When we were in the Brazil side of the falls, we had the pleasure of staying in one of the best hostels in the city named none other than ¨Favella Chic¨ aka Ghetto Fab. When we walked over the river and through the border to Argentina, we stayed in Garden Stone hostel which later became a dog rescue shelter. While there for two nights, we met a couple from The Netherlands (Jeff told them Anna hated The Netherlands, she later said that was a lie) who were very fun but reluctant to exchange email addresses despite giving them free wine. I think the conversation went something like: ¨It was great meeting you, we should exchange email addresses.¨ ¨Good night.¨ They introduced us, however, to a new game called ¨Jungle Speed¨which Lauren quickly became queen of the jungle.
On day two, we visited the Argentinian side of the falls which was our first look. On the Brazil side our time was consumed with traveling to Iguazu, missing our bus stop and walking around the city aimlessly looking for our ¨hostel¨. In one word the falls were astonishing, powerful, wet, mosquito filled and brown (sorry, inside joke). Austin was the only one who fell going down a wet set of stairs but seriously, who makes metal stairs amongst a water fall? After we completed the walk through of the falls, we were greeted with the ferocious ¨Coati¨aka the Argentinian raccoon. They weren´t really ferocious at all, just long claws and sharp teeth lookin for some damn food.
Earlier we mentioned that our hostel turned into a dog rescue shelter and here is the story why. For whatever reason (besides petting and handing out food) our group attracts these K-9 followers. We had the pleasure of meeting five dogs in Iguazu that followed us around for hours, including while we sat outside to watch the Brazil-Mexico game. The main group we named: Taco, Burrito, Lydia, Kane, and Carne, but there were some groupies like Little Foot that only had three legs. Taco was definitely the crowd favorite and even scored a free night stay at the Garden Stone hostel. Austin didn´t want to pet taco with his hands, so he used a towel at the hostel. After looking at the towel and seeing the dirt that came off of taco, Austin was told that towel belonged to James and he had yet to shower. Whoops.
Iguazu falls treated us well but alas it was time to head to real civilization, a place where we felt more at home- Buenos Aires. It all started with figuring out how we were going to get 9 people into two-two person rooms at the Marriott Plaza Hotel. Thankfully the front desk agents were accommodating and helpful (not) but after some negotiating, we got it all figured out. Joke was on them!
There is something called the ¨blue rate¨ which many of us used to exchange US dollars for pesos in Buenos Aires. This is an unofficial exchange that pays more than banks. For example, we were able to exchange a $100 US bill with an exchange rate of 11.6, instead of 8. Although the task itself is shady (people yelling ¨cambio, cambio¨ on the side of the road to attract customers), those who brought US dollars were glad to accept the far better exchange rate. No ATM fees either!
The feel to Buenos is that of say New York city with some Paris and Barcelona in the mix. The girls- excited for wine and dancing. The boys- still enthused with the idea of walking the streets beer/wine in hand (ok, the girls participated as well). Buenos is beautiful yet tricky to accomplish in only 3 days. Nightlife does not start till at least 10 pm meaning our late nights cut into our sightseeing (for some of us at least). We still managed to get a great feel for the city and what it had to offer leaving us all with the same thoughts- we wish to return and I need a larger pant size.
Picture of our adopted dog Taco:
The group at the intersection of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.
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