Last Sunday I went to Zoo Lujan with some friends. And when I say zoo, I mean “most extreme petting zoo ever.” As you can see by the pictures, baby pumas, tigers, elephants, and parrots were all available for touching and holding. They had all the normal farm animals too, but I didn’t really feel the need to get a picture of me petting a cow. It was a great day: a relaxing bus ride speaking Spanish with friends, petting exotic animals, and back in time for dinner with the family. 

If you’re wondering why Jana isn’t in any of the pictures, it’s because she didn’t go. In her own words, “It’s because I’m cheap and I don’t have room in my heart for God’s furry creatures. And I’m not ashamed.” 

Thursday marked the beginning of a new and exciting adventure for me, Anna, and 40 of our closest study abroad friends. That adventure is called “Weekend Trip to Iguazu Falls.”

Our journey began in the most awesome bus ever. Actually, all the buses here are the same, but they are all great. The seats are super comfortable, and they play 80s music videos for hours on end. I had the time of my life…

After a lovely bus ride, we took a little look-see at the ruins of a Jesuit mission. That part was really hot. And I was still asleep from the dramamine. 

Next was lunch. The food was probably my least favorite part of our lunch break. I had some good conversation, scored a goal or two in a game of soccer, hopped in the pool, and, best of all, had a glass of sweet tea. Oh yes. It was lovely. Cool and refreshing. 

More bus riding followed, but in a normal Greyhound this time. I slept pretty much the whole way to the hotel. We grabbed some dinner at the hotel and went to sleep. At least, I did. I don’t actually know about anyone else. The next morning we woke up early, and I had cereal and milk for breakfast. That may have been the best part of the trip. I love me some frosted flakes. 

Then we went to the national park to visit IGUAZU FALLS! It was super amazing. There was so much water. And butterflies! All I wanted was for one to land on me, and finally, one did! It was magical. It was even magicaler that another one and then another one landed on me! I was ecstatic, to say the least. 

Sunday we visited a little Guaraní village not too far from our hotel. That part was not as exciting. The bugs in that subtropical forest were ferocious. I did not enjoy them. I did enjoy swinging on the vines with the small children. And my brothers, who are not small children. 

Lunch Sunday was pretty fun. About twenty of us ate outside at a café near our hotel, and we are a funny bunch. I think we were all a little dehydrated after being in that sun for so long. All of us except for our brother Nico, that is. He drank three bottles of carbonated water with his lunch. 

We flew on LAN! It was a lovely to fly with a foreign airline. They gave us a box of food! I was actually asleep for the whole flight, but they still gave me my food. There were these ham flavored crackers in the box that were delicious. It sounds nasty, but they tasted exactly like ham and biscuits from Cracker Barrel. I loved them. 

And so was our weekend adventure to Iguazu Falls. It was lovely. Now, everyone needs to go vote for the falls to be one of the New Seven Wonders of the Natural World. http://www.vote7.com/n7w/overview

For our faithful readers who noticed the shocking lack of posts over the weekend, we sincerely apologize. You will forgive us, we hope, when you hear that our silence was due to an exciting weekend excursion to the beach! We, along with 14 other students in our program, planned a spontaneous trip to the seaside town of Mar del Plata to get some sun and surf before the weather becomes cold. And now, for your entertainment, here are all the reasons why our Mar del Plata experience was both fabulous and funky:

1.  Argentine Bus Travel. Amazingly comfortable seats, snacks on the return trip, the bliss of being rocked to sleep by the swaying of the bus and then waking up at the beach, panoramic views because we were on the second level of the bus, and all without the hassle of airport security. 

2. Bungalows. We rented two little bungalows in a campground outside of the city, with three bunkbeds and a loft with a double bed per bungalow. It wasn’t exactly luxury living (the tree growing through one corner and the mold on the pillow are two examples), but we didn’t care since it was cheap. 

3. Pastry shop. Conveniently located within walking distance was a cute and cheap pastry shop that sold amazing pastries of all kinds. And if there’s anything Argentines know how to bake, it’s some delicious pastries. We were devoted customers: all 16 of us visited Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning and always bought extra pastries to have later in the day as well. 

4. Stray dogs. These were definitely not a fabulous part of the trip, but we had no choice. The neighborhood was home to a large community of stray dogs that all adopted us at first sight. They were our faithful companions as we went to and from the beach and pastry shop and even blessed us by laying on our towels and scratching their filthy fleas on our stuff. 

5. The beach. It was a little on the chilly side and kind of windy, but it was also almost completely void of other people. The Atlantic was super cold but that didn’t stop us from swimming at least once. It was so relaxing to be at the ocean again and the weather was perfect on Friday for a long day on the sand. 

6. The port. Saturday afternoon was rather cold, so we opted to explore the city instead of freeze in our bathing suits on the beach. We discovered the lovely port of Mar del Plata and took a boat ride out into the harbor to view the city from the sea. We also encountered the ferocious lobos del mar, but Jana has claimed the right to blog about those so I will say no more!

7. Manolo’s. A fabulous restaurant whose specialty is churros and hot chocolate. Churros are wonderful, fried, donut-like, rolled-in-sugar pastries that are the closest thing we have found to Fair food so far. They serve them plain or filled with cream or chocolate…you can guess which kinds Jana and I ordered. And the hot chocolate at Manolo’s is truly hot chocolate. It tasted just like they melted a Hershey bar in a mug for us. They even included extra packets of sugar in case the chocolate wasn’t sweet enough.

8. Biker conventions. When we checked into our bungalow, we were informed that 1500 bikers would be rolling into the camp for a weekend convention. Several of our companions were quite excited about the prospect of 1500 Argentine bikers at our location but have no fear—Jana and I were equally excited about the prospect of going to bed early each night. 

9. 11 am check-out times. We checked out Sunday morning by 11:00 in order to get our deposit back. The only problem was that our bus wasn’t leaving until 12:15 am, so we had 13 hours with all of our backpacks and nowhere to go. We ended up going back to the beach, though it was cold and cloudy, and we set up camp with all of our stray dogs and backpacks. It was quite a sight, but you can see the picture for yourself!

And that was our trip to Mar del Plata. Beach trips in March in Argentina=awesome!

This past Saturday we went on a trip to Tigre, located about 30 minutes outside of Buenos Aires. It’s one of the largest river deltas in the world and we got a pretty sweet boat tour of the delta. Okay, so we both wished the boat had traveled a bit faster, but at least we were on the water!