May 26: 18,164 steps in Iguazu, Argentina

This morning we woke up at 3:00am to go to the airport for our 5:30am flight. As we were in line for bag check the flight got delayed until 8:00am for weather reasons in Iguazu. I had to expand my bag this morning because it just did not want to zip. And I had to check it at the airport because we can only have one carry on, which was my little purse thing. So that was a bummer. But other people in our group managed to slip by with two bags for carry on, so I don’t know how they pulled that off. We played a round of euchre at the airport and ate breakfast. Then around 7:30am the flight got delayed again until 9:00am. I blogged, sorted through photos, and napped to pass the time. We finally took off at 9:30am, 4 hours after we were supposed to leave. The plane was really nice at least. Kristi and I sat next to each other and I had a window seat. The plane had little TVs on each seat, so we watched a documentary on Haggia Sophia in Turkey and Modern Family. When we were landing, the ground snuck up on me because there was a thick layer of clouds. We couldn’t even see the ground until we were less than 100 feet from it. I wish we could have seen it without clouds because it was solid trees for miles. The airport was practically in the middle of the rainforest.

Once we got to Iguazu we took a bus to Iguazu National Park. We had to take a couple of trains to get deep enough into the rainforest to go to the Cataratas Falls. At the train stations there were little cóatis running around everywhere. They look like a mix between an antelope and an ant eater. They weren’t afraid to come right up to us. They were looking for food and would dart on and off of the trains when they were stopped at the stations. Apparently they can be pretty dangerous though, as there were warming signs scattered throughout the park about their claws or teeth cutting deep into your skin if you reach out to try to pet them.

To get to the falls, we had to walk along a series of bridges that led out to them. Most of them went over the water, which wasn’t very deep below us. It looked like a big shallow pond leading up to the falls. There were a lot of butterflies along this initial walk, and they kept landing on us. It was kind of drizzling throughout the day, which is to be expected in the rain forest I suppose.

We could tell when we were getting close to the falls because a big cloud of mist was rising up from the waterfalls. And we were getting wetter. The people walking back from the direction of the falls were pretty soaked.

Once we got up on them, we couldn’t even see the bottom they were so deep! It was the perfect panoramic view because literally everywhere we looked there was water pouring over the edge. It’s difficult to describe them because they were so amazing! I had a plastic bag around my camera and a rain jacket on over my backpack so I was able to view them up close without getting soaked to the bone.

After seeing the first set of falls, we walked back to the main area for lunch, and we saw a couple of monkeys! They were just running around the common area and then ran up into the trees. For lunch I had a cheeseburger (finally!) and some ice cream.

After lunch we went to a different path to go see more of the falls. This path winded through the rainforest most of the time, unlike the previous one. We got to walk over a couple of small waterfalls on this path. Again, the falls were amazing and indescribable! Even the consistent amount of rain coming down couldn’t distract from the views. We could see the bottom of this section of the falls, and could see the boat tours going through them. There were two boat tour options, one that was mild and one that was more intense where they actually drove the boat directly into the falls. The amount of force from the water hitting the bottom only allowed the boats to go so close before it forced them back out to gentler waters.

The path we were walking on was much longer and went deeper into the rainforest, but led to some spectacular views! We made it to the end of the trail just in time because it started to thunderstorm while we were out there, so we headed back.

At the hotel the girls were split up 3 and 3, so Kristi, Reva, and I shared a room. We all showered (although we were all already wet before the showers) and went into town for some dinner. Kristi and I shared a cheeseburger meal and pasta. While we were at the restaurant there were a couple of kids that came up to us at separate times trying to sell us little carved jungle animals. Ana ended up buying a couple from the little girl. These kids didn’t even have shoes on. It was very sad to see. It was strange because they were allowed to just come up to our table in a restaurant and try to sell us things, something that would never be allowed in the states. It was also bizarre that these young kids were just wondering the streets without shoes on trying to tell us things. My thoughts were similar to how I think about a homeless person in the states. Yes, I have pesos to give them, but where is the money really going? Surely not to buy these poor kids a pair of shoes. I made me feel bad for sitting there eating all of this food and refusing to buy a little toy from a kid. This isn’t the first time we have seen kids doing this. It isn’t necessarily uncommon here for people to be selling things on the streets for a little extra income.

After dinner Kristi, Ana, Spodek, and I went out for some ice cream and took a casual stroll back to the hotel, stopping in a few little shops along the way. Since tonight is our only night in Iguazu, we didn’t unpack our bags to the extent we have been in the last few locations. Kristi and I shared a full size bed, watched Disney Channel in Spanish, and looked at pictures from the day. Today was the first day Kristi has taken more photos than me! If you know me, you know I take a lot of photos.

Off to Córdoba tomorrow!