Iguazu Falls!

Sorry that its been over a week since my last post, but thats because I was off for four days in the incredible Iguazu Falls!! So here goes a long recap of the weekend:

Iguazu Falls is located in one of the most northern points in Argentina, bordering Brazil and Paraguay, and is said to rival Victoria and Niagra Falls as one of the greatest waterfalls in the world. So naturally, when we had our first "feriado" (holiday) this Monday we decided to make the 18 hour journey northward. I traveled up with 3 other girls from our program and we squeezed in everything we could in our weekend.

I know some of you were shocked when I told you that it would be a 18-hour overnight bus ride up to the falls - 18 hours stuck on a bus sounds like some form of torture. But in reality, I would take an overnight bus over a long plane flight any day! We were greeted with comfy seats that reclined almost 180 degrees, 3 movies throughout the ride (all in English), dinner, breakfast, and free wine.

We arrived in Puerto Iguazu (the little town 30 minutes outside of the national park) on Friday afternoon and decided to spend the day exploring the town and its surroundings.

I don't quite remember the process of picking out a hostel last week - I typed in "Hostel Iguazu Falls" in google and the first one to pop up was, of course, "Hostel Iguazu Falls". Somehow I decided that it would be fine to choose this one without figuring out where it was or if there better ones in town. It must have been fate, because we ended up in what appeared to be the nicest hostel in town! 1 block from the bus terminal, neighboring an ice cream shop, and in the middle of the little town. We even ended up having our own room for the 4 of us overlooking the courtyard and pool area, which played American pop and hip hop music 24 hours.

We took the opportunity to meet other students and travelers from around the world. We even befriended an Austrian working in Brazil who might come down to visit us in Buenos Aires before he heads back home!

Later in the day we took a short trek over to "Tres Fronteras" (three borders) which is a spot in the river where the borders of Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil all touch. Each country has its own obelisk painted in the colors of its flag right along the river.

Saturday morning we took a short bus ride over to the national park right at 8 am when it opened so we could have a full day in the park. After a short snafoo in which we tried convince two park rangers to let us in for the resident price (they wouldn't let us because we didn't have our residency paperwork with us), we headed into the park. The morning was greeted with a little bit of disappointment - the area called "Garganta del Diablo" (the Devil's Throat), was closed because of a high river level. Also, this meant that the boat rides that take you underneath the falls were also closed because it was impossible to navigate them up the river.

But all was not lost, as the "Garganta" is just one small part of the falls. Our first stop was a walk along the upper circuit. Here the pedestrian walkways go right alone the very edge of the top of each waterfalls. Probably not the best for someone afraid of heights because you can lean over the edge and look all the way down. This is the classic view of the falls - a span of about 10 monstrous waterfalls in a half-circle pouring into a barely visible river below.

From there we journeyed down to the lower circuit, which takes you about halfway down the waterfalls and allows you to walk right next to them, causing you to get drenched. I should note here that we thought we were clever by wearing shorts into the park, despite the 60 degree weather out. We didn't want our jeans to get soaking wet and then be freezing all day long! But this did also mean we experienced a rather high number of confused and concerned looks all day long. This wasn't helped at all when we decided to go as far out as the walkway would take us (the remainder was blocked off because of the unusually large amount of water) - right up against one of the waterfalls. No one else wanted to go out that far because it meant getting soaked, and I'm not going to lie, it was freezing outside. But we ran out and came back looking like wet rats. There were definitely quite a few mothers in the park concerned for us.

Dripping wet we decided to head back to the central part of the park to enjoy lunch. On our way we stumbled upon the Sheraton, the one hotel located inside the park. They also have a pool area looking out on the mist from "Garganta del Diablo" that was empty because of the weather. We decided to take advantage of the abundant chaise lounges to dry off under the sun. After warming up a bit we headed off for our final activity of the day.

All the crowds swarm to the huge waterfalls, so in the late afternoon we headed out on a 3.6 mile hike to a much smaller, secluded waterfall where you can swim in the warmer months. From above the waterfall there was also a beautiful panoramic view of the Brazilian border.

Feeling as though we had literally stepped foot on every inch of the park we could, we headed out Saturday evening back to Puerto Iguazu and to our hostel for a relaxing evening. We treated ourselves to Argentinian steaks and called it an early night.

Sunday we took off our our second adventure - rappelling and zip lining! We drove out to another part of the forest that is protected by the Argentine military. First up was a repel down a 20 foot cliff. Then was a brief walk through the forest to our first zip lining platform. From there we zip lined 800 meters across the forest! There was only a little bit of screaming from my travel companions (one had to assure the guide that she had sky dove before as she looked petrified while rappelling). It was a perfect close to an exhilarating weekend.

The drive back from the forest took us through some of the more rural towns, where we got to stop to look at a small artisan fair and a local cemetery. It was nice to be out of the city and see another face of Argentina. We even befriended our tour guide who shared his mate with us on the ride back! (Note: sharing your mate with someone implies trust, so we get extremely excited when any Argentine offers us their mate -- seems like I might need a post about mate).

After an exhausting two and a half days we said goodbye to Puerto Iguazu and loaded up for another 18 hour trip back home.