On Wednesday, our adventure in Iguazu truly began with an
adventure-packed day. It started with a trip to the falls, which from
our view along the land looked absolutely breathtaking. After a walk
around attempting to see every waterfall along the Argentinian side of
Iguazu, we jumped on what looked like a duckboat that took us through
the jungle that was contained within the Iguazu national park. We
learned many interesting facts about the plants and wildlife, and got
up close and personal with some coatis, little scavenging raccoon-like
animals that boldly approached people in search of food. From that
ride, we hopped on a real boat, and sped up the Iguazu River. In that
boat, we approached the falls, enjoyed the view, took some pictures,
and eventually got drenched while riding almost directly under one of
the waterfalls. Our adventure continued after everyone eagerly changed
out of their sodden clothing, and we took off in yet another bus into
the jungle, and partook in some adventurous activities including
repelling down a cliff and taking a long zip line ride through the
trees. To conclude this day, we all gathered outside the hotel by the
pool for ice cream to celebrate Will Elliott's birthday.
Thursday was again a very busy day as we began with another great
breakfast and took off in our van with Julio, our tour guide. Our
first stop was about an hour away from our hotel and it was the Wanda
Mines. Here we learned all about how diamonds formed and we were able
to enter into a mine and view diamonds still in the cave that have not
been taken out yet. After our tour we were able to go to the shop
where they sold all different types of jewelry and stones. We then
took another long bus ride to a matte factory where we saw the entire
process of how matte is made. This tour was extremely interesting as
we were literally were able to reach into some of the machines and
take out the leaves. There is really no middle on people's stance on
matte, it's either you love it and can't get enough of it, or you
can't even handle the smell at the factory. After this tour we made
our main stop of the day, the ruins of San Ignacio. First we visited a
small interesting museum where we began to get an idea of the
relations and the events that occurred here. Then we began our tour
with a wonderful tour guide who made everything he said very clear in
Spanish and was one of the best tours we had. We went to the various
large pieces of ruins that used to be the home of Guarani Indians and
Jesuits. This tour told us all about how the two cultures were able to
adjust to each other and the impact is has had up to today. One of the
most interesting things that I found was how the Guarani and Europeans
were able to communicate even though they spoke two completely
different languages. When the tour ended we were able to see many
artisan goods that were made by the Guarani. After about 30 minutes or
so we reentered the park in almost complete darkness to watch a light
show. This show put to life the things we had envisioned throughout
our day at the mission and was a beautiful sight. After the amazing
show we ended the long day with a 2 1/2 hour can ride just in time for
dinner.
On Friday, our Iguazu trip was ending, but we still enjoyed quite a
few more activities. After breakfast, we all visited a Guarani tribe.
With a tour guide who was a member of the tribe, we visited many
parts, learned of the several animal traps they have, and were even
treated to a music show by a group of tribe members, some very little,
who sang and played different instruments. After several pictures with
the musical gang, we had to, like in any other tourist attraction,
walk through the gift shop, where many of us bought some beautiful
hand-made jewelry or decorations. After that, we briefly visited the
tri-boarder where Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina meet. The view from
this border, defined by two large rivers, was great, as we could see
the skyline of a distant Paraguay city. Following this, our trip
concluded with a delay-free flight back to Buenos Aires. That evening,
we celebrated a combination of Fourth of July and Will's birthday
again with a cake topped with very patriotic red and blue sparklers.
After a weekend with some bad weather and a few illnesses we were all
glad to see each other feeling well on Monday, to start a final days
at Colegio Del Salvador. We began the day by having a meeting with
Jesus where we reflected on our experience and how we thought that we
could make the program better for the future. After the meeting we
made a quick breakfast run and began our closing ceremony. Very
touching things were said where anyone that wanted to say something
was able to do so, and almost everyone did with some Americans even
making stuff up on the spot in almost perfect Spanish. At the ceremony
we saw some amazing pictures of the trip and received our Colegio Del
Salvador gear. After this we went home and spent one final night with
our families. :(
Tuesday was the day we needed to say our goodbyes....not only to our
host families but all the Salvador teachers such as Fefo and Eugenia,
our friends from 5th year who we hung out with and grew close to, all
the little kids who would talk and play with us all day, and everyone
else that has made an impact on us during this trip. We began our day
by watching another all school ceremony for Independence Day where we
saw our wonderful host brothers having spots in the Honor Guard,
including Santi, Francisco, and Tano, who made an appearance
replacing Marcos who was on the DL. After this ceremony we had churros
and hot chocolate but not before hearing a wonderful speech by the
Director of the school who metaphorically compared the line for
churros and how many churros you take to the different types of people
in the government and the world. The churros were very good and we
were able to say goodbye to many people during this time but we made
our way to the auditorium to give a presentation to fourth year kids
(Juniors) on the United States and the trip to Boston. After this
presentation we went home from Salvador one last time. We used these
last few hours to go to lunch and talk to our families and then
returned to school. At school we took some final pictures and them had
to say goodbye to the boys and the people who have let us in to their
homes and treated them as one of their sons for a month. We then
boarded the bus and headed to the airport and back to Boston. After
about 5 minutes of quiet sadness we began hearing "Gooooooooool"
"Gooooooooooooool" "Goooooooool" "Gooooooooooooool" "Gooooooooooooool"
"Goooooooool" "Gooooool" as Germany scored 7 goals from the time we
left Salvador to the time we got to the airport. To add even more to
the want to stay in Buenos Aires we began thinking how unbelievable it
would be if Argentina made the final, but also sad as we left just 4
days earlier. After checking all our bags, getting our tickets, and
most importantly the Germany-Brazil game ended, we said goodbye to
Eugenia and Ms. Basin one last time and went through security. Our
flight took off right on time and one of the most beautiful sights in
the world was below us and the city of Buenos Aires, which is home to
about a third of Argentina's population was alive at 9 at night. The
lights went on forever, it was nothing like I had ever seen before and
was a beautiful way to leave Buenos Aires.
Thank you all for following along!
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