Cataratas

Wednesday, I finally had the first class for my Borges writing workshop. It was great and it means that I have a schedule!!! Which is amazing considering I’ve been going to classes for about a month. I only have class on Wednesday and Thursday, which is also great and I really didn’t work hard to make this happen. Actually, pretty much every class I wanted to take was only offered Wednesday or Thursday morning.

Thursday I went to a bunch of classes and had lunch with my friends in the most amazing restaurant. The quantity of food was ridiculous and we got free Champaign and desert and pre-lunch snacky things. It was also great to just chill with my friends and listen to Amy’s weekend in Córdoba with her family and tell her about our trip to San Miguel.

Friday we left for Iguazú! I was on the early flight (thank god, the later flight was cancelled and didn’t arrive until two-three hours later). After repacking our bags in the airport, because we couldn’t take liquids in our carry-ons, we departed. The view from the flight was beautiful; I had a window seat. Iguazú was so warm (yay!!); it was nice to not have to layer sweaters and stuff. Most of the COPA group headed off to Brasil to view the waterfalls (cataratas). I hadn’t gotten the Brasilian visa because I would rather go to all of Brasil in January than see some waterfalls for a few hours. After realizing that entering Brasil illegally was rather expensive, I went on a hike with this guy from COPA. We started by taking the local colectivo to the Tres Fronteras/Puntas (three borders) where you can look across the rivers to Paraguay and Brasil. We decided to hike down the cliff/mountain thing to get to the beach of the river. We asked some locals about getting down to the bottom and this woman told us that she had never gone, but her husband had. He said that its extremely difficult to get back up and took him all day (they were in their 50s), but we were young and shouldn’t have too much difficulty. Along the way, we met some Argentine girls (ages 8-12) who wanted to come with us. So we set off for the river. After climbing down a hard part, I slid down part of the mountain (only like 5 feet, don’t worry mom) and landed on my butt. Unfortunately, I had to look like the dumb American who can’t do anything…it was pretty sucky. I was fine, and we continued on to the bottom. We wandered around on the rocks and I put my toes in the Río Paraná, which was pretty cold. Climbing back up wasn’t that hard, but required a lot of water once we got to the top. A bunch of other COPA kids (who hadn’t gone to Brasil) were at the top when we got there, so we hung around a little more and then took the colectivo back to the Hotel. After showering/de-mudding myself, my friends showed up from their trip to Brasil. We had dinner with all of COPA and then straightened each other’s hair (there is literally nothing to do between 9PM and 12AM ever). Then we went back in to town to go to a disco called Cuba Libre, which was free to enter, yay! We danced with some Argentines, who I still swear were underage (younger than 18), but pretty good dancers anyway.

Saturday was my crazy day with COPA. All 120 of us went to the Argentine side of the cataratas. It was raining pretty much all day. Everything I was wearing, including my underwear, was completely soaked. I managed to keep my camera dry in a plastic bag. The cataratas were really beautiful, even though they aren’t at full capacity at this time of the year (I’ll probably go back on my way in from Brasil in the summer). We spent the whole day walking around and taking pictures. We saw some coatí (really ugly animals that look like raccoons and are super friendly because they want food). Upon arriving at the hotel, I headed straight for the shower to warm up and put my clothing all over the floor to dry off. Then, my roommate and I watched Man on Fire (which had just started when I got out of the shower). It was an intense movie about a girl who gets kidnapped in Mexico City. (it was also really good and highly recommendable). The version we saw was in English and Spanish with Portuguese subtitles, which was interesting reading Portuguese. After dinner, we threw a surprise party for Meagan (who was really surprised, yay!). it was a lot of fun and ended with us bouncing on the bed while singing Shakira (yes, I have a video).

Sunday the rest of the group went back to Brasil to go to a bird park (where birds basically fly around/climb all over you). I set off with three boys and another girl to return to the same park as Friday to hike to the hidden waterfall. It was 3km out and back on flat ground and once we got to the waterfall, we hiked down it and around it (definitely not on the trail). It was a lot of fun, we tried to and then realized we couldn’t hike down another waterfall (there was absolutely no trail). On the trail we saw some little animals (one looked like a pig without a tail), more coatis, and some birds, but no monkeys (very sad). After returning to the park entrance, we ate what were possibly the worst emanadas in the entire country, but it didn’t really matter because we were starving after three hours of hiking. We went back to the hotel and met up with the rest of the group to wait before going to the airport to fly back to Buenos Aires. Again, window seat, but this time next to a guy from Tufts. I fell asleep and woke up to him poking me because we were being fed (it took me about 3 minutes to realize that the poking was reality and not part of my dream/catatonic state). We landed in the city as the sun was setting and went home, completely exhausted.

Monday and Tuesday I spent the day bumming around, went to COPA to use the internet (talked to Steve and Nancy on AIM, which was super exciting) and exchange photos and music with my friends, went to the gym, read for homework, and watched my telenovela.