A year ago I never imagined that I wouldn't be spending my Halloween weekend dressing up in ridiculous costumes and eating chocolate until I had a stomach ache (although I do this on the reg anyways), but that I'd be visiting one of the biggest waterfalls in the world: Iguazú Falls.
This is one of the trips included with my ISA program so we all met at school Thursday night to start the 16 hour bus ride to the San Ignacio Mission Ruins. You might recognize them from the movie The Mission, or you might not. Conveniently ISA brought the movie on the bus so we were able to watch it on the way up but I may or may not have fallen asleep during it.
What it used to look like
Luckily we had a b-e-a-u-tiful day for the tour. Not.
Thankfully, as ISA always seems to feed us extremely well- usually with all you can eat buffets, we next went to a mate (a type of tea everyone drinks down here) farm where we had a delicious asado, with endless rounds of the best steak I've ever eaten. I feel like I say that line a lot down here. Sorry, but it's true.
Empanads to warm up my hands
Endless carne eating..
This is mate- love it, hate it, or take it with sugar
Then we headed to Puerto Iguazu to wait out the thunderstorms that night
And the next morning..
The falls were out of the question for the day because it was going to be too foggy to see anything even if we didn't mind the rain. Finally though, the rain stopped for just long enough for us to go visit a point up river from the falls where Rio Parana and Rio Iguazu meet to form the border between Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina
Standing in Argentina, Brazil to the right, Paraguay to the left
*fun fact #1: around 70% of the falls are owned by Argentina and the other 30% by Brazil!
Town of Puerto Iguazu
Then the next day it was off to the park! Thank goodness we waited because I couldn't have asked for a better day. Our guide (pictured below, also known as Dora the Explorer) said that there are only a handful of days like we had a year and that we got very lucky.. couldn't agree more.
Tons of Coati- careful they'll literally steal food out of your bag
Walking out to "Garganta del Diablo"
almost there..
getting closer..
BOOM. There it is folks, "Devil's Throat"
How majestic
Then we walked through the park to head towards parts of the jungle where we could get better views of the falls
(land mass on the left is the Brazilian part of the falls)
In the middle of the Iguazú National Park and looking for a place to stay? Why not the Sheraton??
*fun fact #2: Iguazú means "great waters" in Guarani, the native language of the area!
And here's your daily dose of rainbows..
The End.
Definitely one of the coolest places I've ever been, my pictures can do it no justice. Also, it may become a new natural wonder of the world! "Dora" told us it's being voted on next year? One of the other contenders is the Grand Canyon.. dun dun dunnn
hasta luego, and hope you had a Happy Halloween!!
