I am currently plopped in Puerto Iguazu in northeastern Argentina, which is a small town famous for its entrance into Parque Nacional Iguazu. This park boasts some of South Americas largest and most stunning waterfalls and let me tell you, they are amazing. Laura, Karrah, Lyndsey and myself all left on Friday morning from Santiago to fly into Montevideo, Uruguay. We had some time to kill before taking a bus to the ferry which would take us over to Buenos Aires, so we walked around the old city a bit, ate our lunches in a small plaza, and enjoyed walking by all of the peddlers trying to sell everything from antique phones to old silverware to license plates. Montevideo is definitely a really cool and old city, and a great way to pass a few hours of the afternoon. Something we really enjoyed was seeing the national culture of yerba mate. For those of you who do not know what yerba mate is, it is a strong tea that basically courses through the veins of Argentinians and Uruguayans alike all day every day. Every other person, whether a construction worker, police officer or shopkeeper would walk around with two things: a thermos of hot water and a cup of yerba mate.
They keep the herbs in the cup all day and continually add hot water. We have yet to try it, but Laura and I are determined to have a sip before we leave Argentina!We eventually got to our ferry that we were parked on for the next three hours, and it was actually quite fun! There was a lot of room for seating, sandwiches and alfajores (a delightful, Argentine cookie, you will see photos later) for purchase, and even a singer for entertainment! It was mainly tourists, but we ended up saving ourselves a roughly $140 entrance fee into Argentina by plane, so it was all worth it. We got into Buenos Aires around 10:15 pm, got our bags and then ran to El Retiro, the bus station that a sweet old lady recommended to us. We got there by taxi, each paying about $.50 and then ran upstairs to the different bus companies. Alhtough most of them had closed for the night we were determined to find the one that would sell us a bus ticket for Iguazu for that night. How naive we were. Nearly all of the companies had buses that left daily at 6 pm, and due to the fact that it was getting close to midnight we missed our shot. So we purchased our tickets for the following day and headed for a hostel in the San Telmo neighborhood of Buenos. We got a great hostel, slept well, had a good breakfast, and then got up and got to see some of the hotpots in Buenos--an awesome artesan market in San Telmo, La Casa Rosada, which is their version of the white house, except pink! (of course I was delighted) the famous Plaza de Mayo, the Catedral Metropolitano and enjoyed our first hand-made alfajores! We got a lot in before 6 pm when our bus left and after a 17 hour, super luxurious bus ride, we arrived in hot and humid Puerto Iguazu! The ride was by far the best one I have experienced thus far, and the longest as well! The seats were big and comfy, there were a couple of movies, and even a snack, a WARM dinner and a breakfast. Unfortunately Laura and I turned down the breakfast because she was serving it at 5:45 am, not knowing that that was our only chance. So when 10 am rolled around we were getting pretty hungry, but it was a beautiful day, and driving through the rainforest in a double-decker luxury tour bus is always kind of fun.
We got in this morning at 11, walked across the street to Hostel Marcopolo where we had made a reservation in Buenos, and then headed out to the park! It was only five pesos (about $1.50) to get there and it was worth all of the traveling we had done in the past week to get here. It really was indescribable and I am so excited to show you my pictures when I get back to Santiago! Until then this is one I pulled up from google images, just so you have a little taste.
We got back and Laura and I headed down to the local cathedral to see about mass times, and luckily we were about an hour and 45 minutes away from the next one! We came back, got cleaned up and headed back to mass at the pink cathedral (I am not quite sure why Argentines love pink so much, but it is A-OK with me!) and got to experience Palm Sunday Argentine style. Me gusta mucho. Now we are awaiting a few more days here in Iguazu and then back to Buenos until Saturday! Agenda for tomorrow: spend the day in the park, check out the trails, and tomorrow night go see the falls by the light of the full moon.
Life is good! Nos vemos!
Ciao ciao
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