Let's see, where should I start? Waterfalls?
We embarked on our adventure at noon on a Tuesday armed with snacks, books, and tylenol PM. They gave us dinner at 12:30 PM, which was fun for our digestive systems, I guess...and then we arrived in the tiny little town of Iguazu by 10AM on Wednesday. I traveled with 3 other girls and 1 boy, but a bigger group was supposed to meet us there on Thursday, so we just relaxed in the AMAZING weather all day and then made a good cheap dinner that night. On Thursday after the other group arrived, we got on a bus to head to the park with the Argentine side of the falls. There exist 2 trails, an upper one that leads to the "garganta del diablo" (the devil's throat), and a lower one where you can close to the bottom of the falls and also take a maid of the mist type boat. On Thursday, we went on both trails, but the it was cloudy, so we decided to return the next day to do the boat and some ecological tours. Here are some of the views that I was able to capture even through the fog!
Thursday night was so fun! We got back to the hostel and cooked dinner and played cards and other really lively games. 2 of the best games I will definitely play again because we laughed so hard during them, I'm very surprised no accidents occured (haha, gross). One was called "telephone picture" and everyone sits in a circle and writes a phrase on a little bit of paper and passes it. The next person has to read the phrase and draw it and then pass that, then the NEXT person has to see that drawing and write the phrase they think it's depicting and so on...it was outrageous some of the things we came up with. On the bus ride, they played a bunch of movies one of which was a weird bollywood style "memento" movie, and another was called "Cats and Dogs 2: The revenge of kitty galore", so both of those were the subjects of many drawings. Especially because the hostel in which we were staying had a resident ADORABLE kitten that I fell in love with....haha. So the next game we played was called "fishbowl" and basically there are 2 teams and 3 stages: catch phrase, charades, and word. Everyone writes a person, place, and thing on 3 different bits of paper and throws them into a bowl of sorts then in each phase, the teams see how many they can guess correctly. It's stressful, but some people put the most random things so it's hilarious. For example, we played with another girl from the hostel who put "Salome" from the Bible and noone really knew who she was. Another person put a noodle (which was really fun to see acted out), and someone else put the royal wedding...Anyways, I'm teaching everyone when I get back!
Friday, we woke up early-ish to go back to the park (2nd day you get 1/2 off!!!!) to walk on this ecological trail where you can sometimes see monkeys and pumas. We saw a few monkeys!
COOL, RIGHT!?
At the end of the trail, there was a beautiful baby waterfall with a little pool that I suppose is amazing to swim in during the summer, but then it was a little chilly! It was cool to just relax and soak up our surroundings because Córdoba is pretty, but this was like a semi-rainforest that reminded me of a prettier version of the North Carolina mountains. Seeing green all around was so refreshing...it was so nice to be able to breathe deeply again!
After this trail, we went back to the upper trail to see the devil's throat because the sky was clearer and my gosh, it made such a difference!
Here's a picture of the little waterfall
We went on an ecological boat ride that was really uneventful, but we did see a mother crocodile and some neat birds...haha sorry I couldn't really get the gator because it was far away.
One of the coolest things was the maid of the mist ride that we did right before leaving the park. We went so close it was hard to see! This is basically the only picture I got before we had to put our cameras away for fear of ruining them:
what a great rainbow, right?
Missy, Francie, Taylor, and I "under" the fallsUgh, the dog is in my bed again, but I can't even make her leave because she has the cutest sweater on! But she smells. hmmph
Friday night, everyone went out to dinner, but I stayed at the hostel and read because over the few days there, I went on this weird green tea cleanse because I was feeling nasty from the chicken/bad air/lack of exercise I had been experiencing in Córdoba. When everyone got back, we just hung around a bit, went on a walk, and then crashed early. During the night, 3 people got sick and we still don't know why, it was so weird. Saturday, the group that joined us later, left to go back and the 3 of us girls explored the little town and ate chinese food. It was SO GOOD (my cleanse lasted a solid 2 1/2 days...that's a long time without food when you're walking as much as I was)!
On Sunday we woke up and packed our stuff and headed back to Córdoba...20 more hours of stale air and bad food, yay! We made it back in time for our classes Monday, which were miserable, but that's school for you.
The weekend after Iguazu was decently uneventful, because the next week we had FOUR tests. FOUR! 2 Monday, 1 Tuesday, and 1 Thursday. Fortunately, I wasn't toooo burnt out on studying, and made it by with 8s or 9s on all of them. That being said, I have to take one exam, but it's in culture so I already knew that. It stinks, but there are people who have to take them in all of their classes. This week, I only have the oral exam on Thursday, so I'm going to go explore more of Córdoba and get all of my affairs in order to come back home. I have a flight for the 25th of June so I can get back in time to make money at soccer camp (gosh the shopping here has killed me).
Obviously I'm sad to leave, but sometimes I get really excited to come back home!
This past Friday, one of the girls in the program was robbed on her way home from school. She was walking on a nice street in the middle of the day when 2 guys rode up on a motorcycle and jumped her. She says they were hitting her and just by instinct, she clutched her bag which turned out to be a terrible idea. Eventually she thinks she passed out a bit because she woke up while she was being dragged on the street as they tried to get her things away from her. At that point, people heard her screaming and tried to help, but it was pretty much too late...they got away with her ipod, cell phone, camera, and wallet along with her expensive purse and dirty gym clothes. Although I try to avoid walking around with things of value, I often have my ipod-now I know that that is a really terrible idea...I've been hearing about a lot of pickpocketing and robberies lately and I feel so blessed that I haven't been put in any really dangerous situations (knock on wood).
Wow I'm really tired, so I'm gonna go. I plan on trying an asado with my family this weekend, because I've gotten myself up to eating a little beef.......
later gators
