Day 7 – “Las Cataratas”

Back to the agenda filled days….

We woke up early to head to the falls, and upon realizing we could not get a late checkout, we packed in a frenzy! On our way out the door the bellman handed me a note that read “Your mom called. Don’t forget to email!” Que Comico! Mom – do you know how old we are?

Finding an ATM, which was necessary before heading to the falls, was more of an adventure than we bargained for. After waiting in a line about 20 people deep, we learned this particular machine was only for people with local bank accounts, and we had to walk half-way across the town to stand in another line. Finally, with pesos in hand, we were off to the falls, bug repellant and all!

There are several different trails around the park giving visitors the option to have various views of the expansive wonder. Thanks to that power-walking class I took in college, we were able to do the entire 2 hour “caminato inferior” in 45 minutes, leaving time to ride the train up to “Garganta de Diablo.”

Iguazu Falls was one of the most amazing sites I have ever seen; more fantastic and expansive than any photograph could express. It is truly worthy of its place as a natural wonder of the world. How could one witness such a fantastic wonder and not believe in a higher power and mastermind behind creation?

This experience would not have been as enjoyable, however, if it were not for Christy’s foresight to rush ahead of the Brazilian band of women traveling in their matching T’s to catch a glimpse ahead of the traffic.

After our shuttle to the airport almost forgot us (well, they did forget us but they picked us up with just enough time to haul butt to the airport) we barely made our flight, stuffing our faces with a late lunch of jamon y queso. (Christy pouted the whole time!)

On the plane we noticed that all the attendants were wearing face masks. This was an indication to us that we may have been exposed to an outbreak of some sort during our stay at the falls (perhaps yellow fever or malaria???) We hit the internal panic button and assuming we were already doomed, Christy convinced herself that she wasn’t feeling well. (We later learned that she was in fact probably sick).

The good news: no yellow fever outbreak. The bad news: the precautions were due to the recent swine flu outbreak traveling around the world estimated to kill 250,000 people!!!

After all of this and due to the fact that it was Labor Day in B.A. and many places were closed, we decided to take it easy on night 7. Our hostel owner recommended a Vietnamese restaurant for dinner, and we were in the mood to change things up a bit from the traditional Argentine dining. Green Bamboo turned out to be a delicious find, and was by far the best meal we had on our trip. The spicy food and mango margaritas were a fantastic compliment to the very sheik atmosphere. We wander back to the hostel and went to bed around 1 (which was early for us) in order to prepare for the full day of shopping that was to come on Saturday!