Feliz Pascua a todos! I hope everyone had a great Easter, mine was definitely one that will be remembered, but first to tell you about the rest of my trip to Argentina! To begin with, Iguazú Falls was hands-down my favorite part, no contest. After being able to spend nearly a day and a half in the park frolicking through the falls, wandering the trails, seeing little raccoon-like coatis snatch people's sandwiches, taking moonlit tours... it is easy to understand why we all liked it so much. Whenever there is a full moon, for the five nights surrounding it the park does tours to the Garganta del Diablo (devil's throat) to see the falls by the moonlight. It was such an amazing experience and to think that we just happened to be there at the right time with beautiful weather is incredible. We ended up doing the tour and a dinner at a fancy restaurant inside the park where there was some amazing steak and an all-you-can-eat buffet (uh-oh...). We enjoyed some exquisite Argentine dining, fine wine, and even caipiriñas, which are sugary cocktails popular in Argentina and Brazil. It was definitely a different experience to visit the park at night; there were different aromas, sounds and overall a much more tranquil feel than during the daytime. There were a lot of people there and when we were eating dinner the lights went out (which quite frankly didn't surprise me) so we were able to enjoy our fine dinners by candle/cell phone light. The harpist continued to play, almost as if out of a movie. How romantic. We also met some girls from England and California that came with us and it was exciting and inspiring to hear about their travels. The number of people that are simply traveling for five to six months is so cool; there are so many young people just like me who are simply taking advantage of the time and their youth and backpacking through South America. Although I'm technically "studying abroad," I sometimes feel like I'm doing the same thing! 
The next day our bus was not scheduled to leave until 2:50, so the four of us girls walked around Puerto Iguazú, wandered in and out of tourist shops and enjoyed delicious $.75 ice cream cones and believe me, they were worth every peso. It was extremely hot (although no complaints here, I thrive in the warm weather); in fact so much so that even ice cream shops were closed due to the heat! Imagine that! Puerto Iguazú is a really quaint little Argentine town, basically thriving off of the tourist industry being the main gateway to the falls, but one thing that it does have will blow your mind: an uncontrolled 7-way intersection! The Siete Boca, which roughly translates to seven mouths, is pretty interesting and I sure am glad there is nothing like that in Wisconsin! We eventually made our way over (all the way across the street from our hostel) to the bus terminal to await our shuttle to our next destination: Buenos Aires (referred to as Buenos or B.A. in this post). Our 2:50 scheduled take-off time turned into 4:00, so unfortunately we had not eaten lunch and were getting a little testy. About an hour after being on the road we were stopped in the middle of the countryside for another hour and after many detours, pit-stops and practicing our patience we finally had a dinner consisting of three empanadas at 1 in the morning. I will say no more about this bus ride except for the fact that I *publicly* do not recommend the company Expreso Singer because a 17-hour ride can quickly turn into 22.5 hours. 
After arriving in B.A. we all took much needed showers, ate a wonderful meal and got ready to enjoy our time in one of South America's biggest metropolis'! The next few days are all sort of rolled into one: we did some sight-seeing, went to a famous cemetery in La Recoleta which was really cool, and we even got to see the tomb of Evita (Eva Maria Duarte a.k.a. Evita, wife of former Argentine president Juan Peron). We went to La Boca neighborhood which is famous for its colorful buildings, traditional Euro-Buenos flare, and a bunch of artesanas, tourist shops and restaurants.
We had lunch at a nice little restaurant where I decided I would order the milanesa completo, because here in Santiago the "completo" signifies lettuce, tomato, avocado and mayo (I usually nix the mayo), but apparently in Argentina it means cheese, ham, tomato and lettuce...not the same. Needless to say my sandwich turned out to be a fail, but it was still fun being entertained by the tango dancers on the stage and Lyndsey and my Kiwi friend Yvonne got pulled up to dance with them!After finishing up in La Boca we made our way across the city to the cemetery and spent a little bit of time oohing and ahhing at the extremely ornate and decorated tombs.
Our last night in B.A. we ended up going to a tango show and there was a special promotion with our hostel that included transportation, a free lesson, an amazing meal and a show all for roughly $45US. Not a bad deal! It was a lot of fun to get all dressed up and go experience a little more of the Buenos flare, and the tango is just such an amazing dance when the dancers are good! For dinner we had amazing Argentine steak (jugoso or medium rare) with all-you-can-enjoy red wine, followed by a delicious brownie for dessert. They even invited people to dance with them during the show and I decided to accept the offer and danced with one of the performers! Everyone was in agreement that the night was a success after two previous nights of letdowns with the discotheques and afterward we came home, had ample time for girl talk and hit the pillows. Karrah, Lyndsey, Laura and I got up nice and early to go catch our ferry back to Uruguay and made it there in about an hour, which was MUCH faster than the amount of time it took to get there! After getting to Colonia we took a bus back to Montevideo, grabbed some lunch to use up the rest of our Uruguayan pesos and before we knew it we were back in the airport, laughing and getting ready to board the plane. The plane ride was great, until of course we approached the Andes where the pilot advised everybody to stay in their seats and buckle up. I wondered why because I figured it would be just like flying over any other piece of land, but I soon realized why when we took a 45 degree nose dive and were experiencing some heavy turbulence. It is the norm when they cross the cordillera; I'm assuming because they have to make it over the mountains, it just caught all of us off-guard. I made it back home and realized just how much I missed Santiago when I heard the passport guy use the phrase "al tiro" which is exclusively and also very frequently used in Chile. I do love the Spanish here and would absolutely love to have the ability to speak like they do.
After visiting a couple other South American countries I really do prefer Chile and one of the reasons is that overall Chile is a much safer and secure país (country). It is the only country in South America where the cops cannot be paid off with bribes and there is also not the problem of counterfeit money as much as in other countries. Little to my knowledge I was handed a 50-peso bill in Argentina and when I went to exchange it for Chilean pesos at the airport I was informed that it was false. Due to the fact that it is actually about $14 I decided that I could not just throw it away, so I found a convenience store where luckily the cashier was not very attentive and ended up taking it. Technically, had I never gone to the currency exchange place I never would have known, so it's okay that I did that, right? Right. I also did get ripped off when I went to buy a glass of milk and paid with Argentine pesos and got 2 Uruguayan pesos in return, when I should have gotten 24. I may be a gringa but I'm not stupid.Today was Easter and I finally got to experience a little bit of the tight-knit family life that most Chileans have. Almost all of Mama Maria's family came over and after going to mass at Las Nieves with Laura I ate lunch and sat around talking and sharing with the family, watching three-year-old Esperanza hunt for huevitos (little chocolate Easter eggs) and just enjoying some new and some familiar faces in the comforts of my own "home". Also, I have never seen people eat as much meat in one sitting as I saw today: fat and all! Carlos grilled out and returned with new pieces of meat every 20 minutes for a few hours and some people just do not turn him down! People actually laughed at me for staring but it was just something I have never seen before, even with my own dad!
I am excited (as well as Mama Maria) to stay in Santiago for a while and practice Spanish, catch up with my studies (and my sleep schedule!) and actually experience life in this city for a while! I hope you enjoyed my trip to Argentina!
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