Thief at the Baggage Belt


Buenos Aries, Christmas Eve morning. Rain but hot, into a taxi to the airport. Our flight was LAN to Iguazu falls a place that for me rates as one of the most spectacular in world. When I first went there and looked at the falls, I said this is the most amazing falls I have ever seen. The guide looked at me and said these are not the falls, the falls are down there.

Elle still did not know where we were going, this being part of her Christmas surprise. At the airport we retrieved our tickets, and again she asked where we were going. Drum roll. I handed her the ticket and said look!! We are going to Iguassu! A blank looked crossed her face, what do you do there? I replied walk round and look at things. mmmm.

As we progressed through the wait for our flight, Iguazu and the spectacular falls were revealed through a combination of recollection, posters and a brief description in the Lonely Planet which said make grown men giggle and jump for joy.

The flight to Iguazu revealed yet another unique leg to the holiday, as we flew into lush tropical amazon rain forest with huge rivers. The heat as we disembarked the plane was stifling, it hit you like a brick wall, remember this is coming from people who live in Singapore and Darwin.

Our bags of the baggage belt and into a waiting taxi, soon it would be the next part of Elle's surprise. Through more forest and past the border of Argentina and through into Brazil. Then straight through the gates of the national park. In order to capture the moment, I went into the bags to pull out my camera.

Well.......to my absolute complete and total surprise it seemed that someone had opened my bag, opened my camera case and stole my video camera, digital camera and ipod then put all the bags back. This obviously happened at the baggage handling as it was the only place my bags had been. Bastards, the little shits.......no I will refrain.


Into the park, there is only two hotels in Iguazu National Park, one on the Brazilian side, one on the Argentinean side, both 5 star. I selected the Brazilian one for Elle based on a couple of things, one being her love of colonial and older style buildings and second, that will be revealed later. The hotel had been completely refurbished and looked fantastic. Our room was beautiful overlooking the gardens and onto the falls, we literally had one of the natural wonders of the world outside our window.



Following some strongly worded emails to LAN we were showered and ready for dinner. A Christmas Eve buffet prepared in Elle's honour. A nice bottle of red and a beautiful dinner was followed by a midnight walk to the falls that were closest to us. A lighting storm came over and provided an amazing light show which lit up the falls, we watched memorised with our umbrellas to shield us from the drizzle before going to enjoy the most amazing bed we had touched in a long time.

Tomorrow Christmas morning and the final surprise.

Location: Iguazu Falls - Argentina

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ironman Japan 2014 🇯🇵

Image
Ironman Japan 2014  🇯🇵 Was a pretty good day. It started of with a scare as I turned up and the front tyre was flat, it would not pump up. At 5:00 in the morning this was a panic as missing the whole race flashes before my eyes. Orlando was upset because Elle and I were both worried and probably also because he had been pulled out of bed at 4am for no apparent reason and was now surrounded by people with bikes looking anxious. The technical team swapped the tyre and fixed it and all was fine.....relief! Rushing down to the start the spectacle that was Ironman began.  In the first wave after the pros I waded into the lake, that seemed murky at first but would soon reveal itself as a stunning clear beautiful lake.  The commentator seemed to switch effortlessly between English and Japanese. 1min to go, 30 secs, 10 secs, then the air horn went off. For the first km to the white buoy I followed the washing machine of bodies, unable to view the buoy. Things cleared...
Read more

Ironman North America Championship - The Woodlands, Texas, USA 🇺🇸 2018

Image
Ironman North America Championship - The Woodlands, Texas, USA 🇺🇸 Woke at 3:30 but stayed in bed till just before 4:00 stretching a little before call Elle, chatting while finishing stretching. Howard my 77yo AirBnB flatmate who is also competing was gone by the time I was downstairs. Some breakfast of Oats and banana, gear on and by a little after 4:00 I was in the car on the way.   Entering the freeway of the ramp I was surprised by a flash of light, I though it must be lighting but then I realised, speed camera, shit. Was not very happy, but nothing could be done and I fought to put it out of my head. Parking at the Hyatt carpark with no problem, I was out walking to transition. 5:10 I arrived and did the necessary jobs, pumped tires, placed nutrition on bike and in transition bags, filled bottles. It was the walk now to the swim start. It was luck and good planning that yesterday I replicated this routine, the 20 minute walk would have caused a little panic as ti...
Read more

Ironman Port Macquarie, Australia 🇦🇺

Image
Ironman Port Macquarie, Australia 🇦🇺   Woke up at 4:30 stretched, ate, visit to the boys room and it was soon 5:00, Graham was waiting outside with another friend and we were off. Still dark we walked to transition where I did the last of the packing, in with the nutrition. The tires were still inflated which made me happy, the money spent on redoing them seems to of been well spent. To the swim start where a long queue for the toilets was well worth the wait. The rolling swim start began at 6:38. In the second wave I skipped over to the first, walked down to the ramp and was off. The water was warmer than I expected, though could not see much as sand was churned up from the swimmers. Out between the boats I was conscious of keeping with the group, drafting and staying on course. Success was mixed but it was not too bad.   Turning at what I dreamed of being the half way point was a dog leg into the next stage, shortly after it was a walk over a bridge, into a...
Read more