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Hi All!
Well we write to you from a whole new country- Bolivia! But first I'll explain how we made our way across Argentina to get here…
Recently we got to experience one of the sights that we had been eagerly anticipating for months- Iguazu Falls! These falls are amongst the widest waterfalls in the world- it is said that the amount of water that flows over Iguazu in a day equals England's water use for a YEAR! Insane. Understandably Ryan, Louis (our travel mate we picked up at the ranch) and I were all soooo excited to be there. We had woken up on the overnightbus (we splurged and got first class seats- complete with blankets, pillows and a hot meal!) and saw that the formerly rural landscape had magically turned into the jungle; dark greenery and vines sprung up everywhere and the soil was deep red. We pulled into the town of Puerto Iguazu at 9.00 am and checked into our hostel, conveniently located right across from the bus station. We started to explore the town and when we got to the banks of the Rio Iguazu couldn't believe we were looking across the river at Brazil- crazy! After randomly running into some friends from Buenos Aires (the only other people around by the way!) they advised us to go see the meeting of the three rivers. We took a walk and got the chance to stand on Argentinian soil and look across at the banks or both Paraguay and Brazil- pretty cool! We spent the rest of the day getting organized to go to the falls the next day, playing many, many games of German Rummy (made up game? Maybe. All I know is it only really works with three people!). Louis and Ryan also made up a new version of table tennis entitled Squing Squong (no I don't get it either) and we had an early night. The next morning we woke up early and super pumped to get to the falls. Seeing as we caught the same bus with most of the national park employees, I think we got up early enough! Every kilometer we got closer, we were more excited to see the big falls. At the park we paid our entrance and caught the park train to our first sight- 'El Garganta del Diablo' - or 'the throat of the devil'. This is the strongest, biggest part of the falls and you can get right up close. From the train stop it was about 1 km to walk to the look out. We started walking but ended up half running, grinning and yelling as we rushed to get there before the rest of the train load. The only slight downer was everyone walking back from the look out looking wet. Like really wet. And they were all wearing jackets where as all we had on was t-shirts. How wet can a waterfall be right? Well let's just say when we got to the look out we were drenched within about 30 seconds. As we looked at the phenomenal amount of water pouring over the falls, so much spray was blowing over us it felt like we were having a shower. Actually the water pressure was probably stronger than back at the hostel :P The sound was also INCREDIBLE- just a roar. We couldn't believe that the water volume was actually supposedly quite low at that time. We actually couldn't comprehend more water existing in the world lol. It was a totally strange, exhilarating experience and we came out drenched to the bone. Me and Ryan had decided to head to the gift shop and buy waterproof ponchos for the rest of our adventures that day but Louis had a somewhat more creative idea. He found a bin with nothing in but a few glass bottles, moved those bottles to another bin, grabbed the bin liner, cut a head hole and some arm holes and bam- instant poncho. Unfortunately one of the bottles had had beer in it so he kinda smelt like a brewery for the rest of the day :P On our way back we appreciated the walk a little more, across the wide rivers which would soon turn into the falls. Plus we got to see some great multi colored birds super up-close in the jungle. Our next stop was one of the many trails through out thepark and some amazing panoramas of the falls form afar. We literally couldn't stop taking photos from every angle. Our trails soon took us lower and closer to the bottom of the falls where we got to seem some native animals- coatis! These are cute little furry animals, about the size of cats with long noses. There are many signs advising not to feed the coatis and they do seem very curious- apparently they'll bite you to get your food! While on this lower part of the park we decided to take a boat trip- we had been watching the boats all day- speeding in and out of the spray right nearthe falls and it looked like FUN even if we could hear the passengers squeals a mile away! We paid our money, got ourselves spray ready in our newly acquired ponchos (and I did some quick art work, drawing the Iguazu sign on our store bought ones on the back of Louis' bin bag poncho so he wouldn't feel left out!) Soon enough we boarded the boat. We took a trip towards the Garganta del Diablo for some great photo ops but as far as we were concerned, this just wasn't enough exhilaration for us- we wanted to go UNDER the waterfall! And soon our wish was granted- our little speed boat went straight into the spray of one of the waterfalls and we were all SOAKED. Very fun. In order to dry off we took a boat to a small island in the middle of the river called Isla San Martin and ate lunch in the sun. We then took a walk around this isla, saw some big lizards as well as some huge birds of prey and our last beautiful views of the falls. We left the park quite melancholy that this sight we had been looking forward to for so long was behind us.
The next day we said a sad farewell to our temporary traveling buddy, Louis, with our itenraries taking us in different directions; him towards the beaches of Brazil and us towards the altiplano of Bolivia. So we set off on our journey, stopping for one night in a town 3 hours from the falls called San Ignacio Mini, to visit the best preserved Jesuit ruins in Argentina. After this brief detour, we began our long haul overnight bus ride to the largest town in Argentina's north and a gateway to Bolivia, Salta. A big sprawling city, it is home to some fine colonial architecture, as well as a sense of great South American tradition. Here there was little to no hint of the European-ness we had found in the south of the country. This could be seen not only in the food and local customs, but also in the people - here it is the indigenous population that is the dominant demographic.
We didn't get up to a huge amount in Salta, as it was mostly down time from the intense amount of traveling we had done in the previous week. One highlight, however, was taking a telerifico or cable car up to a near by mountain, which made for some great views and photos of the city. We also found some lovely gardens, and somewhat unsurprisingly, a big Christ statue! After a couple of days in town, we decided to move on to a place recommended by Louis a few hours from the Bolivian border, a very small town called Tilcara. We arrived on a bus late at night, so were not quite aware of our surroundings, but we awoke the next day to a breathtaking scene. The small town was starting to look like what you think of when you hear about South America - very, very tiny community, lots of stores (and streets!) without any signs, simple yet lovely stucco buildings, and mountains filled with reds, oranges browns and greys towering all around us, and sandy hills covered with lots and lots of cacti. Another thing that took our breath away was the altitude. Our first real climb took us to just under 3000m above sea level, we were gasping for air after walking up hills you would normally run up without breaking a sweat! However, not long after composing ourselves, we decided to go for a little walk (only a kilometer out of town) to some restored Inca ruins, which although obviously heavily reconstructed, were still great. We also took the time to stop in a nearby botanical gardens which was filled only with cacti - lots and lots of different types of cacti! Afterwards, we returned to our hostel (on the way home, finding and feeding an empanada to some hungry, homeless kittens!) and took some time out after some altitude headaches! The next day, we began to make our way to the heart of South America - Bolivia!
Well that's all for now, but for the next few days we will be out of contact, doing a tour ofBolivia's amazing salares or salt flats. Below you can find a very rough outline of what we'll be up to in the next weeks in Bolivia:
17th-19th - Tour of Salares (out of contact)
20th - 22nd - Potosi
23rd - 25th - Sucre
26th - 28th - Cochabamba
29th - 5th - Villa Tunari (Volunteer work, limited contact)
Thanks also for the birthday wishes everyone, quite a strange one this year, but we still managed to have fun! No photos for at least a week, as our internet connections are quite basic at the moment, but the next bunch will be pretty spectacular!
All our love
Hayley and Ryan
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