it's only a day away

i am sitting in the milhouse hostel, getting ready to leave. not just leave mendoza like last time i was leaving somewhere, but getting ready to leave argentina. tengo que irme. i know that i will be back in this beautiful country, but you never know how long it will be before those plans are finalized. i want to cling to the pillars on the buildings and never let go; something i never thought i could feel for a country i was so annoyed with simply weeks ago. i know that i have an family awaiting my arrival, excited to see me, excited to hear about all of my experiences in person, excited to get their argentinean presents, but i cannot help but wish to stay.


i don't know what about south america captivated me, i can't seem to put a finger to it, but i know that argentina was a perfect place to study abroad for me. it takes a special kind of person to deviate from the european-spain track and delve right into a developing country, where people, places, language, things, and food are completely different than the "norm". i'm trying to speak spanish so i don't lose everything i've learned here, but i'm afraid that this wonderful journey will just fade to a memory of "that junior year when i studied abroad". i want it to be more; i want to really be connected to both of the lives i have established both here and in the united states. at the very least, i'm committing myself to building a house somewhere in this vast country when i am older. i want to be able to return to argentina and speak like a porteña, party til 8am, eat dozens of empanadas, drink malbec until i'm sleepy. i've read about this reverse culture shock, but i'm not ready for it. just as i compared everything in argentina to things in the united states when i first arrived, i'm sure i will be doing the reverse when i land in the states.

until then, i bid goodbye to la argentina and it's wonderful, vibrant, relaxing, filling life it offers. i will be sure to update with more pictures of iguazú falls when i get a chance at home. chau argentina, ha sido genial.

one of the 7 wonders

there was a feria de picadas (basically a food fair) in the tiny town of iguazú

we bought some olives

french man we kept seeing

garganta del diablo aka "throat of the devil" entrance. you have to walk three-quarters of mile on boardwalks to get to the top

on the way, we saw these birds

the devil's throat is the tallest part of iguazú (i'm pretty sure). the boardwalk extends almost over the waterfall-terrifying. i can't even explain how much water rushes down this part of the falls. i couldn't even take that many pictures because the spray was so strong

the water drops 90 degrees into a foggy abyss. the water was so strong, you couldn't even see the bottom for a depth reference.

the green trees on the other side is brazil! from the argentinean side, you can see about 80% of the falls. the other 20% goes to brazil, where you can basically see a nice panoramic view.

the devil's throat was probably one of the most terrifying things i've ever experienced. you peer down into this massive crevasse that is just rushing water. the falls are incredibly loud, and we got completely soaked. looking down into the waterfall gives you a rush of adrenalina, although it was incredible, i was glad when we got off the boardwalk when we returned. the height of the tallest waterfall is almost 300 feet! the falls themselves span 2.7 kilometers as well. the falls of iguazú are located within the parque nacional de iguazú, so the whole place is protected. not to mention it's a jungle, so it was super muggy and humid. we walked around the entire park, taking pictures of waterfalls and getting wet by standing under them until 3pm, when we decided to hike over to one of the individual falls that you can swim to. bri has those pictures, so i will steal them when she puts them up.

although we were tired from walking all day, we made it back to the hostel just in time to cook an early dinner and crash before 11pm. because we had seen the falls in a day, we had nothing to do (and didn't want to spend the extra 50 pesos) to re-enter the park the following day. our bus didn't leave til 6pm, so we sat around, completely bored until our bus arrived that afternoon. another 18 hour ride, and we were back in buenos aires! bri left yesterday, so i am staying in a hostel by myself for the last night (tonight-eek!). i'm glad we went out with a bang, but it's sad to know that i will never return back to mendoza as a student, or come back to argentina and have it be the same. for now, i'm just going to enjoy myself on my last full day in this country by hitting up some markets and eating some good food and drinking some malbec.

iguazú

walking over one of the bridges....looks like the end of the world

mariposa

these little guys are everywhere

the trees on the left is BRAZIL

this was the waterfall you could literally stand under

getting soaked

coming full circle: buenos aires, round 2

i know i haven't updated in awhile, and i have a good excuse: traveling. my friend bri and i decided awhile ago to make the trek up to iguazú falls (one of the new 7 wonders of the world, an added bonus) to cap off our trip. we bussed through buenos aires, stayed for three nights, and then took an overnight, 18 hour bus ride up to tropical iguazú. we started in buenos aires with a trip around the city-- walking. buenos aires is a huge, cosmopolitan, city-that-never-sleeps kind of place. that being said, walking long distances is painful, taxis are expensive, subways aren't direct enough, and the buses run so infrequently that it's not even worth it. we did manage to wear out our feet the first full day here and walk for almost 10 hours because the subway system was down. when we came back, our hostel had planned a party and brought us to pacha, one of the biggest nightclubs/boliches in buenos aires. it's located right on río de la plata, the monstrous river (that appears to be an ocean, because it has tides) that surrounds BA.

avenida 9 de julio. it's named after the date when argentina officially became independent from spain (1816). the street in BA is a city block wide and takes normally two to three green lights to cross the whole thing.

while we were walking around palermo (an area of the city), we stumbled upon some cool graffiti

bigger is better? the bottled drinks here are much bigger than in mendoza

while we were trying to find an art museum, we walked by a zoo

we ate lunch at a famous taco factory

spicy

the next day, we woke up late and walked around calle florida for a little bit. calle florida is a street right around the corner from our hostel and has tons of stores and street vendors selling everything from plastic toys and artisan crafts. we made it back to our hostel just in time to be herded out on a bus to the boca soccer game we had registered for!

there are bands that also play on calle florida

la boca vs. banfield soccer game. little did we know, if boca won this game, they would be champions of their league...a big deal!

boca games can be especially scary because of the barra bravas that follow the team. read about the barra brava's here.

because the boca fans are so dangerous, we had to sit on the banfield side

every half hour, the boca fans would roll down a different flag. CABJ stands for "club atlético de boca juniors" and jugador número 12 represents the fans. get it? the fans call themselves the 12th player...

the boca stadium is located right in the heart of la boca

quite literally: "although we're not the only ones, we decided we're the best"

after the game (boca won handily, 3-0), half the population of buenos aires rushed to the obelisk in the center of town to celebrate boca's win and new role as champions

so happy.

it's a good thing bri and i didn't try and go on our own. the area of la boca is known to be especially dodgy at any time of day. the guides from the hostel kept their eyes out for us and near the end, when banfield was losing, they made us put our cameras away. because banfield was losing so badly, their fans had lost interest in the game and were now looking for unsuspecting tourists to rob. several people from the hostel got their cameras, wallets, and passports (who brings a passport to a soccer game!?) stolen in the last minutes of the game. after extra time expired, we were herded out of the stadium, and back to the bus. we ended up having to run out of the stadium staircases to beat the mad rush that was behind us, and i think everyone finally took a deep breath when we made it safely back to the hostel.