April 3, 2025 Buenos Aires to Puerto Iguazu

 April 3, 2025 Buenos Aires to Puerto Iguazu 

We woke up at 6:00 and went to the lobby at 7:00 for breakfast.

Breakfast was a buffet with many choices. I selected to toast a slice of whole wheat bread and garnished it with cured ham, prosciutto, and a slice of cheese.

I also took a small jar with a glacéd pear in sugar syrup with a baked ham and cheese sandwich with a cup of fresh orange juice and a cup of tea with milk.

We never even got to the scrambled eggs.

At 7:50 our taxi arrived and drove us to the National Airport where we took a 10:30 flight to Puerto Iguazu. 

When we arrived at 12:30 we went to Budget to pick up our car and found out that we had made a reservation to pick up our car across the River and border at the airport on the Brazilian side of the river.  The attendant was very helpful and told us that the only vehicle available on this side of the river was a large Nissan truck and he would drive us into town to pick it up.

So he filled out the paperwork and we rented the truck and he drove us into Puerto Iguazu to the parking lot to pick up the truck. It was huge and ran on diesel but given that we are in the middle of a jungle that may be a plus.

We drove to our bungalow at Costa del Sol stopping at a grocery store to buy bolillos, cheese, mortadella, water, a bottle of Torrontes wine, a Stella Artois beer, Mayo, and 2 media Lunas for breakfast. When we arrived at our bungalow it was cantilevered out off a cliff facing the Parana River with a view of Uruguay and Paraguay across the river. 

We then drove back into town to Restaurante Rueda for lunch. We split a dorado steak with a Passion fruit sauce and fried cassava at 2:30. The dorado had a dense white flake like albacore tuna and a Waldorf style salad with lettuce, blue cheese, toasted walnuts, slices of orange and apple and dotted with drops of reduced balsamic vinegar, a lovely salad.

We ordered a bottle of 2023 Crios Rose of Malbec that was light and lovely with a slight sweet aftertaste.

The meal was just what we wanted at $50.

We then returned to the room and I napped for an hour While Suzette sat on our porch overlooking the River and finished the last glass of rose left  from lunch.

When I awakened at 5:30 the sky was a dazzling mix of pinks, yellows, and blues.

At 8:00 we drove into the jungle to the resort where Billy and Elaine were staying to pick them up.

We all agreed to go to Rueda for dinner. Billy said it was rated the best restaurant in Puerto Iguazu.

When we arrived without a reservation, it was a 45 minute wait. Suzette and I drank Vermouths with soda  and Elaine drank a local Pilsner beer.

At 9:00 we were seated and Suzette ordered Grilled Pacu with tropical fruits, a flat white fish broiled, and Elaine ordered a Pacu fish grilled with grilled vegetables, Billy ordered sweet breads and i ordered a salad with eggs, peas, tomatoes, corn, and both red and white cabbage. We loved the clean non- flavor of the Nucete olive oil. Suzette ordered a bottle of Zucchari Torrontes that had a compelling balance between high acidity and lots of citrus fruit that we all liked.

Everyone shared bites of their dishes with me and I ate about half of Billy’s sweetbreads, which had not been prepared the way our mother did by slicing thinly, removing the sinews and soaking over night in milk to tenderize the sweetbreads. The Rueda dish simply threw the whole sweetbread on the grill and let the customer cut their way through the sinews to get to the small bits of edible meat.

We finished around 10:30 and waited a couple of minutes for Billy and Elaine’s taxi to arrive and then drove back to the bungalow where we went to bed for a good night’s sleep.

Bon Appetit