One of the issues hovering in the background for the whole of our lap of Argentina and Chile was coming up with a schedule that would get us into Chile and back, then up to Iguazú and then land us back in Buenos Aires in time to fly home, all without killing ourselves in the process but maximising our enjoyment.
All the way we were looking for places where we'd like to spend another day. Unfortunately, the few times we found such a place, we'd often committted the following night and couldn't stay. For example, we could have spent another day in Mendoza and/or Resistencia.
These tensions were most evident in the question of how to schedule our trip back to Buenos Aires from Iguazú - about 15 hours driving. How many days to split the drive into and whether to stay two nights anywhere on the way? For the first day we decided to drive only four hours to Posadas, to give us a morning by the pool in the second Iguazú hotel and then make an easy start.
The city of Posadas is located in a bend where the Paraná river, which forms the border between Argentina and Paraguay to the west, opens out into a lake. The Iguazú falls are on a fork from this, the Iguazú river, which forms the border between Argentina and Brazil to the east.
We found the HA Hotel, just a couple of blocks from the main square, to be comfortable and well-appointed, not to mention much cheaper than lesser places we'd stayed before. In the evening we drank in a roadside bar (under an umbrella) and then strolled to the riverfront, where we found a very pleasant view and a selection of good restaurants where we had a fine meal.
We added Posadas to our list of places where we could have spent another day. However, we decided not to do so. As soon as we get back to the UK we have a lot to do very quickly. Hence we decided we'd try to bring our flights forward a few days, and so get back to Buenos Aires as quickly as possible.
Thus we left Posadas after one night and headed to Federación, splitting the remaining journey into just two days. Unfortunately, soon after booking the room and setting out, we received an email saying that the cost of the flight changes would be exorbitant. Hence we were stuck with a plan that left us in Buenos Aires for five nights at the end. Never mind.
Before setting out from Posadas, I brought the SatNav into the hotel to program the address for the hotel we'd booked in Federación. This was fortunate, because it turned out to be on the outskirts of the town on unmetalled roads the SatNav didn't know about. This obviously wasn't a new problem, because I actually found a lat/long location for the hotel by googling inside their website (which wouldn't display properly on my iPhone).
Six or seven hours driving later the SatNav said "you have reached your destination". We hadn't, but I didn't immediately realise it. When we ran out of roads the SatNav knew about I expected it to mark a point and give us an angle and distance. No. It went to the end of the roads it knew and washed its hands quietly.
If I'd realised, I could have used the proper GPS app on my iPhone to take us the rest of the way. Instead, I had to ask directions in a nearby hotel, where the chap had to google it himself.
Three red-gravel-road blocks later we found half a dozen bungalows, very flattered by their photographs, but comfortable enough (although we had to move all the furniture to get something soft to sit on in front of the telly).
We showed our gratitude to the direction-giving hotel by eating in their restaurant that night - surprisingly good meals for somewhere not so "flash".
Federación is a town famous as a hot spring resort beside a lake. Apparently there's a huge fresh water aquifer under that area of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. In Federación they drilled down to it and built a set of pools surrounded by lawns, each at an exact temperature (36, 37, 38, 39, 40-but-empty and their top-of-the-line 41).
It took us a little while to work out the local customs, but eventually we took our hired towels and spent the maximum-advised 20 minutes in the 37-degree pool, followed by a stroll round the rest of the park.
We continued our brief tour of Federación with a drive beside the lake in a fruitless search for lunch. We noticed the water was bright green, even where very shallow at the edge.
Exercising my scientific side (what Clare calls my "little boy"), I filled a bottle with this completely green liquid and took it away to "study". It eventually separated out to give an inch of solid green on the top of clear water below, with a faint earthy smell. I poured the clear water away and noticed the bottle "deflate" over the next couple of days. I guess that could be "biological oxygen demand" and show the green stuff is alive. I hope it doesn't cause any trouble when I eventually throw it away. I watched a TV programme about this tropical moss imported for aquarium decoration that got into the Mediterranean when the tanks were cleaned out and is now growing like topsy, progressively filling inshore areas, killing previous flora and fauna. Ho hum.
We left Federación hungry, for another six hour drive. The whole road from Posadas to Buenos Aires is a building site, as it is upgraded to well-separated dual carriageway. However, this seems to have been let out as a myriad of small contracts, because every few miles one has to do a bit of light off-roading to switch between lovely smooth tarmac or concrete and old, dangerously-deformed tarmac - probably the result of inadequate construction and too-many too-heavy lorries on too-hot days.
We came to dread the next "desvio" (diversion) sign and whatever quality of road it would presage.
Ultimately we reached Buenos Aires in the early evening, planned to miss the rush-hour traffic, and the SatNav took us straight to our final hotel, another 5* but only marginally more expensive than other places with the outdoor pool we felt essential for our four-day rest in BA before flying home.
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