Leaving Argentina: Last Stop Iguazu Falls

a butterfly landed on me at the falls!!! it was so cool because it stayed on me for at least 5 minutes!

a brief glimpse of our resorty hostel in puerto iguazu

We are no longer in Argentina, we have now ventured into Brazil. Our final stop was Iguazu Falls in the northwest of Argentina, about 30 minutes away from the Brazilian border. Puerto Iguazu is the small town where we stayed; its most important attraction being the falls. We stayed at the nicest hostel that I have ever stayed in . It had a huge pool and felt more like a nice resort. Only downside was that the average age was 19 (although we may have raised it to 21) and it felt very fratty.

The 1st night we were there Annette and I both fell asleep at 6 pm (we´re old), thinking we would wake up in an hour, but ended up sleeping until 9 pm, eating almonds and crackers (instead of making the salad we had planned) and then going back to sleep (we´re old). Although I did have a hard time falling back asleep, I made no effort to get up and join the world of the living, to which I presumed included lots of beer bongs and chug fests (I actually did hear a group of british boys shouting chug!chug!) (i´m old). So instead I laid in bed, listened to This American Life (the best show ever!) and read until 3 a.m. I was finally able to fall asleep, only to be awakened by 2 girls coming into the hostel and another girl who was already asleep yelling at them to turn out the light. Hostel drama! Finally I was able to fall back alseep, only to be awakened, covered in drool, by Annette at 7:45 to go to the falls.

So, the falls. From other South America travelers, I heard so much about these falls and how gloriously amazing they were, so i was definitely looking forward to seeing them. Our Lonely Planet book said something about how the negative ions from the falls led to giddiness and laughter. Who wouldn´t want that? So I lumbered along waiting for the the grand beauty that was to be bestowed upon me. Now I know that I am setting this up as to seem as if the falls weren´t beautiful, but they were. Although, I was a bit disappointed upon arrival for the following reasons:

1. We had to wait in a long line to get in, which wouldn´t be so bad, if not for the fact that there was a group of German tourists all up in our personal space.

2. I had the idea that we would be hiking along through the jungle to get to these falls and was expecting a nice day in nature. Instead, I was distraught to discover that we were at an equivalent of a theme park with huge paved roads and little gift shops and food places all about. We also had to stand in line that wrapped around like roller coaster rides do. Annette brought up the point that this existed so all people could have access to such a marvelous part of nature. And I am not so cold-hearted that I would not want people of all ages and abilities to see these falls, but the grandeur to which the park was designed left me bereft. There are ways that paths and handicapped accessible ramps could have been placed in the park without going so overboard. It was just a little bit too much.

Regardless, after my initial wallowing in the way that man is destroying almost everything that nature has to offer, i opened my heart and mind to the negative ions, which I hoped would cancel out the negativity that I was feeling...and they did, kind of. I definitely did not join the land of the giddy, but i was mesmerized by the awesome beauty of the falls. There were just so many and they were so massive. The biggest one was called la garganta del diablo (the devil`s throat) and the rushing speed took my breath away, literally. I got splashed so forcefully that it was hard for me to breathe. So we had a lovely day walking around, seeing and snapping pictures of the falls, and overall that was nice. We were going to visit the falls the next day from the brazilian side, but we decided just to go straight through to Sao Paolo. People say it is cool to see the falls from both sides of the border, but the fact is that you can see more from the Argentine side and I really had no desire to go and stare at them again from another side, with the same tourists, on the same paved roads. It would have been a completely different thing if it was a nice hike, but I preferred choosing to avoid the circus of tourists.

The devil´s throat waterfall

More waterfalls...they really were pretty incredible

So we ended up taking a 16 hour bus ride from Puerto Iguazu to Sao Paolo. We got here this morning at 6 am and took a cab to our hostel. Of course we were tired and out of sorts, so of course the cab driver got lost and we had to pay an exorbinant amount of money to be lost with him. Finally, we found the hostel, only to discover that they had one space left. The way I was feeling, I almost took that one space, and sent Annette off packing. But then reality got the better of me and I realized if I did this, not only would I be a hroorible friend, but also I would have no one to prepare my meals. So we ended up taking the subway with our massive packs (even more massive due to the fact that the day before we had to spend our Argentinian pesos so we decided to buy all our groceries for the week, which added another 10 pounds to each of our packs) and then took another taxi to the next hostel, which did in fact have room. Annette and I are in a tiny room and we are cuddle buddies in a large bed. As soon as we got there, it was night-night for us both. We had planned to wake up at 1030 am to start the day, but after the morning´s blunders, we slept until 230 in the afternoon. We had a bit of a walk around the neighborhood, had some follies with the language at the internet cafe, and will return to our hostel to have a nice meal of pasta and then head off to bed. There is not too much to do here today because it is a national holiday, black consciousness, which Iassume is similar to black history celebration in the US. We will be here for a couple of days then we will book it on out to Paraty and spend some time on the beach (yay!!!).

It is crazy to think that we have only 10 more days in south america, then we are off to our next continents...Northern Africa, then Europe. I am excited because my friend Alyson will be meeting us in Morocco and then we will meet up with Jenny in Egypt. Yay friends!!! Speaking of which, I hope this blog finds all of you doing well and enjoying the precariousness of life. xoxo