I am thankful for my North Face jacket

Thank you to the good folks at North Face for producing clothes for extreme weather conditions. Also thanks to my parents for purchasing such a fine piece of clothing for me in Seattle, days before my trip. You may have noticed that I am wearing it in every picture since Rio, not just because it is soft and comfortable and oh so fashionable, but because it has been so cold! If only I had known. All we heard, weather wise, about Iguazu Falls, is that it is humid and hot because you are practically in the jungle. It is absolutley FREEZING and everyone here, locals included, are freaking out about the weather. Let me tell you about the last time I was warm..

We took an 18 hour bus ride from BsAs to Porto Iguazu. In case you noticed, the number of hours increased since the last blog, but I am not exaggerating. We left at 6pm and arrived at noon the next day. I know what you are thinking, how terrible! I will tell you right now I would pay to get back on that warm and cozy bus. I guess I did pay, so my wish will come true tomorrow on our return bus. The seats are big, they recline really far and even have a foot/leg cushion that folds down so you are almost at a full 180 degrees. We were in a ´cama´(that actually means bed) and there are buses that have a ´VIP cama´for more money of course, but that one really does recline into a full bed. Well, we did just fine with our cama, fleece blanket and quadrangle pillow. My friend had a European math teacher in college that called squares quadrangles and it just stuck with me, I like it. Well, the fun doesn´t stop there. We were on the second level and greeted by a nice young man who gave us some welcome-on-board treats. Shortly after our departure, a movie started, followed by dinner (that was interesting), another movie, sleepy time, breakfast (very interesting) and then..our destination! Let me explain why the meals were so very interesting. Dinner was a cold chopped potatoe with one green olive (yuck - to the olive), three little previously fried but now cold balls of an onion tasting like thing (haha don´t ask, we didn´t want to know), breadsticks, and a bread roll. While curiously eating, the nice man brought us a hot item. How exciting! That other stuff was just an appetizer. Well it looked like mashed potatoes..interesting..I guess it was a Shepard´s Pie. I have no clue what that even consists of. I like berry pies. Moving on to breakfast. It´s a good thing I enjoy carbs more than the average carb-a-phobe because breakfast consisted of: a croissant, a roll, a muffin and some crackers. I´m not joking. All on one individual tray. Not even a little fruit? Oh well, we made it safely and let´s all hope that they switch up the menu on the return bus :)

We found our hostel, dropped our bags off in our private ensuite (that means our OWN room and bathroom, yes!) and talked to the lady working the front desk about getting to the falls. She said Brazilian side is quicker so go there first and save the Argentinian side for Friday all day. Done. It was cloudy and cold but we were used to that in BsAs, AND I have a North Face jacket. Well after taking about 3 different buses, getting our passports stamped again, we were back in Brazil and ready for some good views. WOW WOW WOW. The falls are incredible. The Brazilian side is a little lower so you can go out on these walkways over the water and you get pretty wet from the spray. See picture. We didn´t stay long because it was getting late in the afternoon and since it´s getting to be winter here, it gets dark early. We were freezing after getting sprayed, so we couldn´t wait for 3 different buses before turning to ice, so we took a taxi back. We stopped at a little vegetable and fruit store to get some local produce to make pasta. We were probably his biggest spenders of the day (10 pesos, so a little more than 3 dollars) so the little old man threw in some tangerines for free. Nice people in Iguazu. We made a great dinner, watched some Seinfeld on my mini DVD player and got a knock on the door from the hostel lady saying that our friend was at the front desk. Um, that´s great! But, we don´t have any friends here..?? She said, ´he said his name is Lenny.´OH, another one of Kristen´s friends that she had us email. The last I heard from him he was out of town visiting his girlfriend, but I told him we were staying and Resedencial Uno and I guess he really wanted to be our tour guide. He was showing us on the map all the things we could do on the Argentinian side, so we made plans to meet early the next morning and head out.

After more bread at breakfast, Lynne, Lenny and myself took a bus into the National Park, followed by a train and then A LOT OF WALKING. The views, I thought, were even more incredible. The first walkway we went out on was directly over the biggest fall, Garganto, or something to that effect. We were above it so we didn´t get wet, and even though the sun came out for us, it felt even more frigid than yesterday. But the blue sky with the glistening water was just really really beautiful. I´m sure the pictures don´t capture it, but at least you can see where we were. We did the Devil´s Throat walkway, the Upper Circuit, Lower Circuit, and San Martin Island (the boat ride across a small channel was included in the entry price to the park). Some crazy people paid even more for a 10 minute speed boat ride right up close to the falls and they came back drenched from head to foot. It was hard to feel sorry for them because they willingly paid for it! Lynne felt sorry for them because she thought maybe they didn´t know how bad it would really be. Well it was bad, and they all went over to San Martin Island afterwards, where the sun was hitting, to dry off. Good luck drying soaked denim.

After leaving the falls, but still inside the park, we found a hiking trail. It was a nice leisurely hike, but we were getting pretty tired from all the stairs, ups and downs, and circles we did near the falls. We hiked for about an hour, saw a weird flat nosed animal, some monkeys, coatis, one butterfly and many amazing views!

You can see from the first picture that Lynne is very happy our room is an ice machine and I am very upset. Cut out of the picture is my tiny bed, which is why I am sitting on her bed fit for a Queen, or maybe it was just for the pictures sake. I am getting really good at setting the timer to take our picture. I bet you guys thought we just hired a personal photographer to follow us around. I know, you can complement me later :) My hands are turning purple and typing is getting difficult. Goodnight!