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Red Top Mountain
Overview

1. Homestead Trail Mileage: 4.4 miles total (which doesn’t match the 5.4 mils from the last time I did this exact trail)
2. Total Time: 1:30 with stops for photos. I’m getting into significantly better shape.
3. This was my first hike since returning from both Costa Rica and Argentina, I expected knee problems and didn’t have any – not even a pop. Two months ago, I was 13 lbs heavier. That doesn’t sound like much and I certainly haven’t been losing weight like I did the non-travel months. Since returning from Buenos Aires, I’ve struggled to follow my calorie restrictions, exercise and stop eating after 7pm. The BsAs lifestyle didn’t allow for any of that.
4. Back to Red Top Mtn – spring has fully sprung. The trail was full of green and about 10 butterflies. The butterflies were nothing like Iguazu Falls or Costa Rice in either density or coloration, but they were still nice to see in the mid-afternoon.
5. No insect bites at all – no DEET on either.
6. My boots, purchased at Blackcomb Mountain in British Columbia, are starting to show some wear. With my weight loss, the boots fit much better and I’ve changed from liner hiking socks to medium-cush hiking socks. Another 20 lbs down and I’ll need the heavy-cush socks.

Noticeable Sights
The main thing to see is that Lake Allatoona isn’t low anymore. According to the Corps of Engineers site, 840’ is the normal lake level in summer and considered full at that level. Wikipedia Article Paths that run near the lake have … perhaps 10’ of clearance which is probably the ideal lake level.

Ok, so my movies of Iguazu Falls in Argentina are good for personal memories, but these found on Youtube are much better.

Overview |
Devil’s Throat

I looked for moonlit movies of the falls – couldn’t find any. Guess you’ll simply have to go and experience them for yourself. Take a good friend with you since you’ll feel really small as you walk back to the train.

Below are the links for each of the travel pages created here for the Buenos Aires Trip from April 2008.
The last link documents my love for El Cuartito pizza.

Enjoy.

• Buenos Aires T-1 – Tuesday
• Buenos Aires T-0 – Wednesday
• Buenos Aires T+1 – Thursday
• Buenos Aires T+2 – Friday
• Buenos Aires T+3 – Saturday
• Buenos Aires T+4 – Sunday
• Buenos Aires T+5 – Monday
• Buenos Aires T+6 – Tuesday
• Buenos Aires T+7 – Wednesday
• Buenos Aires T+8 – Thursday
• Buenos Aires T+9 – Friday
• Buenos Aires T+10 – Saturday
• Buenos Aires T+11-Sunday-1
• Buenos Aires T+11-Sunday-2
• Buenos Aires T+12-Monday
• Buenos Aires T+13-Tuesday
• Buenos Aires – What I learned
• Iguazu Trails in Order
• The Best Pizza I’ve Ever Eaten

This boonex community software looks amazing. The big complaints are it is setup out of the box for dating sites, not simple communities. My problem with it is php. Many PHP programs are very insecure.

• Car lanes are optional – especially for motorcycles which ignore every traffic guideline
• Weather stripping, double paned glass and sound deadening is wonderful
• Disco is a chain of grocery stores
• Eating a bunch of really good food doesn’t necessarily add any weight – I don’t know why.
• ‘’Portenos make fantastic pizza’’ – I don’t know how to say this any more clearly.
• Coffee con letche isn’t the same everywhere.
• Agua sin gas is normal bottled water; agua con gas is just nasty.
• Iguazu falls needs 3 days to do everything. 1.5 days if the weather is nice and you really move.
• Buenos Aires has many, many night clubs, bars and pubs. You can find whatever you are looking for and more.
• Coffee will never be the same after a visit to Buenos Aires. The city is littered with Cafes.
• If you aren’t into the night life, 3-4 days for Buenos Aires is all that you need.
• For other parts of Argentine culture, you need to leave BA.
• Taxi drivers pretend not to understand you even when they can. Call them on it if they appear to be traveling in the wrong direction.
• Get a city tour early in the trip to get the most out of it from a local that covers:
  • Port
  • Tango
  • Barrios
  • Overall Government
  • Important Buildings (train & bus terminal, post office, the pink house, etc.)
• Don’t expect the same quality of fruit as you get in the USA. It got to the point where I couldn’t select any bananas since none were even close to normal USA quality.
• Gummy candy is lacking, at least I didn’t find any worth mentioning.
• I still don’t enjoy crescent or pastries.
• clothes dryers are good.
• Travel with friends that have similar interests in their travels. For example, if you like culture, travel with others that do as well. If you like dancing, travel with friends that like to dance too.
• Extra wrapping of your luggage is available at multiple places inside the departure terminal. Don’t wait in line. The price was the same at all of them. I didn’t use it and my bag wasn’t any worse off without it. Jim’s with the wrapper wasn’t too bad off either.
• Duty free stuff is probably more trouble than it is worth and not a good deal.
• Always check into a hotel with some bottled water when potable water is a question.
• Review public transportation on the web before heading to a new city.

I awoke in Puerto Iguazu, Argentina dead tired from hiking the falls on Sunday.

• Slept in as long as possible
• catch the bus into the town center
• purchase some breakfast at a local grocer
• wander in the shopping district
• sit for awhile
• water
• Lunch where I get the local interpretation of a hamburger
• wander around the small town some more
• Look for a minibus to the airport – no good
• pay a taxi AR$50
• Wait and wait in the airport
• Flight – mostly on time; I speak English so I can sit in the exit row seats.
• Flight back
  • a Chinese tourist sees all the empty seats in hte exit row and takes on. Quickly the crew asks him, in English, whether he understood them. When he refused to answer or move, 4 of the crew helped him. I suspect he was delayed significantly once we landed.
  • see some of the fires causing huge air pollution issues for the entire region from the air (camera is packed away)
  • see Buenos Aires just as the Sun sets – beautiful view
  • From touchdown to apartment is less than 20 minutes.
• Quick coffee with Jim’s family; goodbye
• Pizza! We return to the best pizza place so far. Order 4 Cokes with the pizza, 2 each, to avoid having to wait for service. The bottles are just 10oz each.

Shopping day.

• Leather
• Food
• Taxis
• Dinner with Matt

Leather
Matt told us where to go for lots of selection at reasonable prices. Bang! He was dead on. Google Map Link to the neighborhood for leather.

Lunch Food
Burzako – Basque food. Bread, egg/potato/cheese, pasta, desert – yummy. Well, the desert was a gel and cheese thing. Not my taste.

Dinner Food
Dinner was near Matt’s place in Barrio Norte. I had a steak with fries and a little taste of something called ‘’Sweet Bread.’’ This is the glands of a cow. Not my preferred food – Jim and Matt ate it up, but at least I’m not in Namibia eating slightly cooked ass and rectum from a boar.

After dinner (midnight) we found a local bar and drank until 3am before catching a taxi back to the apartment. Our last night in Buenos Aires successfully accomplished.

A few folks have emailed asking for the specific order of the trails that we took and any other tips.

1. Ask for a map at the front gate – they are free, but you have to ask.
2. I didn’t go to the Brasilian side of the falls and haven’t heard from Fleur how that was (worthwhile, etc.) Going to Brasil for US Passports is problematic.
3. If you follow the crowds from the park entrance, you’ll end up at a train station. Probably not what you want.
4. Bring 5 hours of water for each person. Water is available all over the park, but it will be expensive. Don’t get me wrong, it is cheap by USA standards – AR$6 on the trails (about US$2), but outside the park bottled water is AR$2.
5. Follow the Salida/Exit signs once you’ve see a particular train/sight. the exit trail will have a nice grade back up the hills.

1. Enter the park
2. Go to the Green Trail
3. Take the Circuito Inferior – Lower Circuit
   1. Salto Alvar Nunez
   2. Salto Dos Hermanas
   3. Salto Bossetti
   4. Salto Bernabe Mendez
   5. Salto Mbigua
   6. Salto San Martin
   7. Salto Escondido
4. Take the free boat to Isla San Martin – note, the trail on the isla is very steep.
   1. Climb the trail and stay right for the best views of these falls
      1. Salto Dos Hermanas
      2. Salto Bossetti
      3. Salto Bernabe Mendez
      4. Salto Mbigua
      5. Salto San Martin
      6. Salto Escondido
   2. Go back and take the middle trail to see
      1. Salto Escondido
      2. Salto Rivadavia
      3. Salto Tres Mosqueteros
      4. Salto Dos Mosqueteros
   3. Go back slightly and head west (this is a loop with the western/center loop)
      1. There’s a fabulous view of Saltos Escondido and Rivadavia through a natural arch tunnel. You’ve probably already seen this in pictures of these falls.
   4. Follow the remaining loop back to where all 3 trails meet and carefully take the steps down to the beach.
      1. Relax on the beach if you like – go swimming, but don’t venture too far from the sand. The currents are deadly, people die every season.
   5. Take the boat ride back to the Circuito Inferior and follow the Salida/Exit signs that go to the Sheriton Hotel and join the Circuito Superior
5. Circuito Superior has views from above of
   1. Salto Dos Hermanas
   2. Salto Bossetti
   3. Salto Bernabe Mendez
   4. Salto Mbigua
   5. Salto San Martin
      You can see the people on Isla San Martin and on the Circuito Inferior – where you’ve already been.
      Take the trail back to the main green trail and head north to Estacion Cataratas – grab some lunch or ice cream or water or soda here while you wait for the trail.
6. Take the train west to Estacion Garganta del Diablo
7. Follow the trail/steel track over all the rivers feeding all the falls that you’ve already seen – watch out for snakes – until you reach ‘’Garganta del Diablo’’
8. Garganta del Diablo is a multiple of falls, all connected.
   1. Salto Union
   2. Salto Florano
   3. Salto Santa Maria
      All the falls – ‘’all of them’’ feed into Rio Iguazu.
      Doing this at a leisurely pace took about 4 hours and both Fleur and I were tired.

However, it seems we didn’t do all the trails that were available. After all this writing, I see the Sendero Macuco trail wasn’t done. That trail is marked as difficult and were I doing this again, I’d do it after the Superior/Inferior Circuitos, but before Garganta del Diablo to be certain. That extra trail would probably add another hour to the day and would certainly require another bottle of water per person.

I had 3 water bottles, but wish I would have had 4 during the day. It was about 85 degF and I was wearing a cotton t-shirt and nylon (quick dry) convertible pants. I didn’t convert them into shorts – probably a good idea since the sun would have burned my legs. Anyway, I was very near heat exhaustion at some points during the day. I felt the coolness that hints at the onset and took a few minutes to rest and cool off. There were a few older people on the steel track that were overcome with the heat. Be careful.

Part 2

Siesta

Ok, we take the city bus (AR$4) and Fleur gets off at her hostel as I continue back to the terminal. I know now that I should have stayed on the bus all the way to my hotel, but at the time, I didn’t. And we are walking … I see some of the town, learn the map and hike for 30+ minutes directly towards my hotel – The Esturion about 1.5 miles outside the city center, but still in the town. On arrival, the hotel claims to never have heard of me or my Travelocity confirmation code. They give me a 2 single bed room, ground floor for the same rate. I take a hot shower and nap for 90 minutes or so.

City Bus to Park

I ask the hotel which buses to take to get to the park – ’’Cataratas’’ is the name and it stops out front and heads to the park through the terminal, same price for the entire trip. I believe that I’m just a little late getting to the bus stop. About the time I’m convinced I missed the bus that Fleur and I agreed to meet on, a few taxi drivers offer me a ride. AR$15 to the park – mucho dinero I say and decide to wait for another taxi to catch. Just then – 1 minute later – the bus comes. It is running 15 minutes late. Fleur also catches the same bus – bonus.

Moonlight view of the falls – Garganta del Diablo

8:30pm-ish. ‘’Wonderful.’’ Don’t experience it alone. Bring a camera with high ISO manual modes and a tripod. If you can set the exposure manually to 2 seconds, you can capture photos of the water falls. The full moon lit the falls beautifully – none of my photos turned out. We met a couple from Israel who helped make the evening even more fun. Eitan and Inbar had an SLR camera and used a 2 second exposure to get the photos. I hope to get those via email in a few days.

10:30p-ish Diner was surprisingly good. A buffet with a good selection of different salads, side dishes, 1 chicken dish and a Carne (beef) window. I didn’t have any red meat – not my bag, but the other 3 did and said it was good. Overall, we were pleased with the meal. Catch the bus around 11:30p back into town. Say goodbye to my new friends along the way. I wish we weren’t so tired from the very long day and could hit a cafe or bar and chat some more. Alas, email will have to do as we’re all headed to different parts of the world later this week.

The bus stopped at the terminal and everyone got off except me. I moved to the front and told the bus driver my hotel was Esturion – he drove to the main drag in the correct direction and opened the door saying – 6 blocks in that direction. I’d walked it already and knew the way. 15 minutes later I’m just entering the hotel compound. To bed.

Hotel

Yawn. 10am checkout time. Nice shower. The toilet seat is a really cheap plastic model. A bottle of water is AR$20 – ouch. The A/C is very loud, but works well enough to remove the humidity. Simple and mostly clean. I won’t stay there again after my overall experience. Free wifi, but only in some part of the hotel that I wasn’t.

Part 1

• Taxi – WOW!
• Airport/flight
• Minibus
• Puerto Iguazú City Bus Terminal/Hawkers | Google Map Link
• Cataratas del Parque Nacional Iguazú | Google Map Link
• Siesta
• City Bus to Park
• Moonlight view of the falls
• Hotel

Taxi – WOW!

5am taxi pickup outside the apartment. The taxi driver would have beaten Mario Andretti in a race to the airport. Hang on, ignore red lights, and watch for other drivers doing the same was the rule. Oh, and lane markers mean nothing, even more than usual. After running a light at about 60MPH, he pulled to the right into the turn around lane crossing the road we were just on to enter the airport. The light changed for us and we started slowly across the road. Another car came flying (guess 80MPH) and seeing us, slammed on his brakes, sliding and screeching to a stop almost thru the intersection. A quick nod from my driver and I was out of the cab – AR$15 including tip.

Airport & flight

7:20am flight
Ok, so now I’m at the airport in record time 2 hours in advance. Yawn. The security isn’t open, so I camp out on the floor (no chairs exist there). Security doesn’t require taking off my boots and I’m thru with zero fuss. Waiting for 90 minutes near gate b12 or 12b until they say something in Spanish and almost everyone forms a line. There’s no boarding by zone here. The flight is uneventful – most of the emergency row seats are empty … hummmmm.

Minibus

9am-ish arrival
At the Iguazu airport, there’s a bunch of vendors and taxis trying to get you to pay way too much for a ride someplace. I ask the information booth which minibus goes to the park directly. I’m traveling very light and want to do as much of the park today as possible. There are no direct connections to the park, so I take a minibus (AR$15) to the main bus terminal in the town. Along the way, a Dutch girl, Fleur, and I chat a few minutes.

Puerto Iguazú City Bus Terminal & Hawkers

Then I walk the gauntlet of hawkers selling packages inside the terminal building. Each claims to be Information, but really they are trying to sell you a boat ride and more. English barely exists here and the physical layout is less than ideal for determining where the actual bus terminal ticket window is – I never found it or perhaps it doesn’t exist. Anyway, after talking with 3 different windows, I purchase 2 one-way tickets on the city bus to the national park and head towards bus boarding area 11. AR$4 each way. Up and over the bus loading area and stand where a bunch of others are also standing. There’s the no. 11 – good. The bus winds around the town for a few stops then heads back towards the airport. Along the way, the same Dutch girl, Fleur, gets on the full bus. I’ve since learned that by just standing at the no. 11 bus boarding area and paying AR$4 as you get on, you can ride the bus to the falls without dealing with any hawkers. Don’t expect any English from the drivers.

Cataratas del Parque Nacional Iguazú

10:45a-ish – AR$40 for foreigners (AR$14 for Argentines). Fleur speaks advanced Spanish, nice. We decide to hike the trails together – working backwards from the normal tourist order. This was recommended by Jim based on his trip here in December. Using this reversed viewing, we begin with a distant view of the falls and some close views of the Inferior Falls. We build to larger and larger falls with closer and closer views over the day. [[Iguazu Trails in Order]]
The free boat trip to the island provides 3 more views of the medium sized falls – medium is like Niagara I hear. The initial steps from the boat onto the center of the island was very strenuous. Possibly the most difficult climb I’ve done – even more so than the mountain in Costa Rica. A Boat ride back from the island, and around other lower trails. All along the way we see wildlife – butterflies, spiders, rodents, birds and mammals. I’ll have to look up the names later.
Next is the Superior trail where we walk over the edge and falls we’ve been viewing all morning.
To be clear, most of the tails are rock or steel. I don’t think I stepped on dirt all day except sand on the island. Food and water were readily available and expensive – 3x normal prices or more. In this part of the world, tap water isn’t safe to drink.
After the superior trail, we catch the free train and head to the devil’s throat – Garganta del Diablo. This is about a half mile steel walkway out over the river feeding the falls you’ve already seen with a few islands along the way. Tons of butterflies all along. The steel ends on at the falls edge with a fantastic view. Take your own photos and/or pay the photographers there for unbelievable photos of you, your group and the falls. I’ve seen the results – but if you’re still reading this, you know how cheap I am. Staring into the falls for hours is easy. I’m soaked multiple times from a mix of sweat and mist. It dries quickly each time. The temperature was only mid-80s, but I was very near heat exhaustion due to the high humidity and exertion climbing steps. I saw 2 older people sitting on the steel trail – who appeared to have collapsed. They were being helped by the park and their families.
It is getting late and both of us feel done for the day. On the way out, Fleur and I commit to the dinner and moonlight viewing package (AR$95 ea).