OK… so I tried this post yesterday.
And the computer ate my post after an hour or so.
But here we go again with the first 3 days in
Brazil.
Friday and Saturday – Bus trip and Arrival
We left Friday afternoon. We had our own bus which was nice because we could spread out and have two seats apiece, which was much nicer for sleeping. We had three awesome guys taking care of us. (And they’ve continued to take care of us all week.) Andrés is our tour guide. He doesn’t speak much English, but he speaks Spanish slowly enough that even I can generally understand. (Although I’m always afraid that I’m going to miss a key word like no or not that makes what I understand actually be the exact opposite… so I always double check with someone who speaks more Spanish than I do.) He gives extra great advice, like he rates bathrooms for us. Our bus drivers are Palanca and Carlitos. They are really fun too.
We had a good trip up… it was much nicer than when we had to share a bus with strangers. (The bus bathroom stayed much cleaner.) The scenery was beautiful and we just enjoy being together in general. It was also nice to have Andrés take care of all the border crossing too.
After 17 hours on the bus we arrived in Foz de Iguazu, Brazil. We got there early, and so only a few rooms were ready, including my closet of a room, which really was fine. So we went and wandered around for 45 minutes until everyone else’s room was ready. The others got in their rooms then Kimberly, Caitlin and I went to Pizza Hut. (I know… a little sad… but oh it was good.) We then went back to the hotel to recover from a night on the bus. Apparently Rhonda was appalled by the size of my room, so she got Andrés to get it changed for me. So I’m sitting on my bed when Andrés and a bellboy show up. They take me to one room and ask if it is ok. It was fine so I told them to give me 10 min… I don’t think they believed me so they gave me 15. Then Andrés says that they are taking me to another room to see if I like it better. I said it was fine… they wanted to know which I wanted. I didn’t know how to explain that the closet fine so either of the bigger rooms was great. I just stayed in the one we arrived in second. Apparently later Andrés told Rhonda I took the smaller one and he was surprised. Rhonda explained that I’m not picky.
Saturday night, we were supposed to go to the Iguazu Falls for a moonlight tour. But a thunderstorm put a damper on that plan. So we just ate at the hotel.
Sunday – Tres Fronteras and Moonlight Tour
Sunday, we had our own church service in the morning. For lunch we went to a big parilla buffet. Then we headed to Tres Fronteras where Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay all meet where the Iguazu River tees into the Paraná River. Paraguay is to the west of the Paraná, while both Brazil and Argentina are on the East with Brazil to the North or Iguazu and Argentina to the South. Because Brazil and Argentina are bordered by two rivers, they are represented by triangles and obelisks, while Paraguay is represented by a rectangle and a rectangular tower. In the picture Brazil is in the foreground, Argentina is on the left and Paraguay is on the right. We then headed to a big market to look at souvenirs.
Sunday night was clear so we could actually go to the falls. I couldn’t take pictures because it was too dark. So you will all have to come down here and see for yourselves, but it was amazing. The only picture I got was of this big fat frog/ toad. For dinner, we ate at another parilla buffet. We didn’t start eating until 11… so we all really enjoyed it.
Monday – Argentine Side of the Iguazu Falls
Monday morning we were met at 8:30 by Andrés and Wilson, a Brazilian ecologist who was to serve as our tour guide. Wilson speaks English, Portuguese, and Spanish (at least) and seems to know everything. He's pretty amazing, we really like him. On the Argentine side of the Falls we can get close to the falls, as in walk right over the top of them. Apparently you can actually see the falls better all at once on the Brazil side which we are going to later in the week. While Niagara is the largest fall in terms of volume of water, and Victoria is the tallest, Iguazu is the widest. We started the morning with a hike over several of the falls where we got to see lots of falls and lots of animals. Then we went on a boat ride that took us under one of the smaller falls and as close as we could get to the San Martin Falls. It was wild to see the huge splash coming up from the fall and over us. After getting thoroughly soaked, we went on a jeep ride through the jungle. The jungle around Iguazu is a secondary forest, meaning that it had been clear cut and this is the second growth. We then took at train and hiked back to Garganta del Diablo (The Devil’s Throat) which is the biggest most magnificent part of the falls. (Its the same part of the falls we went to the night before.) Then exhausted we returned to the hotel. Rather than trying to describe everything… I’ll just so you some pictures.
The Animals
The Coatis… They are kind of like raccoons.
Small Lizard
Big Lizard
Guinea Pig
A Cayman
Birds’ Nests
The Falls
The first view of the falls
I think this is Salta Goque Barnaraba Mendez
On November 26 when everyone at ACU was in class in cold weather. This Biochem class was in 85 degree weather in Argentina!
With Anne and Caitlin. The big splashy waterfall on the left is Salto San Martin, the one we went as close as we could. Unlike the "little" fall we went under this one was warm.
Why do they call it Devil's Throat, it doesn't look that big... look how calm the river is.
Oh...This is getting serious...
Aaahhhhhhhh!!!!!
Birds and the Rainbow
A bunch of "little" falls.
Something funny about our boatWhen we pulled into the the dock and noticed the name of another boat:
"Holy Spirit" ... so we wondered what the name of our boat was:
Alex!
We left Friday afternoon. We had our own bus which was nice because we could spread out and have two seats apiece, which was much nicer for sleeping. We had three awesome guys taking care of us. (And they’ve continued to take care of us all week.) Andrés is our tour guide. He doesn’t speak much English, but he speaks Spanish slowly enough that even I can generally understand. (Although I’m always afraid that I’m going to miss a key word like no or not that makes what I understand actually be the exact opposite… so I always double check with someone who speaks more Spanish than I do.) He gives extra great advice, like he rates bathrooms for us. Our bus drivers are Palanca and Carlitos. They are really fun too.
We had a good trip up… it was much nicer than when we had to share a bus with strangers. (The bus bathroom stayed much cleaner.) The scenery was beautiful and we just enjoy being together in general. It was also nice to have Andrés take care of all the border crossing too.
Sunday, we had our own church service in the morning. For lunch we went to a big parilla buffet. Then we headed to Tres Fronteras where 
Sunday night was clear so we could actually go to the falls. I couldn’t take pictures because it was too dark. So you will all have to come down here and see for yourselves, but it was amazing. The only picture I got was of this big fat frog/ toad. For dinner, we ate at another parilla buffet. We didn’t start eating until 11… so we all really enjoyed it. 
On November 26 when everyone at ACU was in class in cold weather. This Biochem class was in 85 degree weather in Argentina!
With Anne and Caitlin. The big splashy waterfall on the left is Salto San Martin, the one we went as close as we could. Unlike the "little" fall we went under this one was warm.
Why do they call it Devil's Throat, it doesn't look that big... look how calm the river is.
1 comment:
Wow!! What a beautiful place. The Mission was filmed at Iguazu Falls, so now you're in a beautiful place with some fun movie trivia! I'm glad you're having an amazing time, but come home already! : )
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