Mi Vida en Argentina: This one's gonna take a while.

So I hope you're sitting in a comfortable, cushiony chair with a cup of joe next to your screen, because what I'm about to cannonball into is going to take me quite a while to explain. Once again, I just had a mind-blowing weekend, and I'm not even quite sure where to begin. It's funny, updating this blog is kind of like watering plants- I intend to nourish it and give it attention, but somehow it ends up neglected...

So here we go. Last week was a pretty relaxing week, I had classes every day.. went to a Japanese botanical garden with some girl friends, explored some new restaurants, and went to the eco-reserves at the tail end of the subway line. That was actually a perfect day- I skipped school with a few other kids on Friday (we're allowed to skip school twice per trimester) and explored the reserves. It was a pretty long walk to even get there from the subway station, so when we finally got to the park we saw that there were bike rentals- which was PERFECT! We rode around the reserves for a little over an hour, it was so refreshing to be on a bike and outside the city for the afternoon. On our way back from the park we stopped at a vendor and chowed down on some choripan (sausage) sandwiches... unfortunately later that night I was tasting it a second time around on the toilet :( Lesson learned, no more street vendor sandwiches.

We got up at 3:45am (I didn't sleep though since I got sick only a few hours before that) and met at the ISA office by 4:30, took the bus to the airport, only to realize that the entire airport system was down and they couldn't check anybody in! There were hundreds of people laying on the floor of the lobby waiting for their flights... and a few hours into the wait, the employees finally realized that they could do the process (though obviously time-consuming) manually. DURKA DURRRR! Haha, after that we hopped on our plane and were in Iguazu within 2 hours. It was amazing, the pilot flew over the falls for us as sort of an apology for our delay. From that high up it obviously looked incredible, but there was also a part of me that thought it looked a little small! Little did I know...

We got off the plane and headed right for our hotel, threw our bags in our rooms and took a 15 block walk to an overlook in a nearby neighborhood. It was a cool taste of what we had to come- while we were obviously standing on Argentine soil, to our left we could see Paraguay and to our right was Brazil! A forking river separated the three countries, so we were standing right at the Argentine peninsula. I loved that we got to walk there too, it gave us a chance to get off the main roads and really stroll through some authentic neighborhoods. The soil in that area of Argentina is a really dark maroonish red, and because of its rich color and overall saturation, it will stain anything it touches. We were warned to wear flip flops- otherwise that color stays on sneakers for ages. Anyways, seeing the dirt roads, stucco houses and Moroccan rooftops scattered about the rural town was a pretty great way to start the weekend. After catching a glimpse of the view, we were free for the evening- so to celebrate Albert's 21st birthday, we all went out for some delicious Japanese food at a nearby restaurant. We ended the night with ice cream, the hotel's hot tub and lots of snuggling!

The wake-up call at 6:30am the next morning was a pretty rude awakening after only getting a few hours of sleep (remember, I didn't sleep at ALL the night before), but the silver lining was that the hotel provided an American breakfast. That, my friends, is rare- eggs are only for making tartas around here, not for scrambling in the mornings. After indulging way too much in free food, we hopped on the coach bus and were at the Iguazu National Park by 8am. We had a tour guide for pretty much the whole weekend, which really allowed us to see the best parts of the park. She also gave it in English & Spanish- our guide knew 4 languages! We spent hours and hours walking around the paths of the park, and honestly, I'm not sure how to describe it to you guys. As we walked further into the jungle, the air got fresher, the animals got more tropical, and I could hear the water forcefully flowing in the distance. When I caught that first glimpse of the falls, I really thought I was dreaming. I had to repeatedly pinch myself throughout the day- seeing the mass amounts of water cascading down these cliffs, never-ending, constantly surging forward... it was a really powerful experience. Spiritual, actually. Even though I didn't want to miss a second of it, multiple times I caught myself closing my eyes just to absorb the experience and to really feel it enveloping me. Just as we thought it couldn't get any better, we all forked up $130 pesos and got on a BOAT, and RODE AROUND AND UNDER THE FALLS!!!!! Yes, that does sound just as incredible as it was. I don't think any other boat ride in my life will ever compare to that one. When the ride seemed like it was over, our pack of students chanted "OTRA! OTRA!" aka, "ENCORE! ENCORE!" .. needless to say, the driver drove us back over to the falls and got us soaked all over again! After grabbing some ridiculously overpriced lunch in the park, we went to El Diablo- the largest fall of all (there are over 200 in total)- and the name should really be changed to Dios. Man, the constant climax of the falls is absolutely incredible, words really aren't doing this justice.

We all left the park exhausted, and drove 4 hours to our hotel for the night. We were scattered in a bunch of different cabins, and after the hotel served us dinner some of us hung out together in a deliriously tired state. Becca whipped out her ukulele, and we ended up improvising a song about head rubs... which in turn moved us all to giving each other head rubs, hahaha, that sounds ridiculous typing it out but I hope that is an accurate depiction of how tired and silly we were by the end of the night.

Another wake up call at 7am was a little painful, but once again we had a great breakfast to start out the day. This time, we took an hour bus ride to the Ruins of San Ignacio. The ruins were of a large communal area, a church, and there were stones outlining the property of the tribe altogether. It was pretty beautiful, and I've never seen anything like it before- I loved closing my eyes and trying to imagine the land filled with natives. There was a huge chunk of the land in the middle of the ruins that was devoted to community activities, like markets, medical care and overall gatherings- outside I got a better idea of the San Ignacio people by looking through the markets and seeing their trinkets.

We left the ruins, hopped on the bus and took another short ride to a mate (pronounced mah-tay, it's a highly caffeinated herbal tea here that is an enormous part of the culture) and tea plantation. It was a paradise in the middle of nowhere- this place looked like a bed and breakfast; there was an outdoor eating area, an in-ground pool, hammocks, a tennis court, a volleyball net, and most importantly.. an enormous fire pit where they roasted a plethora of meats all afternoon. Right as we got there we dropped off our stuff and went on a tour of the plantation, and learned about how mate is picked, preserved and then distributed. I'm serious when I say that the fields were drenched in the richest color green I've ever seen. In between rows of plants there were cacti and palm trees scattered about- it made for some of the most beautiful scenery. Not to mention there were perfectly fluffed clouds in the baby blue sky... perfect. We walked around the fields and to the indoor/outdoor factory, where we saw the conveyor belts and ovens where they compacted and packaged all of the herbs. It not only smelled amazing, but it was a really rustic and authentic structure that was screaming to be photographed. Seeing something so essential to the culture and how it is manufactured made me appreciate it even more. Our guide was extremely knowledgeable, and let us explore every nook and cranny of the place.

After yet another tour, we returned to the residencia and spent about 4-5 hours just hanging out in the Argentine sun. We played volleyball, swung in hammocks, played pool games, and most importantly... ATE. God, did we eat. Empanadas, choripan (not me), and then they whipped out the good stuff- roasted meat that had been on skewers alllllllll day. It was served plain, it didn't even need any salt, pepper, nothing. We inhaled it alongside different rices, vegetable platters, and chased that meal with fresh fruit. God, it was absolutely amazing, and by far my favorite meal yet.. for obvious reasons.

Okay, wow, I just wrote more than I've ever written ever in a blog post. I won't lie, I'm really glad this is over with. BUT, now that I'm done writing, now you can look at pictures!! WOOOOOooOOoOooO here ya go!