Yes, 17 hours.
We bought a bus ticket from BA to Iguazu, packed up our supplies, and Jessie, Lean and I headed out on Thursday afternoon after class. The bus ride really wasn't bad. However, our bus was about 45 minutes late which worried us a little because usually the long distance buses are on time.
We met a girl from New York named Ola who is traveling around South America for a month. She got fired from her job, her boyfriend broke up with her and she got evicted from her apartment... all in less than a month!!!
So what did she do? She applied and go unemployment, booked a plane ticket and started traveling. Side note -- Ola knows maybe 5 words in Spanish. That's it!! That's a brave girl right there if you ask me.
Finally our bus came and we got on board. For this trip I only had two backpacks... on on my front and one on my back. Suitcases are too difficult to carry around when traveling like I do here.
We had dinner, a cold and hot meal with wine... lots of wine. The steward was kind of coming on to us... asking if, ya know, he could marry us and all. Instead of marriage, I just asked for tons of wine.
I slept pretty well but you can only sleep so well with cama (bed)... which isn't exactly a bed but more like an awesome recliner.
We arrived to Iguazu around noon. We got some milanesa for lunch then went to Tres Fronteras which is a viewpoint from Argentina where both Brazil and Paraguay are visible. We went right at sunset which was the most beautiful time to go!
Hey look! Brazil!
Monument at Tres Fronteras
Viewpoint from Argentina; Paraguay on the left and Brazil on the right
We got snacks and food for Saturday's hike through the Iguazu park.
The park was amazing!!!! We took a cab, which our hostel booked for us, to the park. It was only 50 pesos each (Ola, Leah, Jessie and me).
Iguazu is also often compared with Southern Africa's Victoria Falls which separates Zambia and Zimbabwe Iguazu is wider, but because it is split into about 275 discrete falls and large islands, Victoria is the largest curtain of water in the world.
Iguazu currently has the second-greatest average annual flow of any waterfall in the world, after Niagara, with an average rate of 61,660 cu ft.
First we took a boat down the river and we got so close to the waterfalls that we were soaked! Luckily we wore our bathing suits! They gave us big waterproof bags to put our things in during the ride. We didn't go directly under the falls because that would have definitely crushed us with the power of the water. We got damn close though.
There are different hikes you can do including the lower sector, the upper sector and Devil's Throat.
Lower sector
Upper sector
Devil's Throat
Long story short: Upon seeing Iguazu, the United States' First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt reportedly exclaimed "Poor Niagara!"(which, at 165 feet, the Niagara falls are a third shorter).
The park was amazing -- one of the most incredible things I've ever seen.
To get to Devil's Throat, we had to take a free in-park train up and walk along a massive bridge over the a large source of the waterfalls.
The power from the falls was actually a bit scary. I couldn't imagine someone ever surviving a jump from Devil's Throat. The force was magnificent.
Instead of taking the train back down the falls, we took an ecological tour down the river. However, right when we got on the boat it started to rain... lame. There were three French guys on the boat with us all working in Brazil. They were good company for the ride.
We all had life vests and the guys and I also had ponchos. Leah made a funny saying that the Frenchies looked like the Hunchback of Notre Dame... LOLZ. Jokes on jokes.
Well, our backpacks, everything inside our backpacks and our sneakers got soaked... but we saw some awesome wildlife! We saw toucans (one I named Toucan Dan) and a monkey!
It was a great, great day :)
That night we went to a nice restaurant and got some free Brazillian drinks called Caipirinhas. They kinda tasted like Pisco Sours (the Peruvian national drink). Tons of lime in em! We all ordered all different things like fish, steak, gnocci, salad and rice and vegetables. Soo yummy!
That night we all sat outside and enjoyed (a lot) of fernet and cokes and wine... even yummier! Paul, a guy from France that we met, Misha, a guy from Montreal, Ola, and other people from IES that stayed in the same hostel as us all hung out outside drinking and having fun.
Paul was traveling around then ran out of money in Iguazu so he decided to volunteer at the hostel for 40 pesos a day... aka nothing. He knew some English but not much. He seemed super into me but I wasn't into it. He was cute... but that's about it. Steven is better :)
We got pretty drunk then most of us went to bed, it was just Ola, Paul, Misha, Mindee and me left so we took a walk around town... the town was literally deserted from elections that day. We had a whole dog pack following us though. They were awesome and so friendly.
Then we got back to the hostel and decided to jump in the pool... and play Marco Polo (ironic because we were staying in the Marco Polo hostel). It was a great time but it was so late so Mindee and I headed to bed.
The next day we were going to go to the animal reserve but we thought hanging out in the pool and drinking fernet and coke and beer sounded better... and that's exactly what we did. An Australian and two Argentines joined us which was fun.
Then our bus was at 3pm. We got back to BA around 8:30 and I showed up just in time for my 9am Spanish class... go me...
Iguazu was amazing... next weekend is my last traveling weekend and I'm heading to Calafate! Studying abroad is seriously the coolest thing ever :)
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