you all met on the bus? that must have been a FUN BUS!

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computers kind of suck in hostels...

SO I PROMISE I will send photos via travelblog and via shutterfly/picasa web when I get back to the states... which is in a few short days!

Rebecca is meeting me in Buenos Aires, so it'll be nice to get a dose of home.

And I haven't even told you about my Iguazu adventure and bus trips!

Seriously, you meet the coolest people on the bus. I seriously arrived for my bus to Iguazu 15 minutes before I the bus was to pull out. I saw Yanna, a girl from my hostel. This guy Simon told me she was also going to Iguazu as we were all waiting for the computer and putzing around that day. I am so glad I knew someone on the bus because the hostel we ended up staying at was the most inconducive hostel to meeting people (which I will explain later). So I met Yanna on the bus and she said there were two Irish girls she met that were also heading in our direction, to the same hostel. And this other guy. We all just kind of met each other right there.

I had the WORST bus experience ever. 1) My semi-cama seat was broken, so I could not even lay down to sleep. and 2) there was a little boy sitting behind me, which normally I would have thought was SO cute. But not at 11pm when he is kicking my chair and poking his head over my seat and playing with it. Needless to say, I got very little to no sleep.

When we got off the bus, however, we had arrived in Iguazu and I met up with Yanna and the other people we met on the bus: Jen, an Irish, Susie a Scottish (although she does NOT sound scottish) and Brady, an American boy from North Carolina. I must say, he was probably the most American boy I had EVER met. When I first saw him, I thought he was a surfer dude from California. When you hear him speak, he is All American. It's kinda funny actually.

While we were at the bus terminal, Yanna and Brady bought their bus tickets because they wanted to go see the Jesuit Missions. I decided I would skip on it and decided to head straight to BA after Iguazu. So Jen, Susie and I bought our bus tickets to BA. I really wanted to do super cama, just for the experience, but we settled for Cama because it got in at a better time.

Then we headed to our Hostel... Hostel Inn... which was BY FAR THE WORST HOSTEL EXPERIENCE I had ever had. It was the hugest hostel I had ever been to... 200 beds or so. And they didn't even know where I was going to be or if there was space. Seriously folks, it's the 21st century. You should have a system that shows who has checked in and out, and what rooms are available. And if someone reserves, you should have a bed for them waiting. I waited 5 hours for my bed. And I didn't even get sheets. I was kind of pissed off because I wasted a whole entire day waiting around, and I kinda wanted to explore the town and just enjoy myself after a horrendous bus ride. Luckily, the group of us camped out at a table. I taught Brady how to make an origami heart out of a dollar bill and he was incredibly excited about it. If we ever become facebook friends, I'll have to share the pictures he took of us and the process of making this photo. And then he went through my camera (he is quite a nosy boy. He almost tried to read my journal!) and saw some cool photos I took while isolating colors. So then I showed him how to do that with the camera and taught him other camera tricks. It definitely made the time pass.

However, by 10pm, I was ready to head to bed since I had gotten ZERO sleep on the bus. Everyone understood, and Susie Jen and I decided to reconvene at 7am to head to the falls. We were going to pray for good weather since it had been raining all day. Yanna and Brady were going to go to the Brazilian side first.

I can't believe I had gotten up SO early, but it was well worth it. We headed to the bus terminal and went and bought our tickets for the bus to the falls. We decided to do the adventure package, which included a boat ride under the falls. I had been worrying about money, but then I decided to screw it. I'm only going to be here once. Might as well experience everything. We were sooo lucky to have good weather, and our timing was incredibly perfect throughout the day.

We took a jeep ride through the jungle. The smells and the vibrant colors of green were AMAZING. The sunshine and the clouds also made it beautiful. I had also never seen SO MANY BUTTERFLIES before. All so different, and all so beautiful and wonderful.

The boat ride was by far the best experience. The boat ride takes you right underneath the water fall and you get completely soaked. I had brought an extra change of clothes, but I didn't use them. I just walked around wet all day. Susie's camera got drenched because I told her it was okay to use it... even though the boat was moving. NEVER pull out your camera while a boat is moving! We got off the boat and met this guy Mark from Boston College. We were trying to dry off and I invited him to join us on our walk and the four of us continued to walk around the park, marveling in the falls, the rainbows and the natural beauty of this area. We were all soo happy it was amazing.

Then we were tired and headed on out, while Mark continued to explore the park since it was his last night there. We were trying to figure out what to do that evening. Cook, go out for dinner, or have the asado. We decided to cook, and the five of us walked to town in the thunderstorm. It was such a beautiful day, seeing it transform from sunshine to thunderstorms and lightning in such a short period of time. Welcome to the jungle and tropical weather! We ended up running into a group of Argentines as we were trying to find shelter from the storm. We passed around some mate and they tried to pass us on some new testament bibles (it was, after all, the Misiones).

We got to the market and got some food, and headed back in a cab to the hostel. Funny thing about the cab. We were trying to have a cab driver take five of us to the hostel. Five, even with her? (pointing to me) Okay. that works. An Argentine made fun of my height! Brady got a good laugh at it because he'd been making fun of my height all evening.

Thus started one of the most memorable, and unforgettable nights of my life which included singing, dancing to random songs while everyone was eating asado, Brady convincing us to get into the pool (i didn't have a bathing suit, so I went in my underwear), while there was a thunderstorm going on. Probably not the smartest decision any of us had ever made, but it certainly was a lot of fun. And me, being completely drunk (even though I didn't have that much to drink... we all blamed it on the altitude) and saying "I swear, i'm not like this! I'm usually the one taking care of others!" or "I'm SO sorry! I'm such a compulsive apologizer!"

And of course, the drunk spanish conversation with my Argentine roommate. Apparently, I'm pretty good at drunk spanish. Maybe it's because your brain doesn't think and it just comes out.

We all cooked that evening and danced and sang to music. I showed everyone the soldier boy dance (thanks Kendra for teaching it to me!) and we laughed and were merry.

I ran into Mark and he said, "How do you know all these people?" I simply told him that we all happened to meet on the bus.

"Must have been a fun bus ride!" and it was. It was great. I keep on telling Susie and Jen how great it was to be spending some time with girls because I had been spending so much time with guys. I was able to talk to them about things that I hadn't been able to talk to guys about. Granted, hanging out with guys is hilarious and fun, but sometimes you need that girl time. And I got a huge dose of it with Susie and Jen. If it weren't for them, I don't think my experience in Iguazu would have been the same. See, the hostel I was staying at was so huge, it was easy to remain anonymous. People hardly went up to other people and talked to them. We tried to invite people into our conversations and to join us, but many people ended up not. I would have been lonely... which would have been fine, but considering that I had met so many amazing people, I wanted to continue on that high. I was so glad to have met these people on the bus. I do meet some great people on busses!

Susie Jen and I decided to spend a second day at the falls. The falls continued to be spectacular, but not as spectacular considering that there hadn't been any sun. We walked through the whole entire day marveling at how great the waterfalls and the jungle were.

When we got back to the hostel, I ran into Rachel, a girl I had met at Portal Del Sur. What a chance meeting! It's so great how you can meet people once, have a connection, and talk like no time had passed. The world is a beautiful place. People are beautiful creatures. And we are so lucky to share in each other's company. She filled me in on what was going on. We ordered food, and headed to our bus and made it there 8 minutes before it was scheduled to leave.

The bus ride was supposed to take 18 hours... but it turned into 21. That's a whole other story about how a 4 year old kept us entertained.

And, I got my wish.

I saw the most amazing sunset over the jungle. A fiery red glow.

I am one happy camper.

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