On Sunday night I returned home to Buenos Aires from one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.  The Iguazú Falls were incredible, overwhelming, and breathtaking.  Words and pictures cannot describe the immensity and beauty of these waterfalls, but I will try. First, a little preface.

  On Wednesday, the day after I returned from Mendoza, I was exhausted and not really looking forward to taking another trip so soon after.  I wanted to spend a little time in BA, since there is still so much more I want to see just in this one city.  Stefani turned 21 that night, so Rachel, Molly, Catie, Sam, Stefani & I all went out to dinner for sushi in Las Cañitas to celebrate.  The food was great and after dinner we took cabs to Recoleta to meet up with some guys we’d met a few weeks before.  The bar was nice, but it wasn’t very crowded since it was a Wednesday, so we left kind of early.  I was happy, though, because I still had to pack for the trip the following day. 

Thursday I spent all day packing and then in the evening me and Rachel walked to the University where the buses would be. As I was walking I realized I forgot to buy my U-M football tickets and the last day to buy them was the next day, when I would have NO computer access.  I freaked out, but thankfully the computer lab at school was open so I could quickly buy my tickets in time! This weekend trip to Puerto Iguazú is through CEA (the study abroad program I’m on), so all of the kids from my program went on the trip.  I was excited because I knew it would be a good chance to meet more people than just the kids in my smaller CEA group.  As usual, the buses didn’t end up leaving Belgrano until an hour later than planned, but eventually we were on our way.  It was kind of annoying going on another bus ride, but these seats were a lot more comfortable and they gave us champagne while we watched a movie (The Big Lebowski).  In the middle of the night, the bus got stopped for almost 3 hours because there were blockades from all of the field workers striking.  Finally they let us through, but we didn’t end up getting to our destination until a lot later. 

 On Friday morning we arrived in Posadas, which is the capital city of Misiones province.  From there, we got on another bus which took us to a ranch called Las Mercedes.  It was so nice to just be outside, and we just hung out there all day.  I played volleyball, swam & went for a walk with some people through the yerba mate fields.  Around 6pm, we got back on the bus for another 3 hour bus ride to our hotel in Puerto Iguazú.  The hotel was pretty nice, especially in comparison to the hostel the weekend before.  We ate a late dinner and then just hung out in each others rooms.  I tried to go to bed early since I knew Saturday was going to be a long day. 

The day we were waiting for finally arrived! Saturday we woke up really early and drove about 20 minutes to Iguazú National Park where the waterfalls are.  Puerto Iguazú is really far north in Argentina, so it was a lot hotter and much more tropical and jungle-like than Buenos Aires.  We had a tour guide in the park who led us around to the different parts of the falls.  I didn’t really know what to expect, and I had heard how amazing the falls were, but I figured since I had been to Niagara Falls when I was younger, I wouldn’t be that impressed. I was wrong.  Iguazú has the widest set of waterfalls in the world, and they can be viewed from Argentina and Brazil.  We only went to the Argentine side, since you need a visa to get into Brazil.  

The first half of the day we went to the Upper part of the falls where you can look at them from above.  As we walked across a long trail to get to the falls, I could mist rising and faint rumblings of the water. The closer I got, the louder it became, and finally we arrived at the first set of fall. Here we saw the most famous waterfall called “Devil’s Throat.” The nickname is very appropriate; I would not want to get swallowed up by it. One thing I noticed here was the insane amount of butterflies. They are literally everywhere and are always landing on people…except me.  For some reason they wouldn’t land on me no matter how hard I tried to get them to.    Anyways, we went to a few more viewing points to look at the upper falls, and then we had a lunch break.  After lunch, we hiked down to the lower falls.  Down here, you are only a few feet away from them so I really got a sense of how powerful they are.  A bunch of us decided to go on a boat ride that takes you right up to the waterfalls. It was so much fun–we got completely drenched, but it was worth it.  After a long day of walking around, we took the bus back to the hotel to shower up for dinner.  Most of my friends and I were too exhausted to go out, so we just hung out in the hotel rooms and by the pool.  

Sunday we woke up early again and packed up our stuff to check out of the hotel.  We got on the bus, which took us to an indigenous Guaraní reservation.  The Guaraní native people who live in Paraguay, Brazil, and some parts of Argentina. I felt really uncomfortable being there.  On one hand, I understand that the natives get paid to have groups like us visit and tour their reservation, and that if we did not come (and if the government did not start to support them, which they now do), they would probably be in worse shape and might even be wiped out completely.  But on the other hand, I felt like I was completely invading their normal lives, and it was almost as if they were a spectacle and not actual people. At one point in the tour, they had us all sit down, while about 7 or 8 children sang their traditional songs to us and also played instruments.  Something just didn’t feel right.  After the singing, the guy who was giving us a tour said we could take pictures with the kids if we wanted to.  While some people in my group leapt at the opportunity to take a picture with cute, native-looking kids, I just sat there, thinking about how badly I just wanted to leave. So, while I don’t have any pictures with the singing natives to show you, I know my moral conscience is better for it.   A while later we left the reservation and hung out at the hotel for a few hours before we drove to the airport to catch our flight back to BA.  

Once again, I am glad to be back “home,” but I am even happier that I had the opportunity to see something so unforgettable as Iguazú.  xo Kyle