Iguazu Falls

Argentina

Iguazu

March 19-21 Tuesday through Thursday

Monday night after finally getting in to Puerto Iguazu we realized we definitely weren’t in Central America anymore! The days of $15 hotel rooms are so far behind us, I can’t even remember what that was like anymore! After asking around we made took a 20 minute journey away from any lights, town, and civilization and found a place called La Hosteria Mola. Nothing fancy about it, but it included a free breakfast (bread and butter) and had a tv smaller than an ipad screen, what more could you need? Tuesday morning, after filling ourselves up on the free bread, we headed up to Iguazu Falls. All I can say is A-MAZ-ING! I feel like I had it built up in my head from everyone telling me how awesome it was, but being there and seeing it was unreal.

While waiting at the bus stop to go to the falls we had  started talking to this Argentine couple Yesica and Marcelo. They were from Buenos Aires and were vacationing around the north for a couple weeks. They were so nice and we ended up spending the whole day with them. It was great to have some company as well as someone to take our picture! :) When we got back from the falls we met them at their hotel because they had wanted to buy some dollars from us, when we got there they treated us to sandwiches, some kind of typical Argentine egg meat thing, and this awesome apple soda. It was so sweet!

*On a side note, for those of you who haven't heard, Argentina has some weird things happening with their money right now. Basically the government is limiting the ability for the Argentine people (or anyone in Argentina) to buy US dollars. The inflation is off the charts and they want to keep the pesos in circulation instead of everyone buying up dollars. So, basically what that means is the official exchange rate that you get from banks, hotels, bus companies etc. is right around 4.9 pesos to $1. However in Buenos Aires there is now what's called the Blue  Market, it's basically a black market for people who want dollars but can't get their hands on them so they're willing to pay significantly more to get them. When we first got here it was just over 8 pesos to $1 and now it has jumped to around 8.75 to 1! It doesn't take a brainiac to figure out that 8 is better than 4.9! :)

Welcome to Iguazu, help yourselves to a cheesy picture in front of our classy sign!

On the train up to the falls! Entrance in to the falls was significantly cheaper for Argentines than for us and Yesical and Marcelo were so cute and tried to get us in on the local pricing. They told us to be quiet when we got to the ticket window and after getting their tickets the lady asked where we were from and they just kept telling her, oh, it's fine, these are just our friends. She wasn't buying it one bit but we really appreciated the effort!

This was a wild ride, they even had to post the speed limits for the conductors, who must sometimes get wildly out of control, at 8kmph!

Map of the Argentine side of the falls, the Brazil side is off to the left and has a completely separate entrance.

These little Coatie’s were everywhere, at first I was like, “Oh, how cute let’s get a picture of one of them trying to get my food!” But then after they viciously snatched away my half full bag of chips and tried to make a run for it  I was like, “Oh, no he didn’t! It‘s on now! Nobody messes with my $3 bag of chips and gets away with it.” 

This sign would have been a lot more useful before I was viciously attacked with nothing to defend myself but the fear of hunger that would come to pass if I let them succeed!

It tastes like rain... These are the walkways all across the river to the falls, they go on for what feels like miles.

On our walk across the bridge to the first set of falls we saw a massive spider, birds, fish, and this turtle just chilling out of the water.

And this croc! I realize this seems kind of puny, but we got caught up in the rush of the crowd taking pictures of anything and everything that came our way!

Our first view of the falls, we were in awe until we realized....

Waabam! So much cooler! Here's what they call the Devil's mouth.

Now here's the Devil's Mouth with me in front of it... Way better, true?

And more, in total there are over 75 water falls here, McKay personally counted... via wikipedia on the internet...

There's an old Argentine myth, maybe you've heard, that says fame and fortune will come to those who capture a rainbow above their heads while waterfalls flow in the background... No?

A view of the bottom part of the falls, behind the island and higher up is the Devil's mouth and to the left is Brazil.

And then we saw some  more waterfalls and it was like, what? Where did these come from? :)

And all the girlies say he's pretty fly for a white guy!

There's definitely a reason this is considered one of the 7 new natural wonders of the world!

In addition to these amazing falls, we also captured an alien on camera wearing a green vest...

"I. Am. Sparticus!" I'm pretty sure that's what I heard McKay yelling as he was posing for this picture!

These are like the babies of the falls.

Wednesday we explored the town of Puerto Iguazu, got some laundry done and figured out buses for our 20 hour journey to Buenos Aires the next day. For lunch we ate at this typical Argentina Parilla, which means grill. Argentina is known for it's awesome meat and every restaurant you pass has a big grill where you can watch them cook up plethora of different kinds of steaks, chicken, seafood etc. It's like a vegetarians worse nightmare! :) Also apparently ciesta time is alive and well in these parts, we tried to go to the grocery store in the middle of the day on Wednesday and it was closed. We didn't get it until we saw that the store hours were from 8-12 and then 4-9, must be nice having a 4 hour break in the middle of the day!

This isn't the best picture, but every time we walked past this gas station in town there was a line of at least 25 cars going clear down the street waiting to get gas, it was crazy!

While at the grocery store getting some stuff for dinner the power went out. Luckily they had generators, but we did have to walk home in the pitch black down the sketchy road to our hotel with only our rape whistles to protect us... This is us enjoying our romantic ham and cheese sandwich dinner complete with headlamps for candles while the power was out.

Thursday we got checked out of our room and hung out until our bus left. We got on the bus at 2 and settled in for a long ride. We ended up riding with Expreso Singer on a double decker bus. It was so nice, had seats that reclined more than 45 degrees, didn't smell like throw up and we even got midnight empanadas and sprite. If that's not classy then I've probably been away from classy for too long to recognize it anymore. The only downside to the bus was the endless customs stops we had to make. We had immigration officers get on the bus no less than 7 times and ask to see our passports and give us the stink eye every time, it was unreal! Especially because we were in the same country the whole time, I don't know what their issue was. Later we realized that at some point during the bus ride and probably one of these checks, we had a bunch of stuff stolen out of our bags. Both of our nice rain coats, head lamps, camera battery charger, and another cord that I'm sure they thought they needed more than us. I mean seriously, we've been traveling on the sketchiest buses possible for the last 3 months and the first legit bus we take in Argentina and it's game over. Who does that kind of thing? Luckily we're just heading down to check out a bunch of glaciers so it's not like we would have needed our coats anyway right?... (Said with sarcasm.) Other than that things went smoothly and we made it in to Buenos Aires at about 9:30 on Friday morning!

While waiting for the bus I was craving pickles like crazy and finally made McKay buy me this jar, I then proceeded to basically finish them off in the same sitting and made myself smell like pickles for the rest of the day... Oops!

Yesica and Marcelo were so sweet and came to say goodbye to us at the hotel. They then walked us to the bus station and helped us carry our back packs the whole way there, they are the best!

Costa Rica and Paraguay

Costa Rica

La Fortuna
Wednesday March 13

Costa Rica here we are!  Tuesday night we had checked in to La Chorza Inn for $35. Between that and cokes jumping up to $2 a piece we were in a state of shock at how much everything was costing! Luckily the hotel included a pretty decent breakfast in the morning so we made sure to stuff ourselves sufficiently. After breakfast we took our stuff and moved to Hostel Backpacker, it was the same price but it wasn’t ant infested and it had AC! :) La Fortuna is a really cool little town and a big hot spot for tourists, it is on the north east side of Lake Arenal. They have zip lines, canopy tours, horseback riding all that fun high adventure stuff. Wednesday we decided to walk to the waterfall Catarata De La Fortuna (which means waterfall of La Fortuna, someone must have put a lot of thought in to naming this one...) . Instead of paying the $20 to have a taxi take us there and back, we opted to walk the 8 km each way, haha! We tried hitching a ride from someone, but apparently nobody felt bad enough for the Gringos on the side of the road to stop and let them in. Luckily the waterfall was amazing so it was totally worth the long arduous walk even if McKay did get blisters from his man crocs and had to walk barefoot half the way! :)

Waabam! We made it!

Luckily it wasn’t all bad news when it came to the prices here, I mean check out this sweet offer, buy two 2 liters and receive a free can of tuna. Seriously, who doesn’t love free tuna!? :)

The sure and steady path down to the waterfall…

First view of the waterfall in the jungle!

McKay chose to wear this shirt ironically today, because clearly walking 16km is anything but lazy....

Swimming under the waterfall!

By the time we got down to the swimming hole we were the only ones left. This is McKay just lookin like a boss swimming under a 75 meter waterfall! The current was so strong he kept putting his head down and swimming as hard as he could and wouldn't move anywhere.

Don't be fooled by the smiles on our faces, this water was freezing freezing freezing!

Thursday March 14

Since our hotel no longer included a free breakfast we spent half the morning wandering around looking for a cheap place to eat and then ended up settling on granola bars anyway. :) After that we caught a combi for $6 each up to the Volcano Arenal National Park. Normally it's $10 each to get in but for some reason when we got there the guy told us it was free that day! Our first thought was, "Wahoo, we can afford lunch now!" :) We spent the day walking around the park, they had some awesome viewing areas of the volcano, unfortunately 90% of the year it's completely covered by clouds. They also had an awesome jungle walk where we got to see all kinds of different birds and little animals. I was fine until about half way through the walk McKay asked me how many snakes I had seen, after that things are kind of a blur as I was basically running back to the entrance.... :) By the time we got done we had just missed a combi and were going to have to wait 2 hours for the next one, so we tried our luck at hitch hiking again and got picked up by the second car that passed. It was an empty tourism van and the guy was so nice and wouldn't let us pay at the end, we were beyond stoked! We came back and had a late lunch at a locals only type shop, that was awesome and cheap! 

Just imagine a volcano hidden behind that beautiful cloud cover!

Here's a map of the park that proves there really is a Volcano up there!

We're nothing if not risk takers

This is the amazing view we had for lunch, the Volcano to our back the lake out in front!

Another shot of the lake!

This tree is 40 meters tall and over 400 years old and it's the only one like it in the middle of the jungle, cray cray!

Stumbled across this little guy walking down the path, a few minutes later we found the rest of the herd!

We've resorted to looking like drunks walking around with our 1 liter bottle of Coke everywhere we go. It's the cheapest way to buy it, never mind all the stares! :)

If that's not a classy dinner, I don't know what is! :)

This book's been good too us! Unfortunately it's now dead weight so we had to say goodbye.

Friday March 15

Woke up and took the 4:30 a.m. bus to get to San Jose for our flight to Paraguay! Got to the airport and found out once we got in to Asuncion we were going to have to buy a $160 visa each, talk about a shock to the system! After a layover in Panama and a 3 hour time change, we got in to Asuncion around 11:40 at night. It took us another hour and a half to get through customs and get our Visa sorted and by the time we got out the ride we had arranged to our hotel was gone. Luckily the airport had wifi so we were able to call the hotel and they sent the driver back. All in all we didn't get in to bed until well after 2, we were exhausted!

This was our first real drinking fountain in 3 months! We were legitimately stoked to see free water like I've never been stoked before and made sure to take full advantage of this opportunity!

Panama, where you can pay $12 for the $6 burger!

Our $320 photo shoot and he didn't even get my best side!

Paraguay

Asuncion

March 16-18

Saturday March 16

We were so tired from the night before but woke up in a panic because breakfast only went until 10:30, luckily we made it down in time and on our way we were finally able to take in our hotel. Because we were getting in so late we had to book a hotel that had 24 hour reception service and the cheapest we could find was $66. It ended up being an inn that was attached to a 5 star hotel! The hotel was so nice, and the inside reminded me of a slightly run down version of the Grand America. The bonus to staying on the inn side was that we got the same fancy breakfast as the hotel guests, it was a big buffet spread with lots of breads and cheeses and fruit, we loved it! That day we walked around the main square of Asuncion and checked the city out. It is a really cool city that has so much personality, lots of high rises and old buildings, the only downside is it is so run down. Half the buildings in down town are abandoned and covered in graffiti and everyone warned us over and over don't go out at night and stay away from certain areas even in the day! We didn't have any problems, but it definitely isn't the kind of place I'd take a kindergarten class on a field trip! :)

The amazing view from our room! Fun fact, Paraguay was the first South American country to gain independence which they did in 1811, they also built the first train system on the continent. Now you're jealous right?

Massive room complete with a King size bed! It was so far from one side of the room to the other, I had to stop for a water break every time I tried to do the crossing in one swoop. 

No bathroom is complete without a bidet (yes, that's the correct spelling, I looked it up and everything!)

A statue commemorating something important that happened at some point in Paraguayan history, I'm sure...

Sunday March 17

We still hadn't acclimated to the time and barely made it down for breakfast again! After that we headed out to find a ward and from there walked to the black market! It was a good thing we had our hearts set on the black market because it was a long ways away. Luckily we found lots of goodies for super cheap when we got there! For example, we are now the proud new owners of some sweet $3 Ray Bans, a $4.50 Adidas sports watch, and a plethora of cheap knock off soccer jerseys! Paraguay is like the China of South America, all the Brazilians and Argentines come there to buy everything. Later we came back and enjoyed some pool time. That night we ate a cute little outdoor restaurant right on the main square.

The two story church complete with a family history center, institute and anything else you could possibly want from a church building. I intentionally dressed to try and blend in with the church this day....

Mercado, I am clearly pumped to be there!

They didn't actually serve any juice here, I mean with a name like pulp I expected there to be juice, but sadly no juice...

Monday March 18

After enjoying our final gourmet breakfast, we took a public bus to the bus station and found a bus to Ciudad Del Este, which is right on the border of Argentina. We got there around 5:30 and had to wait around until 7 for the last and final bus to Puerto Iguazu in Argentina. After thinking we had everything squared away we got on the bus and told the driver we needed to stop at Immigration to get our passports stamped, it doesn't always stop because the locals don't have to check out of the country. Unfortunately he had his own plans of what was going to happen and just drove straight through. The problem with this was that it is not a straight shot in to Argentina, we had to pass through Brazil first, which requires an expensive visa as well, so we couldn't just get off the bus and head back to the border. We were sweating bullets when we finally got to the Argentina border worried they weren't going to let us in and imagining all the terrible things that were going to happen to us when they took us in to the interrogation room to torture us until they realized we didn't have anything to hide. As it turns out that was the least of our problems and they didn't care one bit about us not checking out of Paraguay. What they did care about was us having to pay another $160 reciprocity fee! This is much different (said sarcastically) from a Visa and is charged solely based on the cost that Argentine's have to pay to apply for a Visa to the US. The fee allows us to come and go as we please for the next 10 years, too bad we'll never be able to travel again because of how much it cost, ya know it's like a catch 22... They started charging for these in 2009 but at first only for flights coming in to Buenos Aires and then of course, as is our luck, in January of this year they changed it to encompass all entry points in to Argentina. I'm just gonna tell you, that one hurt a lot!

Classy final breakfast! We fit right in with our t-shirt, jeans, bad breath, and bed head from waking up and heading straight down to breakfast! :)

Fancy pool! If only I could get my husband to show a little personality in these pictures...

Excelsior Inn! Goodbye old friend...

This was my face after realizing that we had paid to use a nasty bathroom in the bus station in Ciudad Del Este, and there had been a free one behind us the whole time! :)