I hate to start every post on this blog gushing about how wonderful this city is, but I honestly can't say enough great things about this sprawling metropolis and country in general. I've had another great week here and can't believe my time here is almost half way through. Time certainly flies down here, but thankfully due to the Argentine (lack of) sleep schedule there seems to be more hours in the day to do everything! I've been trying to organize the rest of my time down here and have found myself torn between touring the countryside and staying in the city. Its so tempting to stay here in this amazing city, but I think I'm going to try to travel around as much as I can. I mean, how often am I in South America?! I have to do these things while I have this incredible opportunity! (thank you, mom :) )
My classes have been interesting--I'm learning more in this spanish class than I ever have and really think that my "castellano" is improving. Its exciting to have people understand what you are saying and some people have even laughed at my (stupid) jokes! I think I'm getting somewhere! Still, I'm no native and everyone here seems to know it. I was walking on the street today and again, without saying a SINGLE word, some man hands me a flyer (in english) advertising for Spanish classes. "I think you could use these," he said. I wish I had a really witty comback to say to him in spanish but I kind of just frowned at him and walked away. How did he know?! I'm contemplating dying my hair black and carrying mate and a thermos with me everywhere I go (Argentines LOVE their mate--its a kind of tea that you drink out of a fun little cup...they bring it everywhere).
Anyway, my friends and I did a bunch of fun things this week--went to a wonderful Latin American modern art museum called MALBA, took a salsa class, shopped at a (very Americanized) mall, toured a little street fair, saw a bongo show, and went to the supposed "second most beautiful place in the world"--all in the same week! Although I haven't yet seen the number 1 "most beautiful place" (Machu Picchu), I think I'd be hard pressed to give the award to anything other than the runner-up, Iguazu Falls. Granted, I haven't seen many waterfalls in my lifetime but Iguazu was so much more breathtaking than anything I ever seen--including Victoria Falls, one of the seven wonders of the world! The sheer magnitude and power of Iguazu was just astounding and I am so glad I was able to see it.
We started our journey to Puerto Iguazu on Friday night at about 10:00pm and didn't arrive until 2pm the following day. The sixteen hour busride was surprisingly tolerable--thanks to our last-minute upgrade (only $5 more than standard!) that provided us with almost-horizontal beds, wine, champagne, meals, and videos (in english!). We didn't have time to make it to the falls on Saturday, so we decided to have a really early dinner at a adorable restaurant right in town. We were treated to delicious local wine and some of the carnivores on this trip had the Argentine steak they've all been craving.
We woke up early on Sunday morning to embark on our "gran aventura" at the falls. Our tour of the park started with a jeep tour through the dense jungle and dropped us off at the base of the river to begin the "aquatic" part of the adventure. We maneuvered our way around some rapids and then finally got to see the falls head-on. It was breathtaking and so neat to be so close to them. Our crazy boat driver got us super close to the falls and we were all soaking wet and coldddd, to say the least. Still, our wet clothes and freezing bodies were insignificant in comparison to the beauty of the falls and it was easy to forget why we were shivering. We hiked for a few hours more, going from waterfall to waterfall. The chain of waterfalls was so extensive that we had to take a train from one side to the other! The breadth of the falls was just incredible.
I'm looking forward to another few days in the city, and then I'm off to Mendoza next weekend--"the land of sun and fine wine." Unfortunately, there will be even less sun there than there is here at this time of the year--good thing there is still fine wine!
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