July 1-July 5

July 1- We left around 6pm for the bus station. Our bus was from 7:40-11:30am ish. talk about a longggggg bus ride. it was nice though, because the buses here are "coche cama" .. which is basically like airplane first class. the seats turn into beds. we got dinner, breakfast, drinks, etc, which was quite awesome.

July 2- we arrived around 11:30am in Puerto Iguazu then went to our hostel. The hostel was really nice, with computers, pool, ping pong, etc. We ended up in a 6 person shared room with a bathroom, but it was HOT with no air conditioning (puerto iguazu is on the border of brasil, argentina, and paraguay... so it is like the rainforest, and very humid). We got settled, then went to get lunch and explore the (tiny) town of Puerto Iguazu. I personally really liked the town. It reminded me a lot of the small quaint towns in Costa Rica and Nicaragua, where the people are really friendly and you don't have to worry about being hit by a bus. We had dinner and watched the Uruguay vs. Ghana soccer game (YAY URUGUAY!). We walked to Tres Fronteras in the dark (with no clue where we were going), and eventually found it. This is where you can stand on the Argentina side, and see Brasil and Paraguay (the three countries are separated by a river, and at tres fronteras each country has a statue with their flag colors on it). We also went to a market... of olives. Not kidding. I've never seen so many olives in my entire life (see facebook photos). They eat olives on everything here, especially pizza (but they are the green ones, which I personally am not a fan of).

July 3- We got up early and went on a full day excursion to the Argentine side of IGUAZU FALLS. Going with a tour guide was basically pointless... he only slowed us down, but that's ok. Basically, this place was the most incredible, beautiful, fantastic place EVER. If you don't have facebook, now is the time to make one to look at my photos. It is impossible to describe the falls in words. While at the national park, we watched the Argentina vs. Germany game (where, as you might know, Argentina got slaughtered 4-0)... and I'm fairly certain people actually started crying. Yes. soccer is that important here. That afternoon, there was an optional excursion where you could go on a boat on the river and under one of the waterfalls. I opted not to do it, since it was basically paying 100 pesos to get wet... and I'm glad I didn't since apparently it wasn't really worth it. I, of course, spent my money more wisely in the gift shop (haha... hey... i bought shirts for my whole family)... anyway. what an incredible day. BEAUTIFUL park. I strongly encourage everybody to make it a point to visit this place someday. After we got back from the park, we went to Tres Fronteras again to see it in the daylight. So cool. We were basically standing on the border of the three countries (if I had more time, i could have traveled into paraguay, but the ferry didn't run on Sunday... and I tried to get my visa for Brasil friday when I got there but of course the consulate was closed AGAIN because of the soccer game). We went to the same restaurant we went to to watch the game on Friday. We got delicious beef, veggie, rice meals... and I had 3 daquiris... all of which cost less than 20 USD. how freaking awesome is that. Also, the waiter must have thought I was cute because he put a slice of peach in the shape of a heart on my peach daquiris. haha. In general, the people in Puerto Iguazu are more similar to the people I met in Costa Rica. It's a smaller town, the people are more indigenous... and everyone is SO NICE. I love it. so much fun.

July 4- We got up a little late, and hung around the hostel in the morning. We went into town, had some lunch, and packed up our stuff. We caught the bus around 3pm... yay for another 18 hour bus ride. I wish we would have had more time to either go into Paraguay, or see the Brasil side of the falls.

July 5- Our bus got back around 8:45 this morning... there was a lot of traffic coming into Buenos Aires. I was about 20 min late to class, but no biggie. I'm exhausted. Sleeping on buses is just not a viable alternative to a real bed. Today, I'm just going to unpack and catch up on some sleep.

YAY for a great trip. I took a bajillion photos... see facebook. and I'm really not kidding. If you don't have facebook, you need to make one to see these photos. :)