Welcome to the Jungle!!!

Hello from Puerto Iguaçu! So I know I kind of fell of the map for a bit but I’m back. To catch you all up a few days ago Jim and I adventured from Montevideo, Uruguay to Salto, Uruguay, and then ventured from Salto to Concordia, Argentina. From Concordia we moved onto Mercedes. In Mercedes we took a breath, actually caught an evening at Carnival, and made plans to head to the wetlands, Los Estros del Ibera.
Okay so a really quick overview: Salto in my opinion, well, sucked! Small town with not a lot of people who spoke any English and worst of all no Internet, oh woe is me. Then Concordia, I thought was lame when we arrived but I actually had a fairly pleasant time for the short while we were there. I at one point took a 17 block walk and the small town was rather attractive.
*** Side note: I’m writing this blog in word and then transferring it to the webpage because I don’t have Internet in our room and don’t want to write a blog in the lobby, sooo I don’t remember what I put on the last blog, so if I’m repeating myself, my apologies. Anyways so we get to Mercedes and it’s small but not at all a bad place. The hostel we stayed at was highly recommended online and many people stated that the best part was that the woman who ran the place was very helpful in planning trips to Los Estros del Ibera. Being as the wetlands are kind of an off the beatin track tourist attraction I figured it would be good to bring in a little help in planning this excursion. Graci-ella (spelling?) was very helpful in planning our excursion. One must understand that the wetlands are in a town called C.C. Pelligrini, the town has a population of 600 people (yup that’s only two zeros). Also there are no banks, bus stations, restaurants, Internet, and very few phones (many of which are not accessible to tourists). Thus it is very important that the hostel be a full service type of place.
So our trip included: 2 nights stay in the hostel, 4 dinners (2 for each of us), 2 lunches (1 for each of us), 4 breakfasts (again 2 for each of us), a 2 hour walking tour, 2 hour horseback riding tour, and a 2 hour boat tour. Sadly none of these tours were with English speaking guides being as there is only like one boy who speaks English in the whole town, but we made due (on a related note my Spanish is improving).
So for brevity’s sake I’m going to sum up the experience by saying I’m thrilled that we went! The wetlands were amazing, we got to see monkeys, these cute large rodents, which I forgot the name of but looked something like a cross between a rabbit and a guinea pig only about 10 times bigger. We also saw some beautiful birds wild flamingos included and I got the get closer to alligators than I ever expected (this thrilled me… seriously)!!! Oh and I can’t forget to talk about the bus ride to the wetlands (I know I’m back tracking a bit but it’s too good not to talk about). So if you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to go four-wheeling in a jam-packed special education bus, just ask me and I can tell you its kickass. I caught air many times and squealed with delight every time. So more on the wetlands adventure… the food sucked, the people were lovely, met a Danish couple who are great (note the are instead of were, they are still a part of our adventure). So when we left the wetlands we had two options.
Take the fun bus back down to Mercedes and then go back up to Iguaçu (which would be rather inconvenient)
Or to hire the 4x4 and driver from the hostel to take us to Valisora (Spelling?) and then take a bus to Iguaçu. (this was the options we were leaning towards but we needed two more people to share the 4x4 with) This is where our lovely new Danish friends come into play.
They too where wanting to take the 4x4 to Iguaçu and were delight to share the experience with us. Oh and if I thought the 4-wheeling in the bus was fun, the 4x4 doing somewhere between 80 and 100 miles per/hour on a loose dirt road was even better (I’m aware I’m a little nuts).
So a 4x4 ride and 2 bus rides later the four of us arrived in Puerto Iguaçu. Due to the high volume of tourists, we even all ended up in the same hostel.
*** Another side note: I sent a bit of time talking to them tonight and I have to say they are really wonderful people.
Anyways so today Jim and I (and the Danish couple, but we didn’t know it at the time) all went to the famous Iguaçu Falls. Today has been hands down my favorite part of the trip. The Falls are breathtakingly stunning and I honestly think that I have a better understanding of what heaven may look like. The lush green sub-tropical jungle surrounding The Falls only added to my amazement. (I took lots of pictures but due to extremely slow Internet connection I will have to wait to post them). I think tomorrow, since I have scheduled that as my relax day, I will write another blog dedicated to just talking about the experience at The Falls. So it’s 1 am here and I would like to finish my book tonight so I can pass it along to the Danish couple, so I’ll sign off for now, but stay tuned more on Iguaçu to come. Much love and devotion. J