Mendoza and Iguazú Falls

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I'm way behind on this, but I've been traveling so much in the last two weeks that I've barely seen the house except to sleep. (and I'm leaving tonight for the traveling portion of my trip, which is when things will really get crazy)

The last weekend in July, we visted Mendoza. When I looked out the window as we neared the town, it was as if I had come to a whole different planet. Buenos Aires is a port city full of palm trees and lots and lots of people. Mendoza sits in the desert, and the landscape was a bit of a shock. The area is pretty in a desolate kind of way, but it is very different than the Argentina I was used to. Irrigation (read: garbage and nasty water) ditches line the streets in Mendoza, but the overall effect is surprisingly pleasant. We spent the first day walking around town while waiting for a friend I was meeting there (a girl I'm close with from school back in the US was studying in Chile, and we met up in Mendoza.) We visited the cute little aquarium, which had a giant turtle and a prehistoric fish (the species hadn't changed in millions of years!!), and a lot of nice parks. Once my friend arrived, we went out for the cheapest fancy steak/pasta dinner I've ever had. Even with nice wine, salad, main dish, and a fancy dessert each, the meal was less than $25 per person. We had a fantastic time.

The next morning (Sunday), we left for a vineyard tour arranged through our hostel. We visited two small but award-winning vineyards and tasted several wines at each. We all bought lots of very inexpensive good wine and giggled the whole way back to our hostel. It struck all of us as funny that we had tried 4 small glasses of wine before noon on a Sunday. Only in Argentina.....(Actually, in Germany it would be a beer with Sunday breakfast. People think US college students are bad, but really.....) We, including my friend who had been in Chile, headed back to Buenos Aires that night on the 15 hour overnight bus, arriving on Monday morning just in time for our first industry tour with the school. We visited several local businesses each day, seeing how jam or tennis balls or medications were made. (I have really enjoyed the two weeks of company visits.)

On the day my friend left Buenos Aires, she got sick with a severe case of rather personal and unpleasant gastrointestinal problems. I shared some medication with her (the kind they give all US students leaving the country) and helped her carry her stuff to the bus station. This, as most of you know, came back to haunt me later.

On Wednesday, after visiting the gigantic "Rural," a farm exposition for the whole nation, we left for Iguazú Falls (or, as they are called here, Las Cataratas.) Other than the fact that the bus company played bad pirated American movies (shadows literally walked in front of the screen on the TV) including the Bratz movie, the 18 hour overnight ride was pretty nice. When we woke up the next morning, we were in the jungle! Argentina is so large that it spans pretty much every possible climate, from glaciers to jungle. The jungle is beautiful and more dense than you can possibly imagine. A jaguar could be staring at you from a foot away and you'd never be able to see him through the undergrowth.

We spent two full days at the national park walking the paths and looking at the falls. I can't wait to show everyone pictures. I've never seen anything so immense and beautiful in my life. We got so close to the falls that the spray soaked us. We had enough time to see every single waterfall in the park. We even got to take the ferry across to the island in the river, right between Brazil and Argentina. We hiked around that and got an even better view of the main falls from there. In the evening, we took a half hour raft trip down the river near the falls. An alligator (or crocodile, I can't remember the difference) was floating in the water just a few feet away at once point! You'd never have guessed that just a few dozen meters away, the water was thundering down those huge falls. I always had a vague feeling that someone needed to warn the water where it was headed. There seemed to be no advanced notice before the gigantic drop.

On day three, we got a little crazy. On a whim the night before, we had entered a tourism office in the bus station and discovered that things like zip-lining were very inexpensive. We ended up booking a tour for the third day, along with horseback riding on the following day. The tour included a ride through the jungle in a huge open army-style truck, hiking, zip-lining 40 meters above the ground (sliding through the air on a tiny wire over/among the tree tops) for more than half a mile, and rappelling down a small waterfall. I don't know if I've ever had a more surreal day. I got back to the hostel cold, wet, and completely exhilerated. We had a blast. That evening at the hostel, there was a huge cookout, complete with showgirls in sparkly costumes....yet another strange event in a crazy day.

About 4 am the next morning, I woke on the top bunk to discover that I didn't feel so well. I'll leave out the gory details, but we'll just say that I wasn't feeling my best during the 2 hour private jungle horseback ride. (You who know my well know that once I've paid for something like that, I'm darn well going to do it, whether or not I have to be a bit sick in the bushes on the kilometer-long walk there...) The ride really was a once in a lifetime event, and I enjoyed it despite feeling awful. The bus ride home was unpleasant, and the two days in bed following it were pretty boring, but I'm back to my old self now and ready to start out on the final leg of my journey.

I'll see you all back in the states in less than 2 weeks, with lots of stories from my travels!

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Comments

[Grams Siegert]

Happy Your Okay
The remarks are wonderful, but we will be glad when you are safe and sound in the good old USA, Thanks for keeping us informed. I am headed to church to enjoy the singing of Cheney. It helps me worship to have wonderful music. Love, Grams