Day 223: The Butterfly Effect

Buenos Aires – Puerto Iguazu, Chile

A few entries ago, I talked about travel hacking the Argentinian domestic flights. I was so tempted to give it a go for my trip to and fro Buenos Aires – Puerto Iguazu. Taking the 18 hour bus ride itself is already USD 230 round trip. Flying costs around the same price for Argentinian citizens. For international travellers, it’s around USD 350 and up.

Since I was crashing at Pedro’s, I could technically pull off the travel hacking stint cos I’d be leaving my main backpack and only be bringing one small bag for my 2-day trip. However, I couldn’t be sure of its success. My Asian feature and my lack of Spanish language skill would easily betrayed my being a foreigner. I guess if all failed, I could always play the dumb tourist and paid the extra charge. And while spending the extra money might make sense since the flight duration would only be less than 2 hours one way, I weighed in all the pros and cons.

Pros:

• Save 32 hours of my life from being on buses
• Being able to spend the time saved either in Iguazu or in Buenos Aires

Cons:

• Spend extra for the flight if the travel hacking didn’t work
• Flying tends to incur extra fees like departure tax
• Transfer to and fro airport is usually not easily accessible with public transports and taxis will cost a lot

Anyway, from yesterday’s entry, you should have known that I decided to rough it out and to bus it… and that the ride was delayed due to the strike at the terminal. This morning, I managed to get the bus company to put me on an afternoon bus.

At 4pm, I was comfortably seated on the bus and headed to Puerto Iguazu. In all honesty, long bus ride isn’t at all horrible, especially on South American buses. Seats on these buses and their services are more similar to those on airplanes. And besides, taking overnight bus = saving accommodation fee.

Hmmm, I didn’t take any photos of the day since I didn’t do much other than catching the bus. So consider the featured photo a preview of what’s to come the next day I wonder if my missing the previous night’s bus caused any butterfly effect. One thing I learnt from my trip so far is that every single small happening or decision I make affects who I’ll be meeting and befriending, which in turn may lead to something bigger in the future.