We finally got to the hostel around 12:30p on Friday. The ride was actually an hour shorter than expected. So just 20ish hours. No big deal. The girl at the check in told us about the different activities we could do in Iguazu. There were some interesting sounding tours to go on apart from the waterfalls, but we only had a day and a half. That means I will have go back. I thought we wouldn’t be able to go see anything the day we got to Iguazu, but the park doesn’t close until the late evening. We went to the bus station to buy tickets for the Grand Adventure. The park for the waterfalls was very pretty, it reminded me of a zoo actually. We had to wait for the tour truck to pick us up. It was one of those safari type trucks where there are rows of seats in the back and there is no roof. The first part of the adventure was 5.5 kilometers through the jungle/forest with a guide telling us about different animals, plants, and spiders we might see here. We just had to make a special stop to take a closer look at some of the big gross spiders. He even touched the web to make it move. That gave me the chills…eeeh. *shudder* Then we got off the safari truck to walk just a few minutes to get on the boat to go look at the waterfalls. That turned out to be harder than necessary because the hiking trip tore up every muscle in my legs. When we got to where the boat was, we could see that Brazil was just across the river. I wanted to jump off the boat and just touch Brazil, but I don’t think the workers would have appreciated that. So I stayed on the boat like a civilized person. During the 6-kilometer ride up stream, there was about 2 kilometers of rapids that were awesome! Anything with rivers – I am happy. Then all of a sudden, I saw the waterfalls. It was the most breathtaking things I have ever seen. I taught the Water Oak 1st and 2nd grade class a lesson about the Iguazu Falls, so I had seen pictures, but actually being there was unbelievable! There are so many different waterfalls big and small. Sooo many. There are two sides of the waterfalls separated by the Island of San Martin. To the right, is the impressive collection of hundreds of water falls – the most beautiful sight you could ever see. To the left is Garganta de Diablo (The Devil’s Throat). This part of Iguazu is made up of waterfalls falling together from three different sides. There is so much mist coming from these falls, you can’t even see the water below it. This is the powerful and mind boggling part. The drivers gave the people on the boat a chance to take pictures on both sides of the island before we had to put all of our stuff in a dry bag to protect it for…going UNDER the falls!! I didn’t bring my camera on this trip because I didn’t know we were going to have something to protect our things. Luckily, Jacobo has this really awesome camera that also has a good waterproof case. He got great footage of us under the thousands of gallons of water. First we went to the side of the Garganta de Diablo and got absolutely soaked! Over to the other side and just as much water…maybe even more. On the way back to shore we realized that we have been almost sick for a few days now and that we might actually get sick now. Back on shore we dried off as well as we could without towels, and then walked around the park, got somewhat lost, checked out the tourists stores, and saw some Coatis. They are a cousin to the raccoon and they look like anteaters. If you have been to the zoo, you have seen one. They were really cute actually. The first two we saw we just had to take pictures because we thought it was cool, but then after seeing about 30 more they became more like the squirrels in Texas. We got back to the hostel, changed into dry clothes, looked at the pictures and videos from the day, and ate at an Asian food restaurant. It was about 32,489 times better then the sketchy one we went to a couple nights before. We walked around town to see what was there, but there isn’t really anything to do in Iguazu except for visiting the waterfalls. We checked out a few restaurants to see where we might want to eat the next night. Tired and fully aware that we had a full day ahead of us, we went to sleep.
Saturday we woke up, ate breakfast, and went back to the bus terminal to catch a ride back to the magical waterfalls. This time we took a train to the top of Garganta de Diablo. That was just as amazing. It looks like just a regular and calm river, then BAM! The ground opens up and swallows the river! I had my camera that day, so I have tons of photos and videos. (The pics will be on Facebook. For some reason I can;t get the blog site to let me upload pictures anymore.) We started walking around the jungle again, almost left, but then decided to take the short trip to go under the waterfalls once again. How many people can say they have been to Iguazu Falls? Several. How many people can say they went under them twice? Few, and I can. On the walk over to the boats, we encountered a whole family reunion of Cappuccino Monkeys! There is a movie called Monkey Business that Taryn and I watched over and over when we were little that had a Cappuccino monkey in it. I have always wanted to see one after I saw that movie. I was just beside myself for several hours after finally and accidentally seeing lots of them. I even made eye contact with one. We are friends now. He is going to try to come visit me in Texas. Back at the hostel we watched the videos and looked at the pictures, nap, changed clothes, and went to dinner at a hamburger place. We walked around town some more, and then hung out on the patio/kitchen area until we went to sleep. We are not too happy with the hostel compared to Link in Córdoba. The people at Link are so friendly and everyone knows the staff. In Iguazu, nobody talked to each other and the staff didn’t even introduce themselves. We were not too sad to leave. Give us Link!
On the bus ride back, we stopped at a drug check for like…ever. Other buses got to go by, but ours was the unlucky one that had to wait and wait and wait. We finally made it back to Córdoba, but Jacobo only had ten minutes to get to class on time. He didn’t make it. I went to Link to get my big suitcase and met Flavia for breakfast at my little coffee shop. I will definitely miss her! Then I went back to the bus terminal to head back to Bell Ville. I had the hardest time staying awake, but I didn’t want to sleep for fear that the Great Bus Adventure of 2012 would have a part two. (See first Córdoba entry) First thing I had to do was take a shower at the Fernandez house! It had been too long since I had a proper shower. After that was a heavenly siesta. I started to re-pack all my things in order to prepare for my bus ride to Buenos Aires. (When I arrive in Buenos Aires, I will have spent over 52 hours on a bus in the last week. Whoa.) The electricity got cut, so that made it difficult. So I quit…maybe I got scared too. Haha. Andres showed me how incredibly awesome the stars are at his house when there are no clouds. And I got to see where they work with the bees to make honey, so much honey!! Then we went to pick up Elisa from her hockey team practice. When we got in the van, I said something about how I haven’t driven a car in nearly three months and I feared I would forget how to drive. So he tried to teach me how to drive manual…in another language! That was pretty entertaining to say the least. I think I did ok, but eventually he said to switch back into the passenger seat. We got back to the house safely with Elisa. She entertained us on the way back as her own version of an English songs radio. It was so funny listening to her try to sing different songs in English. I am going to miss this family very much!! Dinner at the house, then we met with some of the friends at a house to have coffee, tea, and chocolate. I almost fell asleep sitting on the couch with all the people there talking. That played to my advantage when we were leaving because I was too tired to get emotional saying my goodbyes to my friends. I want to bring them all back with me!
The buses from Bell Ville to Buenos Aires only leave half after midnight. So I decided to leave the next midnight instead of rushing away after I just arrived back to Bell Ville. Therefore, I had a full day at the Fernandez house one last time. I spent most of the day trying to plan out my week in Buenos Aires. My plans to stay with different families started to fall through and my plan to go to Uruguay wasn’t working out, so I started to look into hostels in Buenos Aires. I think that it is better that I stay in a hostel because everyone is working or in class during the day anyway. During the day I found out that Jose and Jacobo might be going to Uruguay this weekend anyway, so I might still get to go! I spent most of the day trying to plan where I was going to stay, paying for bus and hostels, and packing.
The bus ride to Buenos Aires went just fine. I got around 4 hours of sleep. The hostel looks pretty cool, but everyone is still sleeping. I went into my room to put my suitcase and bag away. I was hoping to take a quick nap before I got the day rolling, but I think five of my six roommates are stinky boys. The room is full of back-packer backpacks, boy shoes and socks, and I think I saw some bobby pins. The bobby pins are my one hope that I won’t be the only one suffering from the smelly boy stench. The base floor doesn’t smell and has wifi. So life is good once again.
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