The Jungle, Part 1

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I have REALLY been slacking on my blog, but I guess it gives you time to catch up on your reading! Although no new blogs recently, I have been doing a ton; going out at night, getting used to my classes, loving the differences between UCA and UBA, and hangin out with my mom!

This is being written from the balcony of my apartment that I grow to love more and more every day. My mom and Sharon have been in Argentina for a while now and we had an incredible time all last week in the Province of Misiones in Northern Argentina where the incredible Iguazu Waterfalls are. Believe it or not, we actually had the same kind of adventures that made the first part of my trip so memorable. I had a great time exploring Misiones by foot, taxi, and rental car.

Camilo got to our apartment at about 6:15 AM, just a few minutes late. We gave him the keys and walked out the door and caught a cab to Jorge Newbury Aeroparque, a quick 7 minutes away (Literally within walking distance of my house). My plan was instant slumber as I waited for us to reach cruising altitude so I could tilt my seatback back (They get so anal about that stuff). I made what I considered at the time to be a very big mistake and asked my neighbors where they were from. The elderly man on the isle let his wife speak for him as her story was obviously more interesting. She was from Cuba and I learned all about how successful all of her children had been throughout their life. It was interesting for about 15 minutes, and as I felt the short flight time slipping away, more and more of me wanted to be asleep. A few times she said “I’ll let you get to sleep” as she continued talking - my body would get so excited to finally close my eyes until I realized she was still going. Thankfully, I fit in the perfect cat nap just at the end of the flight and felt refreshed as we arrived at the Iguazu airport.

Weirdly, our three bags were the first bags sent on the baggage claim and then no more bags showed up. We found an overpriced taxi and got to our hotel. Although they offered for us to enjoy some coffee from the buffet area, one of the buffet managers not-so-nicely told us we would have to pay $25 each if we wanted anything at all. No big deal, just don’t offer it and then take it away…that coffee was sounding so good…

Making the most of our day, we headed into the national park for the rest of the day. We did the main walking loops and a paid excursion called “La Gran Aventura”. It was neither Gran or an Aventura. The first part felt great on our sweaty selves. On a boat we went up the Brazilian side of the falls, getting up close and personal with one of the smaller waterfalls (I was taking a picture as we went into the waterfall and almost lost the camera). Then the boat took us to the Argentine side and we went in and out of a bigger waterfall 3 times. Then they carefully made sure that the people who hadn’t paid extra got off the boat (the lucky ones), and we zoomed down 6 km of river and got on a ‘safari jeep’. This part was really their way to transport us back to the main part of the park while squeezing out an extra 60 pesos/person (I do not recommend splurging for the gran aventura). However, this little stretch did give us our first Tucan sighting - They were the biggest variety of Tucan in the park (2 of them), and I felt like I had finally arrived to the jungle.

The truck dropped us off at the Sheraton, which is actually inside the park. After a couple wrong turns, we made it to the front of the park and caught the bus back to the hotel. After a much longer first day than we had planned, a fruity tropically alcoholly drink was in order along with some pool time. In town, we decided on El Quincho del Tio Querido for dinner. We got a bottle of wine, chicken and ravioli’s - a somewhat odd variety of dishes for a parilla. Ice cream was the perfect nightcap as we walked around for a bit stumbling across a small crafts fair with a live band in honor of the holiday.

Ema and I headed outside to the soccer field to get acquainted with the Southern Hemisphere night sky. Using the Southern Cross as our guide, we were able to find a lot of the constellations on the map…including Centaurus, my new favorite.

Our next day, we all agreed we wanted to take it easy and ended up taking it a little too easy. By the time we were headed off to the park, it was almost one oclock. Part of the reason we got started so late was that we set up an incredible adventure for the next day. Definitely interested in getting to the Jesuit ruins in San Ignacio, the best option turned out to be renting a car which, as you will read, was a lot of fun for all of us and definitely the best use of our limited time.

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