship and of the sign “Ushuaia, Fin del Mundo” (“Ushuaia, End of the World”) which is to be found directly reside the Port.

Then we went to the Tourist Office, again just in front of the Port, where we could get the stamp for our passport: