Acts of Love!

We are here at Iguazu falls. The story goes that there was this large snake that lived in the river and the native people of this area would sacrifice a maiden each year to appease this snake. Then one year a man fell in love with the woman to be sacrificed. he took her away into the jungle to hide. Suprisingly the snake was not very happy about this decision and with a crack of his back snapped the river into what is now the falls. The hair of the girl makes the falls and the trees above make the fingers of the man. The snake hides in the devils throat to keep them seperated. However, you can often see a rainbow bringing them together just for a moment.

Natives in love often die and get stuck in some landform. I guess its a good way to be immortalized??

anyway the falls were beautiful! we had a great time walking around. We took a Grand Adventure! tour of the falls. So we took a hot jeep ride throught he sub tropical jungle. The guide pointed out plants and told us about animals that we probably wouldn´t get to see... She did stop by a Palmito! and told us that they only grow inthis area and produce heart of palm. However, they can{t harvest the heart of palm anymore because they are important to the survival of the animals in that area. It looked a little different than the palmettos of south carolina...

We then took a boat ride up the river and towards the great falls! we had brazil on our left and argentina on our right. I waved to brazil a few times! ha. Then, they drove the boat really close to the waterfalls and we got soaking! It was so fun. It was alittle terrifying but all mom and I could do was laugh! the cool thing about these falls is that there are so many of them. Its not just one drop. Its so m any drops youc an{t see thema ll at the same time. Its pretty powerful and we went right up next to them!

So we got of the boat completely soaked. We wer only staying one night so I did not bring much extra clothing... Luckily my shorts pretty much dried as we walked around the rest of the park. It was Beautiful! there were also these little animals that are related to racoons but look like ant eater/ lemurs/ racoons. they were pretty cute.

So the hotel we are staying at is in the national park. Its sort of resort living so we had messages last night! I had a hot stone message. It was wonderful. Then they give you hot tea. We had dinner at the normal argentina time of 10ish, but apperently that was pretty late for the hotel.. I guess mainly old people stay here.

We are leaving today to go back to Buenes aires. I{m going dancing tonight with patti´s daughter Durban, shes my age, and her roommate. They are both living here and looking for jobs. They were the ones that showed us around the other day. Theya re really cute and fun and its intersting to hear about them trying to get a job in another country and all the work it takes to get a work visa. Its a contrast to hearing about fullbrighters who come for a definite time period and have a goal at the end of their stay. They just picked up and moved here for an indefinite tome frame. Its like moving to any city adn just looking for a job once you get there. Except once you find the job you ahve to get a work visa... They ahv e few months till their travelling visa expires, so thats nice. They{ve only been here a few weeks. I can{t wait to see the nightlife of buenes aires!! I bought new shoes, woop woop!

Sunday we leave for the horseback ride! George and pattis hould be there when we get back to buenes aires. I{m anxious to see them! its been a while! I[m also anxious to get on a horse, its been too long!!

ciao! (they say that here too, its awesome. Oh, they say it because it was largely colonized by italians as well as spaniards, so I get to have good italian food along with good beef!)