On Monday, we rose with the light of the day, well not quite but close enough, and got some breakfast from the lobby. Special Brazilian breakfasts consisting of ham and cheese, weird looking eggs that I didn't try, pastries, and super strong coffee. Always delicious and with scoop or two of fruit on the side nutritious as well. After that we got on a bus and drove to Paraguay. We are staying at the like the three corners of the countries, so it was not as long of a drive as it sounds. We took a dam tour of the Itapu dam. The cooperation between the countries of Brazil and Paraguay for this dam are just incredible. This hydroelectric station gives all of the energy Paraguay needs and about 25% of what Brazil uses (they split it half and half and Paraguay sells like 90% of its half back to Brazil). Brazil is a giant country so that is quite astounding. It's like the Hoover Dam but a lot bigger. We made a lot of dam jokes for my dam video and it was a dam good time. Okay. I am done. It was great.
Then we spent the rest of the day in Paraguay buying cheap things and eating sketchy hamburgers with pink meat inside of them. It was a little scary but fun. The shopping was the sketchiest thing I have done in a long time. Imagine the street markets found in like NYC plus an exploded Walmart plus no regulation of illegal goods. This combination lends itself to a once in a lifetime experience that I didn't realize was as scary as it was until I got on the bus at the end of it. That is such a college thing to say. I wish I could say that we were actually very safe, but I just don't believe it. We stuck to where our tour guide told us to though.
That night we played some volleyball in the pool at the hotel and then went to a Brazilian Culture show that was really unique. They did things from all over Latin America including a Mexican mariachi band. I felt like I was back at El Chico or something. It was great. Did I mention all of the great beef that I had in Brazil? Well, now I did. I had too much red meat on that trip for sure.
Tuesday:
I just want to write too much about everyday, but I am trying not to. Just wanted to put that on the record. Okay. Tuesday.
Tuesday we got up and had breakfast again and then we drove to Argentina. Seeing the amazing breath-taking falls from one side was not enough. We were hungry for more of them. So we got the park and there was like no line, unlike in Brazil. We started off hiking the upper trail which was gorgeous. We took lots of pictures but didn't really get wet. The day that we went there was 4 times the normal amount of water going over the falls. That means though that there were more just big falls and less little ones scattered about because they all blended together so much. We hiked through the jungle on this path and were shown a lot of medicinal plants by our tour guide. He even told us about some hallucinogens and such. That was a little sketchy but he was really nice and funny.
We ate lunch at another buffet with a ton of beef and such. Same song and dance for the most part. Then we went on the lower trail to get up close and personal with the falls. We got quite wet but saw lots of rainbows and more interesting plant and animal life. We were supposed to go to the Devil's Throat, the most intense part, but because there was so much water, we didn't get to. Apparently the water was sweeping over that path that was supposed to be 10-12 feet over the water. Just a smidge dangerous!
That night we ate out and went to a tourist shop. We came back and played more volleyball. I can't even find the space in the world to write about everything that we did. Basically, trust in this, we have a great time everyday no matter what are doing. We all get along so well, praise the Lord, and have so much fun even when we are stuck on buses for 20 hours or at a boarder with nothing to do. Thank be to God for this group!
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