My way back from Bolivia to Salta, Argentina, took me one day and one night in total: a bumpy ride on a jeep, some hours in taxis (where I talked with the drivers about Bolivia and Austria where you won´t find any cangaroos) and some hours in a bus. I only spent some hours in Salta, hanging around in an internet café, eating a spongy pizza and watching the celebration of the 25th of May on the main plaza in honour of the now more then 200 years old independence of Argentina. The parade soldiers wore a funny red hat, one which in Austria would be called a "Zipfelmütz mit Bomml" (eng.: pointed cap with , esp.: gorra con borla, russ.: я́блочное пюре́).

In the afternoon I returned to the terminal where - really by chance - I met not only my couchsurfer Rosa but also my French friends, Marion and Pascal "Sweet". We took the same bus to Iguazú (24 hours) and I was very happy to have them with me and to be able to spend some days together.

During the bus trip we passed towns, Mate trees plantations, foggy forests and vivid green fields. We arrived in Iguazú on a hot autumn day where the following days the humid air and pleasant temperatures did not only allow us to wear t-shirts but also the mosquitos to bite us (especially me). However, this did not prevent us from eating out on the day of arrival. Already in the first evening we noticed that Iguazú is not a "typical" Argentinean city. People seem not to be "original" and speak a very hard to understand dialect, instead of a proper city centre you could find yourself on a crossing needing to decide between seven different streets which lead either to "Where the hell am I?!" or "Not again one of those souvenir shops..." places or - if you´re lucky that is - to a quite touristic but still interesting delicacy market. A remarkable thing about this whole area, this province, is that the soil (and consequently also the dirt of the streets and houses) displays a surprisingly reddish orange.

That night I woke up in the middle of the night, not because of my traditional walk to the toilet, but from a heavy beating of the rain on the sheet metal covered roof of the hostel. This was one of the hardest and loudest thunder storm I´ve ever experienced. Unfortunately it continued the next day in form of a steady rain and a bit of thunder. Due to this, Pascal, Marion and I cancelled our plans of going to the "Cataratas de Iguazú" (Waterfalls of Iguazú) and decided to spend a relaxed day (washing clothes, curing mosquito bites, surfing the internet, reading, eating, struggling with boredom). This day we also decided to go to one of the rivers embracing Iguazú. On our way we encountered a little hill of red, muddy soil where we found clay. This discovery particularly delighted the French girl and me as we both love to mould things out of something (dirty). So we each grabbed a piece of stinky, greyish, reddish clay went happily back to the hostel. Having returned to the hostel we were all craving for food and while we cooked our pasta a Swedish girl arrived. By chance it was the same girl I had got to know about two weeks before thanks to my couchsurfer of Salta. She´s a vivid fan of lichen (Flechten) , funny, brave, blond and tall. We immediately welcomed her to our little group and spent the following days with her. In those days I also got to know a German girl with whom I had the rare pleasure to chatter (about love and it complecity) in German. All in all we spent a great time together :)

The following day we finally did what we had been looking for so long: visit the national park of the "Cataratas de Iguazú", named after the waterfalls which had been declared UNESCO World Heritage.

What we saw here is just too incredible... Starting with breath-taking and jaw-dropping waterfalls (best: "Garganta del Diablo" [Devil´s Throat]), kitschy rainbows, jungle-like forest, strange trees and weird fruits, we also saw a lot of wildlife: a baby alligator, an armadillo [dt. Gürteltier], big birds, hungry coaties (Nasenbär) hundreds of butterflies (even one with transparent wings) and giant ants, each of them extremely close to us.

Another highlight of this day trip was that we met a harpist (Harfenspieler) who taught some of us a little bit how to play this very old and to our eyes a bit weird instrument.

This was really one of if not the most special and most beautiful days of my trip - and my life.

We admired the wonderful waterfalls also on the next day, but then spotting them from the more panoramic Brazilian side. Once again: amazing waterfalls, colourful rainbows, hot, humid, butterflies, coaties, birds, thousands of tourists. But this time only for a few hours, not a whole day, as there was not so much to see.

Back at the hostel, Swedish Katherine and I focused our minds on our clay She formed three balls for juggling with which she juggled for about half an hour. I made a big, fancy snail with flower eyes. I felt like a happy child :D

Saying goodbye to Katherine, who wanted to stay longer in Iguazú and had other travel plans, and to Marion's brother Pascal "Sweet", who continued his journey by contrast to his sister, was quite hard and sad. But when Marion and I left that evening to head for Buenos Aires where we would take our flights back home, we promised each other to meet again (: