Iguazu Weekend

HOLA TODOS! (hey everyone!)

Well! We returned from our trip to Iguazu yesterday at about noon. It was SOO much fun! The weather was incredible, I didn't wear pants or a jacket once.

We arrived at our hostel in Iguazu Friday morning. The bus ride wasn't bad at all. The chairs were really big but it wasn't all that easy for me to sleep on the bus. After we got there, we walked around town a little bit and ate lunch at a restaurant that had a great view of Paraguay from the balcony (we ate on their balcony of course). We relaxed by the pool and just chatted with each other until the evening came. I roomed with Tyler, Drew, Sarah, and these 2 French people who were nice...but not friendly. They spoke Spanish and English (and French too obviously) so it was easy to communicate with them. The hostel itself was pretty nice as well.

That night, our hostel had an asado which is like an argentine barbeque or cookout. We had some delicious chorizo, beef and chicken. It was all you could eat so we all stuffed our faces. That night we all just hung out at the hostel because there was a bar there and a band playing some fantastic salsa music! So YES Aunt Mary! I made it to my first milonga and I have at least one more planned. It was a lot of fun! Guitars, drums, maracas, an excellent happy hour, and dancing! what more could you want?

The next day we went to visit the falls. They were about 20 minutes away from where we were staying. They were absolutely BREATHTAKING. We all had soo much fun farting around at the falls. Just being silly and having fun with each other. It was a really long day though, we had to leave at 9 and then we got back around 5. All in all, walked about 6.2 miles around the park. We put our feet in the water at a beach at the bottom of the falls, it was cold, but it felt really nice. The soil all around that area (including the town we were staying in) was very red. This is because the iron in the soil oxidizes when it rains in the same way that metal signs and things rust. Don't worry Dad, I learned that in geography so I was the smarty pants who already knew all about it. Our tour guide said that when it rains a lot in the region, the falls turn red from the soil they are carrying.


Below, Me and Sarah are imitating the movie Titanic. Like my creepy smile?
















These are mapache or their version of a raccoon. They are NOT nice. I didn't like them at all. We saw one of them attack a girl for her cookies. Not good! We also saw a TON of monkeys. There were people feeding them bread which made me really mad but I didn't quite know how to tell them to stop in Spanish or how to explain why what they were doing was wrong. There are also toucans in the region but unfortunately we didn't get to see any. When we got home that night, our hostel was having a Pizza and Beer night so we, once again, stuffed our faces. The pizza here is not at all like the pizza in the US. They use medium thick crust and cover it in mozzarella cheese and then place an olive on each slice. If you wanted any other kind of pizza like pepperoni, you would get a pizza with 1 piece of pepperoni on each slice. There is hardly any sauce so it is kind of like just eating cheesy bread. I never thought I would miss American pizza so much! I just want some cream cheese and sausage pizza! That, and I also really miss popcorn. My friends and I are going to see a movie sometime this week and I just hope that they have popcorn and that its at least kind of similar!

Anyways! The next day, we had a trip to the jungle where we hiked around a little and went rappelling and zip lining! I had never done either and both were a lot of fun. The most rappelling type thing I had ever done was to descend the rock wall at Galyans Sporting Goods. It was about 2 stories tall but I was expecting it to just be a flat wall but it was not smooth at all. There were a lot of jagged rocks sticking out but I made it down just fine!
Below is just a pictures of me, Sarah and Tyler goofing around after a successful rappelling trip!



All in all, an excellent trip. Somewhere I definitely want to return to someday if I get the chance.