Hi! I want to start this post off with something that I forgot to mention last time. As some of you may know, Aba is a very committed Bikram yogi back at home. Therefore, when his friend Esak invited him to participate in an online backbend challenge, he signed us all up. We’ve been doing backbends for about a week now, 5 per day, and I can almost reach the floor! I’m very happy with my progress because today I did nine backbends just for fun and it didn’t hurt at all! Anyway, on with our trip. After we got to our hotel in Iguazu, Argentina, we settled in and walked around the town. We were able to see the water border between Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil before waiting for two hours at a restaurant before finally being seated. The next day was very eventful. We woke up and drove to the falls, but in order to get tickets for a boat, we needed mine and Asher’s passports (because we have to be verified as over 12 years old). We hadn’t brought the passports and the car was very cramped with all of us in there, so Merrill and I stayed behind while Aba, Troy, and Asher drove back to the hotel to get the passports. We entered the park and trekked a couple of hiking paths, getting soaked with the mist from the falls.
In order to get around the park, we also rode a small train. At one of these stops, there were tons and tons of animals called Coatis. They are really really cute, and we couldn’t resist feeding them a little. Coatis are part of the raccoon family. They have fizzy striped tails and long snouts and tongues. Again, ADORABLE!!!
We stopped for a break next to some play structures, and I accidentally knocked Merrill off of a see-saw. Sorry, Merrill! After we toured the park more (and fed the Coatis), we went to the bus/boat dock. We got on a bus-jeep thing and drove through the jungle. On the way, we saw our first wild Tucans! They had marvelous, vivid orange beaks and were absolutely breathtaking. Also during the drive, a giant spider fell inside our guide’s hat, causing everyone to panic. It was hilarious! Anyway, the boat ride was amazing, but the driver kept purposefully drenching us! He even drove us under a few of the waterfalls!
The ride reminded me of riding on my grandfather’s boat in North Carolina. He and my uncle Marty always try to throw us off while tubing. In the morning, we drove across the border to the Brazilian side of Iguazu falls. We saw the falls from the park there, still wonderfully beautiful, and also crossed the street to walk in the nearby aviary. There, we saw the most lovely assortment of birds. Some of them were kept in cages, but the majority of the fowl we left free to roam. In one room, there were many couples of birds cuddling together and chirping or squawking. We also saw blue macaws. They, as well as many other species of birds we saw, were a lot larger than we expected them to be! We even saw eagles the size of penguins!
After the aviary, we tried to go to a cinema museum, but it was too expensive.
That night, we ate at an amazing steakhouse with scrumptious steaks! I’d forgotten what great steak tasted like because, honestly, Argentina had let me down. Don’t get me wrong, the steaks weren’t horrible, but they didn’t live up to the expectation everyone had set for them. However, I hope that Brazil’s steaks all taste as they did in the restaurant. It was so delicious! Yesterday, we flew to Rio de Janeiro! That’s where I am now. We had a stopover in Sao Paulo, another Brazilian city, but nothing exciting happened. Today, we walked around our neighborhood and did homework. There were two funny and odd sites that I saw, so I’ll briefly describe them to you. The first was two homeless people sleeping on blankets. They had two dogs sleeping with them. Next to the blankets, there was a shopping cart overflowing with trash, among which another dog was asleep. On the peoples’ other side, there was a pink baby carriage. Inside, there were two cats and a pigeon. The cats were hilarious because they slept like cats on internet cat memes sleep, but I’m not sure, though I’m willing to bet, that the pigeon was not likely alive. The second site was an old lady, but completely goth! It’s hard to describe, but it was really funny. I’ll update you soon!
Ella
5-4-26-23 1-13 4 7-4-7-22 5-4-17-17-1-4-10-6!!!!
