Iguazú!

On Saturday night after my mom left a group of us went to Puerta Uno, a really cool "secret bar" of Buenos Aires. The black door isn't marked and you have to ring a doorbell to get in, but once you're inside it's so pretty--a great place to have a few (delicious) drinks and talk with friends.

On Thursday night we left for Iguazú! We spent about 18 hours on a bus between Thursday & Friday, with a stop at the Ruinas de San Ignacio (ruins of a Jesuit Guaraní mission settlement from the 1600s) and a great afternoon of resting, eating, and swimming at La Chacra, an estancia on a mate farm. We also got to tour some of the fields, see where they process the plant to make it ready to sell, and try some delicious combinations of prepared mate.

Once we got to Puerto Iguazú and checked into our fancy hotel, we enjoyed some all-you-can eat dinner, where I accidentally tried some cow tongue--it was gross. On Saturday we got up early to go to las Cataratas del Iguazú, the actual waterfalls that the area is famous for. It was an absolutely incredible experience--I've never seen anything like it. The whole thing was awe-inspiring, especially standing in front of the Garganta del Diablo. It's not called the Devil's Throat for nothing--the waterfall forms a U shape 270 feet high, 500 feet wide & 2,300 feet long. We got to spend all day hiking along the trails to different parts of the national park, ending with a speedboat ride that took us right up to the base of the falls & drenched us with tons of pounding water!

Later that day, we visited the Hito de las Tres Fronteras, where the Iguazú & Parana rivers converge and you can see Argentina, Paraguay & Brazil all in one place. On the coast of each, there's a monument painted with the country's colors.

The next morning we visited a Guaraní village. The Guaraní are indigenous people who lived in  Argentina before the Spanish came over. We got to see some of their houses, the traps they use to catch food, and listen to a group of children sing some native songs for us, which was really cute. There was also a little feria where we bought handmade crafts & jewelry. It was really interesting to learn more about a native tribe & see how they live, but I was also kind of uncomfortable because it seemed like we were exploiting them for tourism--I would feel like I was in a zoo if I constantly had foreigners coming & taking pictures of me. But it was a good experience overall.

This weekend went by too fast--I can't believe I'm already back in the city! It was really nice to get out for a little while, the lifestyle in the provincias is so much more relaxed and not as fast-paced as Buenos Aires. Iguazú was amazing, and now I have less than 50 days left in Argentina, wow.