Iguazu Falls, Argentina (Part 1)

At the beginning of December I finished my teaching contract at DUOC. My mom and 82 year old grandma arrived in the middle of giving and grading final exams. Not long after, I began 6 weeks of travel, 2 with my mom and grandma, and my life has been a whirlwind of travels, goodbyes, and trying to figure what to do next ever since. I have tried to keep my various travels separate in my mind like marbles, but I have found that the more time passes, the more they mix together in my mind like flour and water. Sticky. This is an attempt to separate the ingredients in order to preserve them and gain perspective.

On December 10^th 2011 we flew to Iguazu which is on the border of Argentina and Brazil. It was a warm, humid jungle reminiscent of the Peruvian Amazon. On December 11^th, 2011 we woke up early to go on a full-day tour of what was recently named one of the new 7 wonders of the world. We took a train to the top of the waterfalls, and the first thing we came to was “the devil’s throat” (la garganta del Diablo). It’s an enormous, U-shaped waterfall that can only be visited from the Argentinean side.
On the walk we saw a rainbow and coatis; they’re like a south American raccoon. Thirsty for our sweat, butterflies followed us around making the experience even more surreal.


After visiting the devil’s throat, we hiked below over 200 waterfalls. Unreal.

After our hike, we went on a boat below the waterfalls. It was terrifying but also exhilarating and of course unforgettable. We got soaking wet. I was left with puddles in my shoes. Jeans were not a good choice.
During our waterfall adventure my 82 year old grandma hurt her foot. A week later in Santiago, they diagnosed it as a spider bite that could have led to paralysis and immediately gave her an anti-venom shot. When she returned to the USA, we found out that she had in fact fractured her foot and limped all over Buenos Aires on it. (Next entry Buenos Aires)