Weekend Getaway

Most of the other volunteers here are new since I last mentioned them. Lucas (18, Brooklyn) is still here. Now the whole group includes the two of us plus Solvi (24, Norway), Reann (23, England) and Cressida (18, England).

We all decided to go up to Iguazu Falls this past weekend, because everyone had been saying that you can't be this close to them and not go see them. Friday after volunteering we got on a 2 o'clock bus up there. It was a 6 hour ride, which actually wasn't bad at all. I found the seats on the bus to be more comfortable even than first class airplane seats, there were tvs playing movies, and the A/C worked beautifully. We arrived at a hostel just after 8. Lucas and I had only decided very last minute to go, so we didn't have any accommodations booked. We were just riding up and seeing what happened...The other 3 had booked this place called Hostel Inn so we decided to try there. Luckily they had two open beds for Friday night.

It was the coolest place. There was a huge swimming pool, hammocks, ping-pong, foosball, a TV and DVDs. And it was full of probably a couple hundred people aged 18-30ish from all over the world. I would say most of them were from Europe--it seems to be a very popular thing there to take time off from work or school to travel for a few months or even a year. I ended up spending most of my time with a group of people coming from New Zealand, Ireland, and Australia and they were loads of fun. The different versions of English were almost enough entertainment just themselves.

It almost seemed a waste to pay for the bed as I hardly slept at all that whole weekend. I didn't want to miss anything. And it's a good thing I felt that way, because there weren't any open beds for Lucas or me on Saturday. The hostel was really chill; I think they knew that there were lots of people hanging around that weren't actually staying there, but didn't mind the extra food revenue. So, we both decided to save some money and just hang out there. I was going to sleep on the floor in the girls' room (Reann had brought a sleeping bag) and Lucas was going to sleep on one of the hammocks. Unfortunately we never had to do that. Cressida got really sick Saturday night, and asked for a doctor. A doctor came and suggested that she should go to the hospital, so an ambulance took her to a private clinic. We called Veronica and she and Marcello ended up driving all the way from Posadas and arriving at around 8 am. It was a good thing they took her in to see someone, because it turned out that she had Appendicitis. She had surgery yesterday morning (still in Iguazu) but I haven't had any update since then. Reanne stayed at the clinic with her, so that left 2 beds open for Lucas and me, but I can't say we were all that happy about it. I would have preferred the floor to all of that...

It's a shame that happened at all, but at least it was after she got to do everything else. We went to the falls on Saturday morning (SO SO cool, if you ever go to Argentina SEE THEM!) It's just a wall of waterfalls..about 270 of them in total I think. I've never actually seen Niagara Falls, but reportedly upon seeing Iguazu Eleanor Roosevelt exclaimed "Poor Niagara!". They can be seen from Brazil or Argentina, but I've been told the Argentina side is better. I didn't get to see them from Brazil. Apparently the difference is that Argentina gets you right near them (I was standing close enough to the bottom of one to get soaking wet from the spray) whereas Brazil provides more of a far-away panoramic view. I thought the Argentina side provided that pretty well too, but maybe the Brazilian view is more striking, I don't know.

I wish I had a bunch of great pictures to show, but I had the unfortunate luck of having my camera stop working on Friday night. It worked Friday morning in Posadas, but for some reason not on Friday night in Iguazu. Nothing seems to work to fix it. Luckily it still lets me look at pictures, but I can't take anything. I gave in and paid the ridiculous price to buy a disposable at the gift shop... I HAD to take some pictures. But they aren't yet developed. I gotta figure out this camera predicament though--I still have another month of traveling that I need to document.

The rest of Saturday we spent swimming and lounging around by the pool. Then at 8 the hostel ran a huge dinner event--an Asado. An Asado is the Argentinean version of a barbecue. Tons and tons and tons of meat--the biggest difference is that there isn't any barbecue sauce. For 30 pesos (10 bucks) they gave us unlimited meat (some of the best I've ever eaten), salad, bread, and drinks. Entertainment was also provided...They called it "Brazilian Entertainment", and it consisted of scantily-clad girls dancing around to drum beats. Well, the food was good anyway.

We had a blast through Saturday night, but it was downhill after that with Cressida getting sick and waiting for news Sunday morning from the clinic. Veronica, Marcello, Reanne, and Cressida are still in Iguazu now. Then the rest of us kind of got ripped off at the bus station. There are loads of different companies to choose from, and we were looking around for the same one we took over, but weren't too concerned about it since all of the buses we saw outside looked the same. A guy came up to us and was really helpful, he could tell we were foreign and was like what do you need, etc etc. We told him a bus to Posadas, and he said great, we have one leaving in 5 minutes. He sold us the tickets--12 bucks, same price as the way over--and sent us on our way. We went out to find our platform, and someone directed us past all of the big nice buses to a little shuttle bus with a cardboard sign in the front printed "POSADAS". I thought it was a joke, but it wasn't. We rode 6 hours all the way back to Posadas on a tiny little shuttle bus with no AC (I thought I was going to die), hard seats, and no TVs. I almost laughed though...If it was the USA, I'd be back in the terminal in 10 seconds getting a refund and switching companies, but I knew there was absolutely nothing I could do here in Argentina. All over this company's booths were pictures of big luxury buses...we totally got taken. I'm not sure what we could have done differently though--I guess it happens. I really wondered what we'd gotten into when the bus stopped about halfway over and the drug inspectors got on with dogs and asked to see all of our passports. I was worried that the inspector was about to slash our seats and cocaine or something would just come pouring out and the driver would be taken off in handcuffs and the rest of us would just be sitting there on our stupid drug bus in WhoKnowsWhere, Argentina. But, the police got off seemingly satisfied, and we did make it back to Posadas after 6 long, hot hours.

You go off looking for an adventure,
You'll find one.