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!