Despite spending most of the day at Salta airport, I somehow managed to miss my flight to Iguazu... By the time that I thought that I had probably better check to see what the status was I was shown the plane taxi back from the gate. I was pretty distraught, but no fear, Aerolinas Argentina is not Ryanair. The incredibly helpful Aerolinas man assured me that my bag was on the plane to Iguazu and that to solve the problem of me not being on the plane I could fly to Buenos Aires via Cordoba with Andes (another airline) and from there catch the Aerolinas flight to Iguazu. But I had to run (for the Cordoba flight and then again when I got to BA).
Sprinted onto the plane (with lots of ribbing from the locals about paying attention to the flights etc as they'd all seen my reaction when the Iguazu flight left!), very strange as I had no boarding card and hadn't paid anything for the Andes flight... Arrived in Cordoba and then we were told that there was a 30 minute delay. The Captain kindly checked the status of my AA flight to Iguazu and according to BA that flight was still on time, which meant I really was going to have to run when I got to BA! As soon as the doors to the plane opened I really ran, but as I got into the check-in area I could immediately see that something was up. As it was Wednesday night before the start of a 4 day holiday weekend (in Argentina they have Thursday and Friday as public holiday for Easter) it was rammed and there was queues of people everywhere. A quick look at the screens wasn't promising either - pretty much all of the flights due to depart said that they were either delayed, cancelled or just the ominous message to check with your agent. I managed to wiggle my way to the front of the check-in desks and got a boarding card for my flight to Iguazu (which was at that point delayed by 1 hour) and went upstairs to the pre-departure hand baggage screening. I stood in that queue for a few hours, moving incredibly slowly. I then learnt that there was an air traffic controllers strike so nothing was going anywhere. Eventually I got through to the gates and pretty much immediately there was an announcement that the flight to Iguazu was cancelled and that any customers in transit had to go to the Aerolinas Argentina office. So back downstairs and another 3 hour queue it was. Thankfully, despite my rather complicated situation I was given a meal voucher, hotel accommodation for the night and taxis to and from the airport, and another boarding card for the flight the next morning to Iguazu. The 4* hotel in the centre of town was not living up to its 4* credentials (which looked like they'd been set in 1960), but I was grateful for a few hours of sleep before getting up again for the morning flight. Luckily the airport was slightly less like a refugee camp the next morning and despite a few hours of delay we eventually took off to rapturous applause.
Even more surprisingly on arrival at Iguazu I had absolutely no problem getting my bag from the Aerolinas staff and getting a transfer to the Hostel Inn (backpacker resort). I was slightly worried that my reservation would have been cancelled, especially as being Easter, the place was heaving, but no dramas there either.
I quickly changed to suit the tropical conditions and set off into the Argentinian side of the park. Immediately, I was so pleased that I had been able to make it. The setting of the falls is absolutely stunning in the jungle, with birds and butterflies everywhere. The Argentinian side is quite a large area with walkways around the different falls so that you can get up close and personal (and definitely wet!) My absolute highlight was the boat that took us right up close to the Devil's Throat falls and one of the other major falls giving us a major drenching. It was very reminiscent of a family trip to Thorpe Park circa 1988 on the jungle river ride when my brother, Mark, was petrified that the boat was going to actually go under the waterfalls!
Friday, I caught up with Stella and we did a tour to the Brazilian side of the falls. Immigration was all pretty straightforward and then we joined the queues. Being a public holiday in both Argentina and Brazil meant that there were thousands of people there. I am pleased that we got there early as the queues when we left were ridiculous. As it was the views of the Brazilian side were great in that you got the whole panorama of the falls, but far less exhilarating than the Argentinian side (and slightly marred by the millions of people everywhere!)
After a quick trip to the duty free shopping village I was transferred to the bus station for another monster road trip back to BA. The bus itself was almost empty. Only me and a French couple so we had plenty of space in our cama seats to enjoy the ride, watch movies and drink wine (bus travel in Argentina is so civilised!) There was an incredible electrical storm during the night with lightening all round for hours illuminating the landscape. Also, probably the first bus ride of my travels that I felt that I had had a proper night's sleep. Finally nailed it!