Iguazu Falls!! Incredible...

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We caught the bus from Buenos Aires to Puerto Iguazu at 18.15 and the bus ride wasn’t horrible but it wasn’t the best we’ve had either. The food was scant, the legroom was minimal and the sound quality on the movies was subpar. I took a Xanax and passed out promptly after dinner but the sleep was restless and my dreams were scattered. Normally on the bus there are men in uniforms that serve the food and attend to your needs however these guys were basically just dudes in jeans and t-shirts that gave us food and didn’t offer blankets or pillows, pretty dodgy if you ask me. We made it here to Iguazu and it’s a small town, the weather is hot and the ground is covered with red clay, everywhere even on the pavement. It’s a very dense jungle climate here, the trees are huge and everything is lush and green, not to mention the presence of the bugs makes it pretty evident that we’re not in the city anymore. The town is small so when we got here Brett and I wandered around looking for a hostel and finally found one, Iguazu Falls hostel, pretty straightforward. They have a pool and nice clean rooms so that’s a plus for sure. We checked in, jumped in the pool to cool off and then got our lives together and went to the grocery store. We got some things for lunch and also some dinner goods and are now trying to plan our trip to the falls tomorrow and decide what we want to do. There is a Swiss girl here named Andrea and she is also trying to plan her trip tomorrow so I think we may all go together in the morning and spend the entire day. I’ll update later. So last night we made some stir fry with chicken and veggies which were delicious and our new Swiss friend Andrea had some tomato and cucumber salad which was also great. After dinner we smoked a lot of cigarettes and drank a ton of wine and Andrea taught Brett and me a Swiss card game called Janssen. It’s pretty much like Euchre except they play only with the 6 card and above. Also the trump system works the same but you don’t have to follow suit when a trump is laid, you can lay off. It was fairly complicated to learn but not too bad at all, we had a great time and unfortunately for me and Andrea, Brett won, which makes him totally intolerable. Ahhaha. After the card game I went to bed, I didn’t sleep well, I had a bunch of crazy dreams that didn’t really sit well with me but whatever, I woke up late as we all did, had breakfast and boarded our city bus to Iguazu. The bus was going really fast down the main road towards the national park and it broke down! We had to wait on the side of the road for about 15 minutes for another bus to come and pick us all up. It all worked out though and we made it to the park safe and sound. We paid 100 pesos to enter and it was all worth it. We started on the Sendero Verde and went to and saw some of the more majestic falls I have ever seen in my life, and then continued on to the lower trail which was also majestic because we got to see the falls we were just above, from below. It was really unreal. It’s like nothing I have ever seen and certainly the most impressive natural wonder I have ever seen in my life. I can’t even imagine being the first person to discover this beautiful place; they must have been in sheer awe, as we all were. We took many, many photos as you can see on the blog and we were just so struck by how powerful the falls were, and how much water was coming over them at all times. Andrea made us all salami and cheese sandwiches for lunch which were delicious and cheap so we didn’t have to spend any money on food. After we ate we took a speedboat that went underneath the falls and we all got soaked! I had planned for it and wore my boardies and was ok, but the power of the falls coming down just reiterated my original thought of how crazy and huge these falls actually were. The water was just dominating us. After the speedboat we walked to “La Garganta del Diablo” which means the Devil’s Throat. It is the biggest and most powerful waterfall in the national park and it was just crazy. You could barely even see where the falls ended because the water was so fierce, and the mist from the water was rising up to us we could feel it on our skin. After that we walked back towards the trail to the main entrance of the park and wanted to take another trail where our friend Joey said he saw toucans and monkeys however it was closed. There were however so many butterflies like I have never seen before in my life! We were told that they only come out at a certain point in the year but there must have been millions of them everywhere. They were landing on us and staying with us while walking, they were beautiful colors and sizes, as you can see by the pictures. We went in anyway because we’re American men and that’s what we do, we make our own rules and we run shit. Too bad we didn’t see a damn thing on the trail except for a snake, which scared the shit out of me, a couple colorful birds, and some type of groundhog looking creature. We walked back to the entrance and caught our bus back to the city; it didn’t break down this time so that’s a plus. We’re trying to make dinner now but Brett is having trouble lighting the fire due to little incendiary devices and no wood. We’re trying to make it work though. Enjoy the pics folks.

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