Headed to Iguazu Falls

Armed with only small backpacks (yes, small!) and a shoulder bag with our hiking boots and snacks for the trip, we left our apartment around 15:45 and made our way to Retiro to catch our 17:00 bus up north. If you look at a map, you will see that Iguazu Falls is tucked way up north in a corner, on the border of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. Because of this, we boarded our bus and settled in for a long journey...17 hours long!
The changes in scenery as time passed were very drastic. As we left the hustle and bustle of the city behind us, the landscape opened up to reveal marshlands, sprawling flatness and much more green. Although the green was beautiful, the marshes do not lend well to building, so shacks and shanties on stilts dotted the road. Families could be seen walking down the highway. On one occasion I saw a family of 4 on one bicycle. When the sun set, beautiful deep oranges, yellows and reds painted the horizon.
Overall the bus was relatively uneventful. No screaming children (well, almost), no bags of vomit, no overpowering fuel fumes. The only issue was one of the movies they showed (again!). This one was a French film featuring a wolf-turned-monster who attacked the town and ripped people limb from limb, (literally, I saw it happen)...and this does not even touch upon the very "grown-up" sex scenes and the children and teens on the bus. The bad part is, you cant escape the noise (moans, screams, tears, thuds). I put on my headphones and tried to tune it out but I swear it was the longest movie ever created. However, I will admit that it wasn't as bad as the horror film they showed on the bus in the Patagonia, but it was a little freaky.
The other 14 hours went pretty smoothly. In fact, the bus stewardess asked us to shut off our light around 11 PM because people were trying to sleep! Ab was a little upset because she only had 10 pages of her book left, but even in those circumstances she still had to concede that it was better than people up talking all night and lights shining in every direction.
At 7:50 AM, the stewardess - wait, she needs a better mention here. She was hilarious, teetering around the bus on high heals, humming and singing as she went - woke us up for "breakfast" (at least it wasn't ham, again). Although I would have preferred to skip it and sleep longer, she wasn't having it, so I removed my trusty neck pillow and made room for the pre-packaged breakfast trays and cup of tea con powdered leche. Waking up gave us a good opportunity to look around. The lush greenery and dense sprawling forests were a shock to the senses! Large and small ranch houses filled the clearings. But even more shocking were the bulldozers and the bald spots! Huge areas of the forest have been clear-cut. As a side note, I later learned that only 5% of the Argentine/Brazilian jungle remains. Even now, only small portions are protected from development.
We spent the last couple hours checking out the scenery and listening to the 80's pop music the stewardess put on the TV screens. It felt like a whole different world. At around 10:30, we rolled into Puerto Iguazu, grabbed our small (ha) bags and said one last goodbye to our trusty bus. 90 degrees of heat and humidity slapped us in the face as we alighted, but we were all smiles. Finally, we were going to see the falls!!