Las Cataratas del Iguazú

Hola Chicos!

I am VERY excited to share my adventures in Iguazú with you, which will most definitely be one of the highlights of the trip! I wont blab too much because I think the photos will do a much better job of explaining the beauty and magnitude of these falls.  To fully understand, you'll need a little background, so here it goes:

1. Las Cataratas del Iguazú = The Waterfalls of Iguazu;

2. there are over 250 falls that comprise Las Cataratas del Iguazú, and reach a height of over 80 meters;

3. they are located in a subtropical rainforest in Northeastern Argentina and straddle the Brazilian-Argentine border;

4. we only visited the Argentine side since we would have needed a Brazilian Visa (expensive and harder to come than the Argentine) to cross la frontera (border), though we hear that the Brazilian side has impressive views; and

5. you HAVE TO see them for yourself...  there's no way I'll be able to do it justice with my unpoetic discriptions!

Day 1

Anyways, we arrived in Puerto Iguazú by plane on Saturday around noon, checked-in to our hostel, jumped onto the next bus to the falls, and were snapping photos of the falls by around 2pm.  We only had about four hours to explore before park closing but saw some unreal scenery from the superior and inferior senderos (trails).  From theses view points you can see several falls in one panoramic snap shot.  What you can't see is La Garganta del Diabola, which is located a bit deeper into the scenery and requires a seperate trail to get the full picture.  

Day 2

Today we had about a full day to check out Las Cataratas, but even so there wasn't enought time to see it all! We started the day off with a walk/hike through the subtropical rainforest to a small fall, a bit isolated from the rest.  The fall itself wasn't anything spectactular (with respect to its competition), but the trail was well worth the trek.  The trail is much less visited thus has much more exotic wildlife.  Walking through a subtripical rainforest, natural habitat to jaguars, monkeys, tucans, and more was quite the experience! We missed the jaguars but were walking directly underneath a family of monkeys climbing in the tree canopies above us!

Next was our visit to a group of falls called La Garganta del Diabolo (The Devil's Throat).  The parks service built a system of elevated walkways so that we were able to walk over the calm river waters, up to the bustling point of no return.  This area is a semi-circlular fall that covers about 3km and spits out an impressive 1800 cubic meters per second.  I was there watching it and still have a hard time wrapping my head around it!  It's amazing to see how peacefully the river flows up until the the cascades begin... makes you wonder about the first few people who encountered the falls while floating downstream... ahhhh, row, row, backwards, backwards, faaaaassssteeeerrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!  Welp, there goes another one!  Yikes, gives me the creeps just thinking about it!

On our way out of the park we met Lucca, an Italian guy who moved to Buenos Aires about six months earlier.  It was fun getting to know him on the way back to town, and it turned out that he had one of the clearest forms of spanish that we had heard in a good while.  When we invited him out to dinner, he countered with a homemade italian meal prepared at the hostel he was staying at... we just had to provide the beer!  

Approaching La Garganta

This one!

That's the one!

Wooooooowwwwwwww!

Trying to take a little home with me

View in the opposite direction, from La Garganta looking outward

Unfortunately I cannot share all 300+ photos with you, but hopefully this gives you a taste of the experience!  If you have an itch to travel, these falls are definitely worth the trek!

OK, time for me to get some rest.  Next stop, Mendoza, Argentina!

Muy buenas noches!

Hugs and besos,

Kristen :)

Colonia del Sacramento

Hola chicos!

OK, another adventure, another update!  Last week our adventures took us across the Rio Plata to Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay, a quaint, cobblestone-paved, colonial town located about an hour [by ferry] outside of Buenos Aires.  We probably could have covered the sites of this town in less than a day, but having the two days allowed us to linger at the same pace of the quiet town atmosphere.  

Anways, the highlights! Historical walking tour, gorgeous sunsets, cafe-lined shady streets, another Tango lesson and our new Urguayan friends!

Walking tour

Great way to kill two birds with one stone: history lesson and language class, just like that! Lucky for us, our spanish-only walking tour of the hitstorical district ended up being private... even so, understanding the entire story was a bit complicated.  To make a very long story short, the old fortress town changed hands between the Spanish and Portuguese army during the conquistador era as it was a prime spot to guard against or stage an attack against Buenos Aires, the wealhiest/most important port city of that time.  

Our guide

  

Los Puestos del Sol

BEAUTIFUL, just see for yourself!  On clear days you can see the Buenos Aires skyline.

Day 1

Day 2

Más Tango?!

Thumbing through a local magazine we saw an advertisement for a nearby Tango dance class, and since we've both got the "why not" sense of adventure, shrugged our shoulders and threw on our dancing shoes! Everyone in our class was surprised to see us there... apparently we were the first (or two of very few) foreigners to join their weekly Tango class.  A group of about 10 invited us out to a nearby pizzaria after class to practice a few moves.  So, we followed them there, ordered a few liters of beer, couple pizzas, and pushed some tables aside to clear out room for a make-shift dance floor.  Every one of them were so sweet to us, and eager to hear about our adventures in South America.  These are the types of experiences that really make the trip.  Getting to know the locals is really the best part about traveling for us - there is no better way to understand a culture than from the perspective of a native.

We would have loved to explore nearby Montevideo or Punto del Este, but as we are learning, it's impossible to go everywhere on your first go around!

OK, that's it for now... next stop: Iguazu Falls, Argentina!

Buenas noches :)

Kristen

Home on the Range

Dan and I quickly turned from Porteno city slickers to Argentine gauchos at La Estancia Los Dos Hermanos, a small family-owned horse ranch in quaint San Antonia de Areca, Buenos Aires.  The plan was to spend two nights at the ranch (16-17 de abril), go on a few horse rides, but aside from that, I had no idea what to expect.  

When we arrived at the La Estancia Los Dos Hermanos, the owner warmly greated us with a kiss on the cheek and showed us the way to our casita privada.  Next we met the rest of our riding group - sweet couple from Madison, WI, five frenchmen, and our guide, Rosario.  Rosario was very sweet, and funny, but when it comes to horses, it's nothing but business for her.  With a very serious face, she got us suited up, explained the riding rules, then hand-picked one of their 50 horses for us to ride.  I'd ridden a horse several times as a kid, but it had all been very mellow, slow paced rides.  All of the jerky trotting that we did through their fields was not only scary but tough on the butt!  We went on two 1 1/2 hour long rides split up by a giant lunchtime feast prepared by the cook/caretaker, Veronica.  Veronica's empanadas really were something else... add the asada (BBQ), a few side dishes, vino, and dessert... now you've got an instant food coma! Makes it difficult to climb back onto a horse!!

Later that evening, the rest of the guests went back to their Buenos Aires hotels, while Dan and I stayed behind for the overnight experience with Rosario and Veronica.  Rosario opened up to us much more over dinner, and  aside from our riding instructions, all conversation was in espanol!!!  

Day two was much the same as the day before, the biggest differences being that:

1.  Dan and I were the only guests on the ranch;

2.  every muscle in my body ached like never before (simple tasks like getting out of bed were big feats for me);

3.  fewer mosquitos;

4.  we had more confidence on the horses; and

5.  we learned that cantering/galloping is way more fun and 10x less painful for the butt than trotting!

All in all, fun times with Rosario and the horses!

Below are a few pictures from our brief time as Argentine Gauchos...

Day 1 - all suited up for the ride!

Veronica's feast!

Dan recovering from a long first day of ridding 

El presto del sol... So pretty!

First night after dinner

Rosario, our hospitable guide!

Day 2 morning ride!

Pretty owls we saw watching over their nests of eggs

La Segunda Semana en BA

Hola!

I'm back with a few more updates from our semana pasada! This past week... hmmm... Let me think back to what we did with ourselves. Right, there was quite a bit of spanish, lots of carne (steak), miles and miles of walking, some Tango here and there, rowdy futbol fanaticos (soccer fans), contemporary art, and the Buenos Aires suburbs.  Quite a bit to cover, so I'll try to stick to the highlights. ;)

Los Alumnos 

Dan and Kristen, the scholars.  I mentioned that Dan and I have a rule between us: no english unless there's an emergencia, remember?  Well, that was going great, but we definitely needed some professional help to round out our education.  We found Los Ayres, a very convenient and quaint school of private spanish tutors in the trendy neighborhood of Palermo.  Location couldn't get any beter - about a 15 minute walk from our departamento, and just about two blocks off of Plaza Armenia in the trendy Palermo Soho. Our instructora, Inés, was a huge help and no-doubtedly kicked our spanish skills up a notch!  The ten hours went by so incredibly fast... already wishing we had more time with her!! More language classes may have to wait a few more weeks until we get to Bariloche.  

We also attended another Spanglish mixer to mingle with a few more locals.  This time instead of having the typical "speed-dating" type of format, the organizers held a Spanglish Trivia Night at a fun little bar in Palermo Soho.  We were terrible at the trivia but made lots of new friends... some Porteños (people from Buenos Aires), a couple of Brazilians, father/daughter from Miami, and a young guy from Australia. 

El Tango

Yes, the Tango returns to our travels!!  Not only did we get to see a few Tango perfomances in the plazas around San Telmo, but we also attended a Tango dinner/drink show at La Ventana (means 'the window' but also just the name of the venue).  It was a bit touristy, but the show was AMAZING, absolutely loved it... even Dan would agree!  Later on during the week we took a second tango dance class with Rafael in his Recoleta studio.  I have to say that our steps are starting to look more and more like a real dance! ;)

El Partido

INTENSE! Wow, I have never seen a crowd of fans so loyal to their team before!  Dan and I bought tickets to the Saturday afternoon partido (game) between the River Plates and Hurucan... we thought it would be in our favor to root-root-root for the home team, which worked out very nicely with a 2-0 win for us!  To fully understand the intensity of these games, you have to experience it for yourself.  On our walk over to the stadium we saw several bus loads of Hurucan fans chanting their fight songs, escorted by a regime of police through their private entrance, to their maximum security cheering section.  After we passed through three security check points, we finally make it to our seats, where we watched some 50,000 fans tie down their homemade signs.  No joke, almost the entire stadium was covered in the signs!  Throughout the entire game, loco fanaticos from both sides were screeming at the top of their lungs (sometimes to the tune of somebody's drum) their team chants.  It was a great game, but the fans were  real highlight.

Tigre

On our last day in Buenos Aires, we visited the suburb of Tigre, about a 45 minute train ride northwest of BA.  Tigre was an interesting place... very beautiful town built-up around the river, but very touristy! We were their on a Sunday so their were lots and lots of familys their with screeming kids... probably due to the fact that the town had a Disneyland/Solvang feel to it - complete with a small amusement park!  The main attractions for us were the river tours (which we missed!) and the Mercado de Los Frutos.  We did a lot of wandering around, bought a few souvineers, then took the train back to BA right after sunset.  All in all, very cute town. :)

That's all I have for beautiful Buenos Aires!  Next up is our Dude Ranch trip to La Estancia Los Dos Hermanos... stay tuned!

Besitos,

Kristen

P.S. a few more pics below!

Yummy helado

Dan enjoying his bife de lomo

Iba de compras...

Waiting for la obra del Tango to start

Walking around

Puente de la Mujer