Buenos Aires has been its own challenge, and focusing on figuring out the city and how to do basic tasks has been my main task. I am learning how to communicate in Spanish and how things are done in Argentina—for example, why I am offered a straw when I buy a bottle of Coca-Cola light or why I need to show identification when I want to use a credit card.
So with no school this past Monday (national holiday to celebrate the death of José de San Martín, liberator of many countries in South America from Spanish rule), I decided it was time to take my first excursion outside of Buenos Aires. A group of friends and I planned to travel to Iguazú Falls, one of the world’s natural wonders.
We left Thursday night from Retiro bus station, an enormous bus terminal near the center of the city. As has been one of the themes of my time in Argentina, I had difficulty finding the right bus—on the ticket, it says the bus will be in section 37-51, but not the actual gate number. Many buses were leaving for Iguazú, so we searched and finally found what we needed. We elected to take the cama (bed) bus where our seats went almost all the way back for the almost seventeen-hour each way. There were movies playing the whole trip, and breakfast and dinner (although not particularly tasty) were served. I am very curious about who is responsible for picking the movies on the bus, as we watched The Hangover (English with Spanish subtitles), Life of Pi (Spanish dub), Argo (Spanish dub), The Intouchables (French with Spanish subtitles), The Dark Knight Rises (English with Spanish subtitles), and more that I cannot remember.
Upon arriving Friday afternoon, we checked into El Guembe Hostel House, our lodging for two nights. At $8.25 a night, I wasn’t expecting much, but the hostel met our needs and was in a good location. The next morning, we were ready at 8:10 a.m. to head to Iguazú Park. We took a cab (this was the same cost as taking the bus?), and our driver decided we were a good opportunity to practice his English. He told us that we had to visit Devil’s Throat Waterfall, and described it as the “strawberry on top of the dessert” of our trip.
Once we got to the park, we took a ride through the forest to learn more about the plants and animals that live in the area. Afterward, we got to ride on a boat near the falls. This was hands-down one of the coolest experiences of my life. I cannot do it justice with words.
View of the falls from the boat
Approaching the falls. After this photo was taken, we were instructed to put our cameras away "unless we wanted them to take a shower."
A little wet after the boat ride. Because we went early in the morning, the sun was facing the right direction for us to see rainbows on our boat ride.
At Devil's Throat waterfall
We spent the whole day at the park, hiking and exploring the waterfalls, every view more beautiful than the next. The next day, we walked to La Triple Frontera (The Triple Frontier), where in one view we could see Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina. The view was beautiful, and it was just very cool to be at the intersection of all the countries. After a nice picnic overlooking the Iguazú River, it was time to head home. We left around 3 p.m. and returned to Buenos Aires the next morning around 10:30 a.m.
At the borders of Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil. We're standing in Argentina, Paraguay is on the left and Brazil is to the right.
I could not have had a better weekend. There was a smile on my face for the entire trip, from the beauty of the nature around us and also from the fact that my friends and I planned a successful trip in a foreign country by ourselves. If I could go back to the falls tomorrow, I certainly would.