Trip to the Iguazu falls

Hey everyone, Im not sure how many of you actually know but I just returned fron a one week trip with AFS to the falls of Iguazu along with a lot of the other exchange students that I met at my entry camp aswell as ones who have been here since august. The trip includes visits to the falls, Brasil, the wanda mines and the ruins of San Ignacio, The native bird park and some other things that I cant quite remember at this moment.

First of all, here the Argentinians are used to travelling long distances in buses. So this means that after my 1 hour busride to the capital I had to catch my next bus which took 25 hours. Not cause it broke down or anything... just cause its a long distance. If you search the distance from "La Plata" to "Puerto Iguazu" you can actually see where I am and came from. Personally I enjoyed the long bus ride because I had enough time to catch up with Maria from NZ and meet new people aswell like my new friends from denmark, norway, turkey, hungary and iceland. Thanks to them I can now point out where there countries are!

Well as I was saying, we had travelled for only god knows how long but we all fell asleep and woke up at the ruins of San Ignacio for some breakfast. Im pretty sure no one knew that we were stopping here as we were a giant group of just awoken foreigners. Unfortunately because of not knowing this my phones battery had already died and I could take any photos. The ruins were quite neat, they told a story of the catholics in Argentina through pictures on the wall and the layout of the building. For me, I just really liked how cool the ruins looked, I believe Im going to steal photos from other people in the group. After that we made our way to what we thought was the hotel in Puerto Iguazu.

Then we arrived at the Wanda Mines. Wanda actually means Maria in the native language here if you're wondering why they have such a blantantly unspanish name. Here we got to see all those cool gem clusters in the caves and outside aswell, legend says if you put your right hand on the gems and then your left hand in the sun then you'll be charged with positive energy. I thought that was a joke to make all the foreigners look stupid because well, everyone did look a bit silly doing it haha. After that we exited through the giftshop and made our way to the hotel.

This time it wasnt a lie and I was able to charge my phone and relax by the pool with my friends. Oh yes, I forgot to mention I wemt away from cold winter weather into a summer climate where it was very comfortable to go swimming. And also the hotel was really nice! Warm showers, comfortable beds, free wifi and a nice look in general that I bothered to take a photo.

Once we were all settled in and rested, we made our way to the Argentinian side of the Iguazu falls, turns out that the river borders Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. It was nice to see nature full of life again after living in a urban world for 3 months and a bit. And after a million and half photos of pretty much spectacular views and typical tourist poses we finally made it to La garganta del Diablo (The devils throat). It was probably one of the most amazing things Ive seen and I was a bit gutted that my camera once again decided to be lame and run out of batery right before it. Once again, Im just going to have to steal all the photos again. For now, heres a photo of throat from afar.

That night (because I paid to do all the extra things), a few of us went to a dance show called Obba Obba which featured the dancers doing national dances from the countries in south america. This meant I got to see women dancing with five bottles on their heads, the feathered dancing from carnival and real live professional tango. What I thought was the best thing of the night was that the AFS people didnt tell us that we were actually going to see the show in BRAZIL. I now have bragging rights of visiting Brazil.

The next day, turns out we were going to Brazil anyway the visit the other side of the waterfalls! First we went on this little carriage thing that took us to a dock that turns out we were going to have speedboat rides up the river. They told us that we might get wet so we went in our t shirts and shorts only, leaving our shoes behind with our heavy clothing. Also turns out that when they say that you might get wet, they mean they're going to put you under one of the waterfalls for good luck and say youre going to return in 3 years. Eugh. Thanks Brazil once again. After that, we all headed to the viewing platforms in front of the falls, we were lucky that it rained over night because it meant the falls were full of water. It was impossible not to be hit by the spray of the falls while on the platforms but we didnt mind because we were already wet enough. But i must admit that this sight has probably been one of the most breathtaking things in my life, the beauty of nature has never been so powerful and I can see why the cataratas is now claimed as one of the 7 wonders of the world.

That afternoon we found ourselves in the Parque das Aves (Birdpark) in Brazil, close to the cataratas. Ever since doing a project on toucans in year 4, I have always wanted to see one in the flesh. And by god it was stunning, they looked so unreal, the feathers around its head looks exactly like that of a plush toy and the colours looked like they could only be artificially made. At times I questioned whether it was a robot or not... But apart from that, I can now claim that I saw all these amazing birds (including Flamingos) in real life. I'm quite glad I spent extra money to go visit the park now.

That night we went into town to go visit the shops. And because it's a highly touristic place, everyshop was the same. THE SAME. I wouldnt doubt it if all the exchange students could recount all the items in every store. One item that was rather strange was the eatable wood. Yes, you can argue that all wood is eatable but this wood is made for lunch and such. It tasted as I was eating honey-coated bark.. But it actually wasn't that bad... Anywho after our visit to town, we finally went to bed!

The following day we were meant to go flying foxing through the treetops of Argentinian jungle but it was raining and we all finally got to sleep in, because they postponed it until the afternoon and gave us freetime in the morning instead. Hallelujah. So that afternoon, we all headed to the border of Paraguay, (about 200m from it) and wenting canoping. First of all, we went for a short walk, which included a surprise abseil off a rock which made one girl burst into tears from fear, luckily enough I was able to film her screaming the whole way down and have it as a laughable experience. After that, we went up high in the trees and scaled from one platform to the other. To be flying through the treetops of Argentina definately has to be added to my growing list of amazing experiences!

Then the time came to finally leave the province of Missiones and make our way back to Buenos Aires. I made so many life friends from this one week trip and everyone was really sad to say by to eachother, even crying was involved. Not on my part though haha. But it's pretty amazing to come to realise that it takes less than just one week to make strong connections with other people in this world and all I can really think about now is how sad it is going to be to say bye to Argentina. I think i'm already beginning to miss the place.