17 hours on a bus, butterflies, and lots and lots of water

more falls
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I was about as excited for our 17-hour bus ride as I am to visit Vietnam again.  We took some very long overnight bus rides in Asia, and they always ended in numb butts, aching neck muscles, and a complete lack of sleep.  As it turns out, the bus ride was actually quite pleasant - much like 1st class on an airplane.  Our bus was nearly empty (so very quiet), we had huge reclining sleeper seats with foot rests, blankets and pillows, and a waiter who brought us snacks, wine, food, and woke me up with a hot cup of coffee and croissants in the morning.  What a great way to start out our trip to Puerto Iguazu.

isnt Brian cute when he sleeps with his mouth open?
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We arrived in Puerto Igazu right on time, and proceeded to Hotel Carmen, which was booked as part of our package.  All I have to say about Hotel Carmen is that the hotel rating people were in a very generous mood when they handed out her 3-star rating.  Despite the shabby accommodations, the breakfasts and dinners that were included there were very good.

On the day we visited the falls we got lucky and had glorious weather

A heli over the falls
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On the day we visited the falls we got lucky and had glorious weather, for the first time since we arrived in Argentina.  We headed to the falls on a tour bus with about 30 other tourists, all who spoke Spanish.  One Argentine couple saw our plight and told us they actually lived currently in Canada, and used to live in New York so they helped us out along the tour and in would tell us ( in english with a heavy New York accent) what the guide was saying.  The husband was quite funny because everytime after our tour guide would rattle off a 5-minute dissertation on something in Spanish, he would turn to me and say "did you get that?"   Ummmmm - no.  Still haven´t learned perfect Spanish in the 5 day´s I´ve been here.

Brian and his butterfly friend
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Iguazu Falls lies split between Brazil and Argentina, within 2,100 square kilometers of national park.  The park is filled not only with water, but rainforest, birds, mammals and millions of beautiful butterflies.  We could only visit the falls on the Argentina side, since we didn´t get Brazil visas.  There are varying opinions on which side has a better view, but we were more than happy with what we saw.  Along with various hikes around the falls we also took an optional boat ride under the falls, which got us completely drenched.  We thought we were so very smart by wearing our raincoats, but they were completely useless when the boat driver took us directly into the spray.  We disembarked the boat completely drenched thru to our underwear.

A tiny boat as it heads into the spray
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Lucky for us we visited the falls on Tuesday, because on Wednesday we were hit with torrential rains that lasted the entire day.  Now we will make the 17-hour journey back to Buenos Aires for one last day.  Next stop???  Peru.

Anne