Vacaciones!

As though living in Buenos Aires is considered "vacation," last weekend I was able to re-lean the meaning of vacation in a new and wonderful way!  This vacation was cheap, awe-inspiring, and so fun!  12 of us from our school spent 18 hours in a bus to go North to the border of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay to a National Park called: Iguazu Falls.  And before you think "she spent 18 hours in a bus?!!?!" let me clarify that these Argentinian buses are like nothing else.  We went "Super Cama style" which means our chairs fully reclined, we had continuous drinks, candy, two full meals, and a champagne or whiskey night cap.

After a night on the road, we arrived in Puerto Iguazu (the Argentinian side of the f

alls) on Saturday morning.  We arrived at our hostel to find that it was a resort.  Ok, not an actual resort, but it felt as though we were in paradise.  The beds were hostel quality, but 4 of us were put into a Bungalow so we had a room to ourselves, meaning we didn't have to 

worry about things being stolen unless our own friends became thieves.  After lounging by the p

ool all day and enjoying our books and our friends, we were treated to an Argentinian Asad

o unlike any other!  For 10 US dollars, we had unlimited salad, rice, veggies, beef, chorizo, and chicken that were cooked to absolute perfection!  Including the food, we also were given fr

ee Capirinhas which were like mojitos, but in my opinion, much better!  After dinner and drinks the hostel provided a Brazilian show with two Brazilian women dancers who chose my 

friend Rob to be their man of interest.  And the women all learned how to shake our hips and dance in step to Brazilian music.  We then proceeded to spend the night at the poolside bar and danced the whole night away!  

Sunday morning we were greeted by a perfect day of sunshine and without a cloud in the sky and were off to the actual Cataratas.  We spent the morning riding through

 the jungle in a huge 4 x 4 vehicle trying to find monkeys, but we were unsuccessful.  After the ride, we got into a large rapids boat but were first greeted by a crocodile-like animal.  It's not an actual crocodile, but you can determine for yourself if it looks enough like a crocodile to be described as such. On our rapids boat, we went through a river and came upon the Cataratas from underneath.  Our boat provided us life jackets and water proof bags because we actually went under the falls themselves!  With lots of shrieking and screaming, we enjoyed every moment of being soaked under these huge water falls!! 

We then walked through the rainforest and dried off while watching the wildlife and enjoying our friends.  We finally made it to the "Devil's Throat" where the falls actually fall.  You can see the Brazilian side of the falls from the pedestrian bridge and it was one of the most beautiful and amazing sites I've ever seen.  I felt so small and protected when standing over one of God's greatest creations!  

After returning to the hostel, we proceeded to spend the next day and a half enjoying the pool, food, and drinks prior to getting back on a bus for what turned into a 20 hour ride home.  Our bus ride home turned into a bit of an adventure as we first went into Paraguay for some unknown reason and didn't know we were there until the Argentinian border patrol came on board to check our passports and electronics.  The Paraguayan city is known to have a lot of contraband and is very much like Tiajuana, from what I understand.  After charming the border patrol agent, we were on our way until we were stopped again by the police and a drug dog came on board.  But that wasn't the most exciting part of the trip.  Apparently we had a blow out with our tire and weaved our way to the side of the road and waited for help.  I don't remember any of this as I had my free alcohol with dinner and then took my blessed sleeping pill. We pulled up 3 hours late and I promptly went to class and look fondly upon my weekend in Iguazu!!

Please look at pictures here.

I'm off to Mendoza this weekend-- wine and adventure country!  Hopefully I will have more stories and pictures next week!

Chau!  Chau!