The Never-Ending Bus Ride to Iguazu (Day 43)

I have finally, FINALLY made it to Puerto Iguazu, the closest Argentine town to the Iguazu Falls National Park (it borders Brazil and Argentina). You may have noticed the two skipped days in my Day count. Not a mistake.


In addition to my Iguazu ticket saga that I recounted in an earlier post (see: A Day of Oops), it seems that my roadblocks (literally) in getting to Iguazu weren't over yet. As the Semaña Santa started today (lead-up holidays to Easter in Argentina), yesterday was apparently a Day of Protest for the farm workers of Argentina- protesting the abomidible corruption of the Argentine government in export compensation paid to farmers (so my seatmate explained to me anyway). So, farmers all over Argentina took into the nation's highways with their farm machinery. We hit the first highway blockade after Catamaran, about 4 hours into my trip. I have to admit, it was a little cool to see- bus, trucks and cars backed up as far as you could see with the hub of a mass of farm machines and a rowdy but peaceful army of sign-clad farmers. Everyone was quite patient (as is the way in Argentina) and there were even many supportive honks and chants. When the blockade opened briefly about 1.5hrs later, I had to laugh at the asado (huge BBQ pit) going full bore at the side of the road amongst the combines- I guess protesters have to eat too. With only about 2hrs delay, I figured that we weren't doing too badly all things considered. Until we hit a second blockade somwhere outside San Rosario. This one was much bigger, much rowdier (admittedly a little tense for a while) and with a much larger traffic impacts. Here we sat for 3, yes 3 hours. In the hot sun (I don't know how the protesters managed on the hot pavement) until the police arrived to break open (peacefully thank goodness) the blockade. It took another 1/2hr for the traffic to get moving before we were on our way. Again, trying to be optomistic (whatelse can you do?!), this only put us now 7ish hours behind schedule. Could be worse. Just wait.

I woke up this morning at 7am to see that the bus had pulled into a service station only about 5 hours away from the last roadblock and still over 15hrs away from Iguazu. Here we sat for over 2hrs and not a single person from the Andesmar bus staff would explain. Not how long, or why, nothing. Imagine many grumpy, hot, hungry (the bus had run out of food before supper last night since we were all originally supposed to be debarqued by then) passengers. I'm not sure exactly why were stayed there, even now. Possibly to give the exhausted drivers a rest: possibly to wait out some other blockade the drivers knew was ahead: possible the drivers got detoured and weren't quite sure what to do (at one point, I noticed one driver consulting with a local about directions). Regardless, we were now seriously, seriously late. In fact, bordering on an early arrival time for the successive Andesmar bus (and oddly enough, the bus that I would have been on had I kept my original/mistaken ticket). I laughed. People thought I was nuts, but what else can you do? Sitting at a gas station at 7am, no idea why or how long, in the blazing sun in the middle of who-knows Argentina. That's funny.

We finally got going again around 10am. We ended up switching buses when we finally made our way to Corrientes at about 6pm. This was a good thing since the new bus had a) food, b) toilet capacity, c) rested staff (bless our original Andesmar crew who were bearing down hour-43 on duty) and a direct route to Iguazu. YAY!

When I finally stepped off the bus in Puerto Iguazu, it was 11:30pm- 51hrs after leaving Mendoza almost 2 days earlier. Luckily, the campground where I was to stay wasn't far away and the owner was extremely sympathetic to me, given that the road blockades were all the news around Argentina.

In the end, I guess my host in Mendoza was right that travelling by bus during the holidays would be a hassle. Although I'm sure he had no idea that it would go like this. In the whole scheme of things, I was lucky. Unlike most of the people on my bus, I had no family gatherings held up for me and really had no where I needed to be, as long as I got to my destination. Hopefully, before the full moon turns. If I actually manage to make this full moon tour (I watched the full moon from the bus just in case this was as close as I got to a full moon tour!) at the Iguazu Falls Park, if there even still is another tour to make, it will be a miracle.