Welcome to the Jungle

I am going to sum up our week long Brazil trip in one blog post (hopefully it will all make sense). It was a blast! After celebrating Raquel's birthday by making her lunch, we began our 20+ hour bus ride to Foz de Iguacu, Brazil. It was long and uncomfortable but I slept and read most of the way. In Argentina, we stopped to see the Jesuit mission and the house of Horacio Quiroga. If you've ever seen The Mission, that's where we were (part of it was used for filming). Quiroga is a Latin American writer that had a very sad life.
Once we were in Brazil, we stopped at a grocery store to buy snacks and exchange our money for Real. The rest of the evening was used to relax at our hotel. The next day, we started at the bird park. It is a bird sancutary so there are many types of birds. Lots of parrots, macaws and tucans! It was a nice day to walk around. Next was the Brazilian side of Iguacu falls; the line was long to get in because it was a holiday weekend in Brazil. Once inside, we hopped on a bus and went to the safari site. There were three parts: first, a jeep tour of the jungle; second, a walking tour by a small waterfall; third, the boat ride! We had all been anxiously awaiting this part. For U$S 50 you could take this boat ride along the river and under the falls. It was gorgeous and the water was at 2x its normal level that day. We were completely soaked!! After changing into dry clothes, we walked the trail across from the falls. We took many pictures and enjoyed the mist.
Since it was Sunday, we all had a worship together that night. During our time, it began to storm like crazy and it knocked some of the power out.
Day 2 was supposed to be on the Argentina side of the falls but plans were switched because of the rain. So we went to the Itaipu Dam and Ciudad del Este, Paraguay. The dam was cool but I wasn't feeling very good that day, so I wasn't interested. Ciudad del Este is described as Walmart blown out onto the streets. Everything is super cheap and its chaos. We all bought soccer jerseys there. For dinner, instead of eating in the hotel, we got dressed up and went to a samba show called Rafain. It was cool to see all the dances from the surrounding Latin American countries.
Day 3 we were able to go to the Argentina side of the falls. There was a lot more walking involved this time. Coati's roamed everywhere and were not afraid of people. Our tour guide told us about many of the plants in the park. This time we walked above the falls and saw how much water there really was. That day it was 3.5x as much as normal! Bottega was where we ate for dinner. Day 4 was a trip to the Guarani village in Argentina. They were really inventive people and very talented. Some of the children sang for us and we all bought their hand crafts. It was Amanda's birthday so we all went to Pizza Hut. I had been wanting real pepperoni pizza so it hit the spot! We had the afternoon free to shop downtown and get back to the hotel. My group got off a couple miles to early and had to walk. And it started to rain....but we had fun running in the rain! What a great memory for Amanda's birthday. Our whole group gather in Autumn's room to watch the Uruguay v. Argentina World Cup Qualifier....it was intense....sadly Uruguay lost 0-1.
Day 5 was a free morning before we started the trek home. The ride home was much more bearable and it felt soooo good to come back.
I enjoyed every minute of our Brazil trip but I am worn out!! Thanks for reading :)