CAUTION: Falling Water... seriously

My last day in Mendoza was spent wine tasting yet again. You know what they say "When in Rome..." This time we checked out spots in the city including a place called ¨Vines of Mendoza¨. They have a club you can join online to be sent a variety of regional wines every quarter. The wines were so good I am seriously thinking of signing up when I get home. Feels like it would be a fun ongoing reminder of this trip.

Later that day some girls from my hostel (Hannah, Rebecca, Fiona and Sophia) obliged my request to visit Plaza Espana, a central Park I wanted to check out based on the tile work I had seen when passing in a cab coming in to town. Beautiful place that had, like all areas of Mendoza this week thanks to the regional festival taking place, fountains flowing with "wine". Okay so it was only colored water that looked more pink than malbec red but still. Ended the last night in Mendoza sipping cocktails with the girls at a local joint and then making a huge delicious salad for dinner. Great crew I will miss hanging out with.






The following day I flew on Areolineas Airlines to Iguazu Falls which boarders with Paraguay, Brazil and of course Argentina. Flight took 4hrs thanks to a stop over in Salta which is about half way. The bus would have taken over 24hrs, from what I was told, and honestly I didn't work as hard as I did last year to sit on a bus for that long. Here´s a view of the falls from the air... pretty cool to see the mist as I arrived.

My hostel in Iguazu seemed like a dive at first glance due to a power outage and broken lock in my room that seemed to be resolved by having someone on staff just crank open the window, pop the screen and go into the room that way???? Hello security? Things turned around when I met an English girl Martha that evening and a group of us went into town for dinner and she showed me a website where I was able to book another flight from Iguazu back to Salta for Sunday for $80 bucks more than the 24hr bus would have been and we agreed to meet up when I arrived in Salta and tour northern Argentina for a while before I go in to Bolivia. (To be fair it was a pretty nice hostel. I did appreciate the pool on the last day.) 

On the next morning I met a fellow Canadian Stephanie, who I met on my flight, and we checked out Iguazu Falls from 9am till 5pm. Lots of walking which was great.

Pretty amazing place and I did really enjoy the boat ride that takes you right up to the falls where you get soaked, as well as the final stop on the paths to stand above the Devil's Throat Falls & marvel at the power of all that water diving &swirling around you (plus it is a good view of Brazil - behind us in the below photo and to the left in the photo to the left).

Also managed to see some wildlife. Including birds, these guys that look like a cross between a raccoon and a rat (and acted like they had never eaten before the way they chased folks with sandwiches) and of course butterflies though these ones were amazing and were swirling all around me at one point. I felt like I was in a Disney film until a bee stung me in the armpit (OUCH!) and I had to go buy an ice cream to make myself feel better :)  Overall I would still say Victoria Falls in Zambia is more impressive. I am so spoiled.

Becasue I think some people have the impression that I am visiting places that are remote and scary I thought I´d include a photo of the little train they have set up on the Argentina side of the falls.... If I had only posted the first photo you might have thought it was a lonely place...





Yah see the line up for the train? I am NOT alone on these little adventures to be sure. Pretty important what images I select to give you an accurate feel for this adventure. I wonder if I am representing things properly.

Wish my other camera would load the photos I took because there is a great one of my roommates in Iguazu and Remus, Raman, Welmued and I wish I could post it. They were such fun. Oh well. Such is life.

That´s all for this edition. Next stop Salta and El Norte de Argentina.

xox
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