Iguazu!

Iguazu!

So the stories continue:

Iguazu Falls: We had just finished a rocking Festival of Nations performance in which we recreated various movies scenes: Titanic, Mission Impossible, Alladin, Star Wars, Terminator, Forest Gump I still believe that, for better or worse, entertainment is the US's biggest export so it fit. Kim and Sam did the whole boat scene from Titanic, Eric did a light saber fight for Star Wars, Sam descended from the ceiling while us girls crept about him looking very stealthlike, and Joel played Forest running by on the stage numerous times with various characters picked up along the way (Alicia as Princess Lea, Helen as Jasmine, etc.). We ended by singing "God Bless America" all together. Just as we finished Josh busted up through the stage using a floor door. He was wielding a fake gun, leather jacket, and sunglasses. And as we all ran off the stage he boomed, "I'll be back" in perfect Scwartzanegger form.

And with that I've got to fill out a FAFSA form, so I'll be back.

I'm back.

So anyhoo, we were again driving all night, but this time a la bus. All I can really remember was watching the video of our performance on my video camera that the president of the university, Susy's husband, had been so kind to film for me. And I sang a lot of Shania Twain songs with Heather and had a great conversation about the depth of The Truman show with one of the Argentine sponsors on our trip (Drat. I forget his name, but he was in his late twenties and worked in the cafeteria. He was not, however, the cafe Nazi. There was this anal man who would always make us go back to the dorm if we were wearing flip-flops in the cafeteria. It was ridiculous.)

As the sun rose we stopped at the Jesuit Ruins in Misiones. If anyone has seen movie The Mission (I highly recommend it), this was one of the actual Jesuit missions from back in the day. On the walls they still have the schedule of every little activity they would have planned out for the day. There were all sorts of niches and broken down walls, and amongst them grow the trees from whence one gets the Argentine staple, yerba mate.

Continuing on we finally arrived at the Brazilian side of Iguazu Falls. We stayed at an Adventist summer camp with bunk beds, a cafeteria, and lots of critters. The location could not have been much better. The palm hearts and fruit were stellar as well.

For the next two days we explored the Brazilian side--the side with the view and the Argentine side--the side that gets one up close to the falls. At one part on the Brazilian side one can still get quite close. We were able to peer down into the garganta del diablo, "devil's throat." I had Chenoa sing "Hallelujas" by Chris Rice for my camera amongst the mist and rainbows. It was magical.

While we had been able to walk on platforms above the falls near the devil's throat, we were also able to get right into the bottom of the falls by boat. After a short ride through butterfly filled woods, we embarked on a barquito that sped up the tumultuous river under the falls. Our boat captain then proceeded to drench us under waterfalls close the the garganta del diablo. All of us, including Susy, screamed with glee and chanted "mais uma veis" which translated means something close to "one more time!" He conceeded to our pleas. We felt we had truly experienced Iguazu on all levels. But we went even farther by walking all of the sidewalks on the Argentine side of the falls. They also have a train that we took at night to look at the garganta del diablo in the full moon light. So, we saw the falls above, below, near, far, in the day, and at night (last year I also saw them from above during my first ever helicopter ride).

Beyond the falls we went to a fantastic bird park in which my two favorite birds were coupled together: the purple galinule and the scarlet ibis. We were also around birds tame enough so that we could touch toucans' beaks and macaws sat on our shoulders.

Much stranger than the tame birds was the fish park. Sadly the place no longer exists, because it had one of the most fascinating things I have witnessed. A guy waded in a pool full of goi fish and rang a bell. The fish swarmed him and even, seriously, jumped into his hands. He would then feed them with a massive baby bottle. He let us try feeding them, and suprisingly the fish had strong sucking power.

Our last activity was visiting Itaipu Dam, one of the biggest dams in the world. I believe it borders Paraguay and Brazil. Although it is massive and a great feat of human engineering, the falls, godly engineering, possess much more of my deep impressions from the trip.