I promise I am making more of an effort to write, these couple of weeks are pretty busy for me because I'm traveling a lot, so I have to spend my week nights and afternoons working on homework. Real fun, I know. Actually, it is really fun because I, being the complete nerd that I am, love libraries and it just so turns out that this great city has a TON of gorgeous libraries. In fact, today I am sitting in the Bibliteca Nacional de Maestros, complete with wireless and located in one of the most gorgeous buildings I've seen in the city. It has high ceilings, walls of books surrounding the work area, and big well-lit wooden desks to work in. I'm in heaven!
However, I did not necessarily write to talk about libraries, I wanted to share a little bit of my adventure to Iguazu Falls with you! This past weekend one of my best friends on the program, Maureen, and I took an adventure up to Iguazu Falls, in the northeast corner of Argentina.
First, a little bit about the falls. The name "Iguazu" means Big Waters in Guarani, an indigenous language of the Misiones Province, where the falls are located. The Igazu River divides Argentina and Brazil, and therefore you can get a great view of the falls from both the Brazilian and Argentine shore, although about 2/3 of the falls are on the Argentine border. In total, the falls consist of 275 falls along 1.6 miles of the Iguazu River. Iguazu currently has the greatest average of any waterfall in the world, and is one of the 28 finalist sites for the New7Wonders of Nature (tbd in 2010/11).
Maureen and I left Wednesday afternoon at 7pm and took a 18 hour bus ride (!!) from Buenos Aires up to Puerto Iguazu. It sounds like an extremely long bus ride, which it was, but the pain was made tolerable by the whiskey, wine, and champagne offered to all passengers over 18 years old. On top of that, there was an abundance of food and movies to keep us entertained the whole time. We arrived on a cloudy, rainy Thursday morning and made our way to HostelInn, frequently called the "Club Med" of hostels, according to their website. It was actually extremely gorgeous for a 40 peso/night (12USD) dormitory, complete with game room and pool. Here's a picture:
That afternoon Mo and I went on our first forest excursion! We took a truck ride through the Paraenese Jungle of Misiones, then we hiked through the jungle to a 2,625 ft zip line. We then repelled down a 72ft rock wall and rode back through the jungle! It was SO FUN! Plus, we learned some interesting facts about that part of the jungle. Approximately 80% of the vegetation can be used for medicinal purposes! While we were walking our guide, Micaela, would pick of leaves and hand them to us. We ate some little round pods that tasted like lemon and are supposed to help your stomach, I can't remember their names. Also, we went through a portion of the jungle that was owned by the Iguazu Army. Our guide asked us to not take any pictures because it was prohibited by the army. They use that area of land to allow armies from other countries to come and, without food or water, learn how to survive off of that specific type of land. Apparently part of the US army was there two weeks ago!
Mo and I spent the night at the hostel. 20 peso all you can eat buffet-- I love the conversion rate here :) We met three guys from Australia and challenged them to a game of pool- girls vs. boys- two on three- and WON! Then we replayed and lost, but thats besides the point. I've never really stayed in hostels before this trip, they aren't very big in the US, but they are so useful for younger, economic travelers. Its a perfect place to meet travelers from all over the world and hear their stories. Maureen and I are thinking of opening our own chain of hostels all over the US...
The next day we woke up early and went to IGUAZU! The first sight we saw was the Garganta del Diablo, the most impressive part of the falls. It's a U-shaped part of the falls, and there is so much water you can't even see the bottom of the falls because it's covered in mist. There is no way to verbalize how you feel when you see it: all you can do is register the power of the water pouring over the cliffs. Here is a picture:
This doesn't even capture the falls because it's such a close view. Plus, when you are standing right next to it and you can hear the power of the water pounding over the falls, feel the mist blowing onto you, and smell the fresh air, its a completely sensual experience. Next we walked around the balconies to see the other waterfalls. Luckily, for this part of the day it was sunny and hot and gorgeous. Another picture because words can't begin to capture it:
The balconies extend all the way along the watefall and each stop is such a different view of the waterfalls. All these are on the Argentine side- being an American makes it expensive to visit the Brazilian side. Because of reciprocity policy, it would cost me 150$US to get a tourist visa to enter Brazil, so it's not worth it just for a different view of the falls. We got to see a different view during the afternoon when we went on the Gran Aventura: we took a speedboat ride up 4 miles of white water rapids on the Iguazu River and then went as close to the base of the waterfall as you safely can go! Mo and I, being the macho girls we are, decided we didn't need ponchos-- we were going to get wet anyways! Well, boy did we get wet. We were soaked by the time we reached the waterfalls just from all the waves on the river. Plus, by that time the sun had gone away and the sky looked like a storm was pending... The people behind us kept commenting that the falls were going to kill the foreigners haha. Well we plunged into the falls and everyone started chanting "otra vez, otra vez!" so we went in again! Then we went under Garganta del Diablo. Here is Mo and I on the boat in front of the falls, before we had to put our cameras away:
This is the boat in front of us going in... ahhh!!
After that, we were soaked and freezing cold so we headed home to the hostel, where we ate buffet and played cards with a British couple. I love traveling :)
It was such an awesome adventure- totally "vale la pena" (worth it)!
Omg. I stayed at that hostel too! You made a great choice. And may i say, I am way impressed that u didn't have a pancho! I'm glad you survived the lonnng bus ride. Can't wait to see more of your pictures!!
ReplyDelete-Jenna