The sound of crashing water completely surrounding you, bouncing off the rock walls of the cliff behind you. You look in front of you, and across the river you see a line of people from all over the wall waiting for their turn to take a step down the wet, stone stairs so they can get closer to the little ferry boat that will carry them to the island you're on. You take off your sandals and allow the soft sand to burn the soles of your feet as it works its way through the cracks of your toes. Realizing that you can't stand in one place for more than a few seconds, you run to the little roped off swimming area. The water is clear and cool, and hundreds of small fish the size of toothpicks circle around your ankles, curiously nipping you as you wade through the water. You hear screams of excitement to your left as the next group of tourists are swept back and forth under a small waterfall, bathed in the fresh jungle water. At around 2PM this past Sunday, I was lucky enough to have that experience. Where you might ask? Iguazu Waterfalls in the Misiones province in northeastern Argentina, right on the border of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil.
On Friday afternoon, Jessie, Brittany, and myself grabbed a cab to the Retiro train station and bought our tickets for Puerto Iguazu at the Via Bariloche office on the upper level of the station. It was about 5PM, and Kim wasn't going to be out of class til 6, so we passed the time filling our stomachs with some food, having not eaten much earlier in the day while recovering from a night of partying. When Kim showed up, she went to go talk to the guy who worked at the ticket office, but neglected to bring her passport, and her passport # was exactly what she needed. Luckily enough, Kim knows her passport # and after showing her driver's license was allowed to get her ticket. Our bus left Retiro at 6:50 and for the first 40 minutes Kim and I bickered like an old married couple. She kept chastising me for forgetting to bring playing cards, something she was apparently looking forward to so that we had something to do while drinking the boxed wine we had bought for bus ride. I passed out for about 2 hours while they played a "Bienvenidos a Via Bariloche" video and awoke to dinner time. The food wasn't that great, but seeing as how I hadn't eaten much that day, it was very welcome. The bus then proceeded to play Nim's Island on the TV screens, a god awful movie in which absolutely nothing happens. Jessie, Kim and I then cracked into our boxes of wine, had a bit of conversation and eventually fell asleep.
We were woken up at 7AM the next morning by the bus attendant for breakfast, after which I passed out for the next 4 hours. We finally arrived at the bus terminal in the town of Puerto Iguazu around 2PM and purchased our return tickets after checking out all the different times on the schedule. This process, however, took quite a while because Kim didn't have her passport and the lady in the office had to call up some office to confirm her driver's license and passport number. Afterwards, we walked over to our hostel, Hostel Sweet Hostel, which was only 3 blocks away. We checked in and got into our rooms, which were actually the nicest I'd seen out of every hostel I had been to. We had air conditioning, our own bathroom and a pool! However, by the time we had settled in and everything, it was 3:30, which meant we wouldn't ahve time to really do anything at the Iguazu Park, so we walked into town, did a little bit of shopping and returned to the hostel. When we got back we signed up for an asado dinner and the girls did some swimming. I, of course, had forgotten my bathing suit. We headed to be around 11:30 because the next day we would have to get up bright and early to make it Iguazu in time to do all we could in the park.
We woke up the next morning and arrived at the national park around 10:30AM. We walked to the train station, only to find out that we would have to wait in line for about 30 minutes before getting to see La Garganta del Diablo, the largest and main waterfall of the park. We decided that since we had signed up for La Gran Aventura, a safari/boat ride tour program that took about an hour, we'd have to put La Garganta on hold so we could make our time for the tour. We walked to the Gran Aventura starting point and got our tickets. By this point it was about 12 and our tour didn't wouldn't start until 12:45, so we decided to walk through the upper circuit. Forgive me for not knowing the names of the waterfalls, but there are quite a few names on the website, sin mapa, so I can't really tell which is which. Either way, we got our first glimpse of some of the falls on the Argentine side, and it was absolutely amazing to see. Below the platform we were on there was a pool of water over rocks with holes that looked like moon rocks, which poured down to create a small waterfall. Across the way was a large wall of waterfalls that fell down onto different levels to create a beautiful scene of churning water against the green jungle background. After the upper circuit we made our way back to the tour station and began our tour. We got into a large truck with rows of seats and were led through a safari path by our guide Paula. On the trail we were surrounded by green, but couldn't see much into the jungle itself. The hanging bamboo creates a thick wall of greenery that prevented from really seeing into the jungle, but it was a great peaceful ride nonetheless. A couple time the truck drove beneath huge spiderwebs with spiders the size of golf balls sitting right in the middle.
After the safari ride, we walked down a path to the little beach area to board our boat for the second leg of the tour. The boat led us down the river, cutting left and right to make the trip exciting and we bounced up and down small rapids. It was a lot of fun and great to look at the rocky cliffs and jungle around us as we made our way to the waterfalls. We even had special bags to put all our stuff in for when we would get wet. The river finally opened up into the waterfall area, and straight ahead of us, although quite a distance away, was La Garganta. The view down the length of the river leading up to La Garganta was amazing and upon seeing I couldn't wait until we had the chance to get closer. We took our last pictures before being driven underneath some of the smaller waterfalls and getting drenched in our waterfall shower. We then drove up between Isla San Martin and the rocky cliff that the circuits followed and drove into a small "U" shaped area with beautiful waterfalls on the Argentine side and proceeded to drive through those waterfalls. Water crashed down around us and although you couldn't really keep your eyes open, it was extremely fun to feel the water pound down on your head, making you feel really "in" the experience. After that ride we were dropped off at Isla San Martin and we sat on hte beach and ate a lunch of food we had bought the night before. Cheese, bread, salami, grapes, crackers, oranges, apples, and wine. A perfectly sublime moment just sitting there observing the wonders of nature around us. We then went in the water for a bit and the girls started tanning. After a few minutes, we checked the time, 2:30 PM. We thought the last train to La Garganta was at 3:30 for some reason, and me and Kim wanted to walk up the trail on Isla San Martin to see the waterfalls in that area from a closer vantage point, so we decided to go up the trail and see everything, trying to make sure we got it done by 3:30. We got to the top and once again a breathtaking view. I'm sorry if my descriptions fall short of what you guys might want to hear to visualize it, but it's impossible to describe. The photos I have also only give you a taste what it's actually like to be there. Kim and I stared around us in awe at the top of the island, while a hippie couple stood across from us passing a joint between each other. It must have been especially wonderful and romantic for them that day. We then headed back, only to realize that it was almost 3:30PM. We got down to the beach as quick as we could, only to see that the girls had left...without taking our things. We got to the spot we were at to see both our bags just sitting unattended on the beach. Brittany and Jessie had left our bags, which held all my money, ipod and passport, so that they could run to get the last Garganta train. Needless to say, Kim and I were a little upset, but seeing that all our stuff was still there, we decided to brush it off. We caught ferry boat off the other line and figured that sine we missed La Garganta we would walk through the lower circuit and see the falls from the closer, lower paths. After all of that we walked back towards the train station and Kim overheard a man telling the people he was with that if they hurried, they could make the last train to La Garganta. Apparently we had been mistaken and seeing as how it was 4, we rushed to the station so that we could catch the last train. We made it just in time and got the train at 4:15. When we got to the Garganta station we walked down the path, which was an amazing view. While the other places in the park had been surrounded by jungle our busy touristy stuff, the path to La Garganta was much more reserved and tranquil, out of the hustle and bustle of tourism. Long bridges crossed the river and around us we were completely surrounded by shallow river that looked like marshes which went on for yards.
When we finally got to La Garganta, my jaw dropped at the sight of one of the most beautiful and immense things I've ever seen in my life. i literally felt like a speck of dirt compared to the size of the waterfall. Tons of water poured over the side of the cliff creating a wide and forceful wall of white water falling into the river, which you couldn't even really see due to all the mist shooting up from the bottom. Water sprayed us even from all the way up at the top of the cliff. As if that wasn't amazing enough, to the left we could see the river leading up to La Garganta from the area we had been earlier, a large panoramic view that was absolutely insanely beautiful. By the end of the day, Kim and I were lucky and got to see every single thing there was to see in the park and were completely satisfied with the day. The next day we checked out of the hostel and got onto our 18 hour bus ride back to Buenos Aires. Although it's behind me now, i will never forget a single moment I spent at Iguazu. There are few things in this world that will ever compare to that day in my memory. Seeing wonders like that have me starving to travel even more. I can't wait for the next couple of trips I'll make in Argentina and after graduating, I am going to work my butt off so I can save up to do some more traveling, either through more of Latin America, or maybe even over to Europe. There is so much to see in the world, so much outside of the little bubble of our lives, it's insane to stay put in the US if you can acquire the means to travel. God, well done on the perfect and awe-inspiring creation that is planet Earth.
Links to the albums from the trip:
Album 1
Album 2
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Una semana de Rock y Tristeza
So, at the request of Diamira, my mother, and I'm sure many others I am sitting down once again to write another entry. The truth is, before this past week I didn't really have too many crazy stories to share with you all. My travels have been put on hold due to school and a serious lack of planning on my part. In fact, i should be on my way to Chile tomorrow...but that will come later. Over the past couple of weeks, essentially since Lucas's cumple, I have been making more of an attempt to integrate myself into the little bubble of Buenos Aires that is La Casa de Vainilla. Befoe i continue, let me write down the names of all the people living here to spar you anymore confusion:
Lucas - Colombia
Suji - South Korea
Hugo y Ivana - Argentina
Antonio - Mexico
Jorge y David - Costa Rica
Jessie and Brittany - American University
Anyway, a couple weeks ago i went out with Jessie, Brittany and Suji for Lucas's birthday. Where was he do you ask? Well, apparently the chicos from Costa Rice had something special planned for him that included taking a train ride 45 minutes away, a lot of alcohol, and a stripper. The girls and I had no idea this was being planned and when i emerged from my room after watching yet another cliffhanger ending from Lost, I saw the girls downstairs looking a little bit pissed off. I asked what happened and when we were leaving, and they told me all of what happened. Determined to still have a fun night, we went to this place called Bar Cervecero that has probably 100 different types of beer and chatted for a while about the situation. i also got to talk to Suji more, and explain why sometimes i have been so secluded from the rest of the house because I tended to stay in my room. Sometimes it was Lost, sometimes it was homework, sometimes it was a movie, and sometimes I just wanted alone time. But i explained to her about how we would hang out more and how i was originally looking forward to the night so I could have a night where all of us in the house hung out and bonded. Anyway, over the past few weeks this has greatly improved, especially when Suji became invested in helping me work on my Argentine love life.
Moving past boring classes and nights of endless barhopping, last Saturday I was able to have a truely amazing concert experience. Since I began school at BCA, I have gotten into a lot of rock, particularly metal and on Saturday i got to see the metal gods that are the members of Iron Maiden. Unfortunately I went by myself because people down here aren't all too fond of metal and there was no way I was passing up the chance to see Iron Maiden for a significantly reduced price from what it would be in the States. I hopped into a cab at about 5:30PM and after a 36 peso cab ride arrived at Velez-Sarsfield stadium. i walked into the stadium and was escorted to my seat where I remained awkwardly waiting for a band to start so I could look less lonely and try and enjoy some new music. One things that's interesting about South America is its love for good ol' rock and roll. Rock down here isn't so much defined by a certain genre you listen to, like emo, experimental, post-hardcore, whatever. The opening band was a generic rock band, but not necessarily a bad way. They weren't my favorite, but I could appreciate their sound and what they were trying to do. Then came an actual Argentine metal band, sort of like a spanish Symphony X. They actually rocked pretty hard and had some decent breakdowns and solos. Then came American band Sepultura. Pure s***. Finally, after a series of fake intros due to what must have been technical errors and sound checking, Iron Maiden came on stage, opening with clips from their new "Flight 666" DVD and opening with their classic Winston Churchill soundbite. Then straight into "Aces High"! I believe next was "Powerslave" and from that point on I don't remember much. But they basically played every song i love by them and it was an amzing experience. My head hurt like hell from all the headbanging the next day, but it was so worth it. There's no way to describe a packed, 42,000 crowd of argentinos jumping, chanting futbol songs and singing along to one of the greatest metal bands in history. The best part was a father son duo in front of me (the kid couldn't be older than 8) bonding over the whole show. The kid was rocking out almost harder than even I was and in that moment I realized that someday I would need to have that same experience with my son. Moments like that make me appreciate the fact that music is such an integral part of my life. How could something as beautiful as that bonding experience ever be denied as the most powerful expression of the soul and its communication with the rest of the world? The only thing that sucked about that night was that I had to walk for an hour and a half down Juan B. Justo before catching a cab, which dropped me off far from my house, where to the left of me were tranny hookers and to the right a militant Worker's Party demonstration at 2AM in Balvanera. Yeah, I felt safe...
Anyway, the next day all of us in the house went out to the Sunday feria in Recoleta and checked out some homemade merchandise and chilled on a hill watching a lone guitarist captivate the audience as the feria closed. It was a great day to bond more with Lucas and Suji and for all of us to do something together and I had a great time, aside from making some purchases that I can't wait to share when i get back home.
Over the course of the week I had started to hang out a lot more with some other people outside of AU. I became better friends with this girl Caroline from Rochester. Finally someone who actually listens to my music! Alexisonfire...hell yes. Anyway, me, her, Mark and her housemate went to good ol' La Bomba and I had an ok time, although for the entire show i was separated from them because of the ridiculously, tightly-packed crowd. Caroline didn't have too great of a time too and ended up having to leave due to some douchebag Colombians. Basically, anytime you go anywhere, I suggest that you all buy your own drinks. That Wednesday I went out for the birthday of another friend, Mara, who goes to GW. That night was fun, until I got to the point where I don't remember much except that once I got home I lost most of my dinner. No worries though, friends and family, I wasn't irresponsible! These things just happen sometimes, especially during a friend's birthday celebration. Then Friday i had an even better concert experience. I went to see Opeth, one of my favorite metal bands, and actually the first band I ever saw perform live. All of the openers sucked, but I was somehow able to bare through it. I eventually met an Australian guy who spoke no spanish and helped translate for him the rest of the night as we enjoyed Opeth. They didn't play all the songs I wanted, mostly just older, lesser known ones, but it was great nonetheless. It was like a freaking religious experience, losing myself completely in Mikael's voice and insane guitar solos and powerful riffs. I have never experienced anything like it before. Now people may criticize me all they want about the types of music I listen to, but you cannot tell me anything about music if you cannot appreciate Opeth. I don't care what anyone has to say. If you had been there, you wouldn't have been able to do anything but stare in awe and I will never listen to anyone who speaks a bad word against them.
Saturday I ended up goin out with Brianna, another girl from GW, and some of her friends and actually had a great time. I stayed out til about 7AM and got home at 7:30, promptly proceeding to cook up some spaghetti with Italian dressing because I needed some food and thought it sounded delicious. Lucas and Suji laughed as I made it, but it was great. I then slept until about 1:45 and felt like crap all day, extremely tired. Then that night I went to Kim's because Mark's family was visiting and we were having another asado (argentine BBQ). The food was absolutely delicious and his family was very entertaining. The only problem was that my nose was extremely runny and I felt like crap the whole night. When I got home, my constantly dripping nose made it impossible to fall asleep right away. After about half an hour I fell asleep, woke up 2 hours later, had to wait another 45 minutes before falling asleep again, and so on for the rest of the night. I got horrible sleep last night. Then today I felt even worse, developing a 101 degree fever and having to cancel my planned trip to Chile with Caroline and our friend Chris tomorrow. They're still going and I wish with everything I was healthy enough to go. I was ready to get out of here and spend some quality time with new friends...but God does not want it to happen. After canceling out trip to Salta, I thought Chile would be safer and a bit more fun. But no, as per usual, I got screwed out of two awesome trips for circumstances completely out of my control. All I know is when I actually do go to Salta with Caroline sometime in the coming months, nothing better come up. So tonight I just laid in bed, reading for tomorrow's classes and registering for my fall classes. I should get to sleep right now so I can feel healthy for a week of...what is it...oh yeah, a week where nearly all my closest friends are out traveling, having the Easter weekend of their lives and I'm stuck in BsAs sniffling my way through boxes of rough tissues.
Lucas - Colombia
Suji - South Korea
Hugo y Ivana - Argentina
Antonio - Mexico
Jorge y David - Costa Rica
Jessie and Brittany - American University
Anyway, a couple weeks ago i went out with Jessie, Brittany and Suji for Lucas's birthday. Where was he do you ask? Well, apparently the chicos from Costa Rice had something special planned for him that included taking a train ride 45 minutes away, a lot of alcohol, and a stripper. The girls and I had no idea this was being planned and when i emerged from my room after watching yet another cliffhanger ending from Lost, I saw the girls downstairs looking a little bit pissed off. I asked what happened and when we were leaving, and they told me all of what happened. Determined to still have a fun night, we went to this place called Bar Cervecero that has probably 100 different types of beer and chatted for a while about the situation. i also got to talk to Suji more, and explain why sometimes i have been so secluded from the rest of the house because I tended to stay in my room. Sometimes it was Lost, sometimes it was homework, sometimes it was a movie, and sometimes I just wanted alone time. But i explained to her about how we would hang out more and how i was originally looking forward to the night so I could have a night where all of us in the house hung out and bonded. Anyway, over the past few weeks this has greatly improved, especially when Suji became invested in helping me work on my Argentine love life.
Moving past boring classes and nights of endless barhopping, last Saturday I was able to have a truely amazing concert experience. Since I began school at BCA, I have gotten into a lot of rock, particularly metal and on Saturday i got to see the metal gods that are the members of Iron Maiden. Unfortunately I went by myself because people down here aren't all too fond of metal and there was no way I was passing up the chance to see Iron Maiden for a significantly reduced price from what it would be in the States. I hopped into a cab at about 5:30PM and after a 36 peso cab ride arrived at Velez-Sarsfield stadium. i walked into the stadium and was escorted to my seat where I remained awkwardly waiting for a band to start so I could look less lonely and try and enjoy some new music. One things that's interesting about South America is its love for good ol' rock and roll. Rock down here isn't so much defined by a certain genre you listen to, like emo, experimental, post-hardcore, whatever. The opening band was a generic rock band, but not necessarily a bad way. They weren't my favorite, but I could appreciate their sound and what they were trying to do. Then came an actual Argentine metal band, sort of like a spanish Symphony X. They actually rocked pretty hard and had some decent breakdowns and solos. Then came American band Sepultura. Pure s***. Finally, after a series of fake intros due to what must have been technical errors and sound checking, Iron Maiden came on stage, opening with clips from their new "Flight 666" DVD and opening with their classic Winston Churchill soundbite. Then straight into "Aces High"! I believe next was "Powerslave" and from that point on I don't remember much. But they basically played every song i love by them and it was an amzing experience. My head hurt like hell from all the headbanging the next day, but it was so worth it. There's no way to describe a packed, 42,000 crowd of argentinos jumping, chanting futbol songs and singing along to one of the greatest metal bands in history. The best part was a father son duo in front of me (the kid couldn't be older than 8) bonding over the whole show. The kid was rocking out almost harder than even I was and in that moment I realized that someday I would need to have that same experience with my son. Moments like that make me appreciate the fact that music is such an integral part of my life. How could something as beautiful as that bonding experience ever be denied as the most powerful expression of the soul and its communication with the rest of the world? The only thing that sucked about that night was that I had to walk for an hour and a half down Juan B. Justo before catching a cab, which dropped me off far from my house, where to the left of me were tranny hookers and to the right a militant Worker's Party demonstration at 2AM in Balvanera. Yeah, I felt safe...
Anyway, the next day all of us in the house went out to the Sunday feria in Recoleta and checked out some homemade merchandise and chilled on a hill watching a lone guitarist captivate the audience as the feria closed. It was a great day to bond more with Lucas and Suji and for all of us to do something together and I had a great time, aside from making some purchases that I can't wait to share when i get back home.
Over the course of the week I had started to hang out a lot more with some other people outside of AU. I became better friends with this girl Caroline from Rochester. Finally someone who actually listens to my music! Alexisonfire...hell yes. Anyway, me, her, Mark and her housemate went to good ol' La Bomba and I had an ok time, although for the entire show i was separated from them because of the ridiculously, tightly-packed crowd. Caroline didn't have too great of a time too and ended up having to leave due to some douchebag Colombians. Basically, anytime you go anywhere, I suggest that you all buy your own drinks. That Wednesday I went out for the birthday of another friend, Mara, who goes to GW. That night was fun, until I got to the point where I don't remember much except that once I got home I lost most of my dinner. No worries though, friends and family, I wasn't irresponsible! These things just happen sometimes, especially during a friend's birthday celebration. Then Friday i had an even better concert experience. I went to see Opeth, one of my favorite metal bands, and actually the first band I ever saw perform live. All of the openers sucked, but I was somehow able to bare through it. I eventually met an Australian guy who spoke no spanish and helped translate for him the rest of the night as we enjoyed Opeth. They didn't play all the songs I wanted, mostly just older, lesser known ones, but it was great nonetheless. It was like a freaking religious experience, losing myself completely in Mikael's voice and insane guitar solos and powerful riffs. I have never experienced anything like it before. Now people may criticize me all they want about the types of music I listen to, but you cannot tell me anything about music if you cannot appreciate Opeth. I don't care what anyone has to say. If you had been there, you wouldn't have been able to do anything but stare in awe and I will never listen to anyone who speaks a bad word against them.
Saturday I ended up goin out with Brianna, another girl from GW, and some of her friends and actually had a great time. I stayed out til about 7AM and got home at 7:30, promptly proceeding to cook up some spaghetti with Italian dressing because I needed some food and thought it sounded delicious. Lucas and Suji laughed as I made it, but it was great. I then slept until about 1:45 and felt like crap all day, extremely tired. Then that night I went to Kim's because Mark's family was visiting and we were having another asado (argentine BBQ). The food was absolutely delicious and his family was very entertaining. The only problem was that my nose was extremely runny and I felt like crap the whole night. When I got home, my constantly dripping nose made it impossible to fall asleep right away. After about half an hour I fell asleep, woke up 2 hours later, had to wait another 45 minutes before falling asleep again, and so on for the rest of the night. I got horrible sleep last night. Then today I felt even worse, developing a 101 degree fever and having to cancel my planned trip to Chile with Caroline and our friend Chris tomorrow. They're still going and I wish with everything I was healthy enough to go. I was ready to get out of here and spend some quality time with new friends...but God does not want it to happen. After canceling out trip to Salta, I thought Chile would be safer and a bit more fun. But no, as per usual, I got screwed out of two awesome trips for circumstances completely out of my control. All I know is when I actually do go to Salta with Caroline sometime in the coming months, nothing better come up. So tonight I just laid in bed, reading for tomorrow's classes and registering for my fall classes. I should get to sleep right now so I can feel healthy for a week of...what is it...oh yeah, a week where nearly all my closest friends are out traveling, having the Easter weekend of their lives and I'm stuck in BsAs sniffling my way through boxes of rough tissues.
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