Iguazu Falls: A funny thing happened on the way to the waterfalls...

Hello friends! Tomorrow and Tuesday are the final exams in my Spanish class, so instead of studying I decided that tonight would be the best time to catch up on the 'ol blog. I'm far, far behind, so here's what will happen: three blasts of our three weekend trips. The first: IGUAZU FALLS!!!

We began our journey with a lovely 20-hour Friday bus ride, which included: free whiskey (pictured here),  dinner (ham&cheese sandwich, sweet ham&cheese rollup, and chicken stuffed with ham&cheese), inflight movies, wine, a smelly bathroom, semi-reclining chairs, and other amenities. A mere 24 hours after we departed our house...

We're here! After checking into our bedbug infested hostel room (we switched), we spent all day Sunday at the Parque Nacional de Iguazu. Cutter enters the jungle.

This cute little critter is called a coatí.

Awwww

Ahhhh! You may have been alarmed by Cutter's white upper- thighs, but that's not what this coatí is after.  No ham&cheese sandwiches for YOU!

They post this sign after you pass all the coatís.

Moving on... We descended into the jungle, and what did we find...???

Yes, waterfalls! Iguazu comes from the Guarai or Tupi words for "big" and "water." Ohhh.  Other facts: Up to 300 waterfalls flow from this puppy at one time. Iguazu is in the northeast corner of Argentina, on the border of Brasil and Paraguay.  In summary, there are a lot of big waterfalls here at Iguazu.

This is our friend Daniel. Hi, Daniel. This is a view from our walk along the Lower Circuit.

A trip to Iguazu would not be complete without a boat ride INTO the waterfalls.

I left out the picture afterwards where we are very, very wet, and very, very not tan.

A view from the Upper Circuit. 

Look at the teeny people! (And the rainbow!) Good photo, Daniel.

Moving along, we took a really long, hot walk, during which we spotted some capibara and were attacked by butterflies. But at the end of a closed off trail, we got to swim here!

Last but not least, we rode a little train up to a hike to the top of the Devil's Throat, or Gargantua. It bastically looks like the world... fell off. Photos really don't do any of this justice...

Some girl. And GARGANTUAAAAA!!!

We thought it was funny when we saw a rainbow on the map of at Gargantua, but there actually is a big, huge rainbow. All the time.  Whoa.

And that about wraps it up, in a nutshell. We headed back Monday afternoon on a much smoother, slightly shorter bus ride home. Here's  me and my complimentary plastic glass of champagne, which was served between the 2nd and 3rd Nicolas Cage movie.

I have to say I was a little skeptical about visiting this super-tourist sight, but it was super-worth-it. I forgot to mention that we also saw monkeys, spiders, cool birds, and plants and stuff. Added bonuses to the amazing natural wonder that are the falls. Top that with a beautiful, toasty spring weekend, and you've got a pretty nice trip.

Iguazu: CHECK! Up next... Tigre.