iguazu falls.

leaving the bliss of cabo, we headed to montevideo. a quiet city, still holding true to the mellow vibes of uruaguay.. with lots of stuff to see and do if you're looking for it. after 2 nights we hit the road once again. heading early to the bus station with the intention of booking tickets to santa fe for that evening, it turned out the bus was full.. our second option, parana? also full.. salto it is. our last option to get north. life seems to be making our decisions for us..



thinking we had the full day ahead of us because 'our' bus was supposed to leave at 6pm, we had arrived at the station by half past 9, and the bus to salto left at 10. so, on the bus we went. getting into salto 7 hours later, we now had to determine how to cross the border back into argentina to continue north. we went up to the ticket booth and asked a woman, who told us we could taxi across. it would be an hour drive and we would arrive just in time to catch a bus from concordia up to iguazu. alright. so we follow this man to the 'taxi'.. which turns out to be his beaten little blue car in the parcade.. and away we go. crossed the border, gaining an hour in argentina and arriving minutes before our bus was supposed to leave. we jumped out of the car and headed to buy tickets. the woman assured us the bus hadn't left yet and would actually be coming a little late, we so were set at ease. bought some snacks and prepped our bodies for the 12 hour bus.



anxiously checking every bus that came into the terminal, we started to wonder whether it had come after all and we had missed it.. we ended up waiting 3 hours in the bus station (finding out later that it was due to a bus strike in buenos aires).. thank goodness for bus strikes, because had the bus actually been on time we would have been screwed. so we boarded our bus and found out much to our surprise that we had purchased first class tickets with lounging chairs and a hot meal.. that made sense after thinking back to our ticket price.. but they were the only seats available, and we certainly weren't complaining. 14 hours later we arrived in puerto iguazu.



yesterday we took the local bus out to the national park to see the falls.. my vocabulary is far too limited to even explain the experience and do it any justice.. they were amazing. it looked just like jurassic park, minus our prehistoric dino friends.. lush misty jungle.. huge green cliffs.. and 275 waterfalls strewn over 2.7 kilometers.. we saw impressive birds.. stealthy coatis.. thieving monkeys.. mutant butterflies.. an armored armadillo.. large web-dwelling spiders.. rode into the park on a little train.. hiked along platforms and off into the jungle on trails.. attempting all the while to capture a portion of the experience through my digital camera lens since my words fall short.

we decided to take a 'nautical adventure' boat tour.. getting a closer view of the falls and a better angle to snap a few photos. for $30 we left the shore and went out about 5 meters, floated for a minute or two.. and then proceeded to drive directly into the waterfalls, soaking ourselves entirely from head to toe. the water splashed down so heavily that none of us could even keep our eyes open, to the screaming delight of everyone else in the boat. someone's marketing idea of a sick joke.. in retrospect, it was hilarious.. but we were bound to spend the rest of the day hiking around in sopping jean shorts and hiking boots. best money i ever spent. sarcasm at it's finest.

last night danelle, mike and i went out for a few drinks on the town.. and today was spent lounging around the pool, catching some sun, reading books, and buying bus tickets for tomorrow. we leave at 12:45 to cordoba, arriving the next morning at 10am.. then leaving cordoba at 6:45, and arriving in mendoza at 7am on sunday. it's going to be a long couple days.. looking forward to some argentinian vino to make it allll better.