Hello everyone. Happy April. We have decided to give up trying to catch up on our blogs, and instead will try to work our way backwards writing about where we currently are, but also where we were a few weeks ago. The blogs will thus be a little out of order for a bit. Sorry for any confusion.

Yesterday, we arrived around noon in the town of Iguazu after a 20 hour bus ride from Buenos Aires. (Recently, we have been riding buses 'cama' style, which means wider and more comfortable seats, better food, better sleeps, and more movies. While a little more expensive (about 8 dollars more), we decided since all of our bus rides recently have been in the 20 hour plus range, the extra investment is worth it.) Yesterday, we decided to relax and do nothing. After sleeping in a noisey dorm room for 5 nights in Buenos Aires, and a tent for 4 nights in Torres Del Paine with overnight bus trips in between, we finally got a room with ensuite to ourselves. Taking advantage of this, we got take out pizza and corn salad and spent the afternoon and evening watching movies and enjoying our own space.

Woke early this morning to catch a city bus out to Iguazu Falls 25 minutes away. The falls are localed in a national park, have been declared a world heritage site, and create a border between Brazil and Argentina. Unlike Niagara Falls which is only one big waterfall, Igauzu Falls consists of approximately 275 waterfalls spread out around one main fall called the devils throat. Argentina has built a system of steel walkways 4 or 5 feet off the ground which provide access to three main areas where one can view the falls. We believe that this has been done for three main reasons. The first is to allow access for everyone (most viewpoints have wheelchair access). The second is that the two main viewpoints can only be reached by the walkways which cross over 5 rivers (the area above the falls is actually a series of wide, slow movies, shallow rivers). The third is that there is much wildlife (some of which is dangerous) throughout the park. We have heard that almost 2000 people visit the park daily. To cater to this massive influx of people, the town of Iguazu seems to consist of numerous hostels, hotels, a large bus station, and many tour companies. There is also a 5 star hotel within the national park.

We started off to visit the lower viewpoint in order to avoid the crowds heading to the devils throat. On our way there, we encountered a group of hungry coatis who ran from the woods at us and quickly jumped at our bags. (Coatis are about the size of a medium sized dog, have short bushy brown hair, ringed tails, and have pointed noises.) We had to be careful not to let them tear our bags open. It seems that years of tourists feeding the animals have caused them to become almost dependent on humans for food. After they tried to get food from us, we witnessed many tourists trying to attract them with various objects and noises.

The first viewpoint offered distant views of all the waterfalls. From here, we took a small boat to an island in order to get closer to some of the bigger falls. Here we put on our Dunbar Lumber and Benjamin Moore T-Shirts and snapped a couple of photos. (We brough these with us specifically to wear in photos at major tourist sites. After our trip, we were thinking of given Shaf at Dunbar Lumber copies of the photos.) The second viewpoint also offered many nice views of the smaller waterfalls. This viewpoint and walkway was actually at the top of the waterfalls looking down.

The Devils Throat was amazing. To get there, we took 15 or 20 car train for 10 minutes to get to the walkway. The train is not full size, but very similar to the one in Stanley Park or the Forest Museum in Duncan. As we walked along the walkway, numerous butterflies landed on us. Soon after, we saw a Cayman (like a Crocodile) close to the walkway. From there, we approached the falls. The viewpoint is situated on the edge of the top of the falls. The falls are very powerful, so even though the water falls a few hundred feet, the spray that kicks up is huge, and thus everyone got very wet. We payed a professional photographer there 10 pesos to take some photos of us. We wanted to stay at the viewpoint for a while, but unfortunately there were so many people waiting their turn that we felt obliged to leave after only 15 or 20 minutes. Walked back across the walkway spanning 5 or so rivers, caught the train back to the entrance, on the bus, and back to the hostel. We then showered because we were hot, oily with sunscreen and just feeling gross. However, the climate here is very hot and humid. It has only been an hour since our shower and already we feel gross and sticky.

Tonight, we will start a 36 hour bus trip. On April 3rd, after two nights on a bus, we will arrive at the border of Bolivia. Off now to get some food. We will try to write another blog tonight about Beunos Aires if we have time.

Thinking of you all lots. Much love,

Braden and Maya.

xoxoxoxo