No Tengo un Mango

Here you go mama -



Oye Boludos, como andan? How are you my friends and family, and those weird ones who just linked up to this blog through a google search... I am doing fine, wonderful actually, I just housed a delicious carne asada wrap, for breakfast, after teaching one of my favorite students. Again, as happens in 63% of my classes, we digressed into discussing food and the various flavor procurers around the city-this leading me directly to a place where I could buy a carne asada wrap, not typical carne asada cause there really is no picante action going on at all like we're used to in the states. Technically carne asada really does just mean grilled meat though, so I can't get too bent out of shape.

Anyway whats new with me you ask? Well I just returned from a super double epic Adventure to what I must assume is one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World - Las Cataratas de Iguazu (Waterfalls of Iguazu) Located here (click this link for map), for those of you who aren't adventurous or simply don't like to interrupt your reading train by clicking on unnecessary links, Iguzu Falls is located on the tri-border of Southeast Paraguay, south wester side of Brasil and Northeast Argentina. It's in the provincia de Missiones, which is pretty rugged, coastal terrain for the most part. Me and 4 of my friends took a 16 hour bus ride up there last thursday night (all you can drink personal bottles of wine make for a good meal but...when said empty bottles get trapped underneath a seat and roll with every shift of the bus causing quite possibly the most un-soothing cacophony ever created, one begins to regret downing four bottles each) Anyway, we arrived in Puerto Iguazu (Iguzu Port, difficult I know) on Friday at about 3, two hours later then scheduled. It was too late to get into the park which closes their entrance gates at 4 so we did what any intelligent, travel savvy, excited thrill seeker would do - we went to our hostel, tossed on our swimsuits and got in the near freezing pool to shield ourselves from the quite chilly wind blowing. And this is how the now infamous - Poll O'Clock- was born. From now on whenever your party needs a kick, your feeling a little down, or you simply want to go have a splash, the term you must scream is Pool O'clock. Anyway our hostel was awesome, pingpong table, fooseball, a sweet bar and cost only 25 pesos a night (about 5.20 U$D) Next day we woke up for the 7:30 bus and toured the national park - which I must say is amazingly well kept and put together - this may have to do with the 85 pesos entrance fee but still, every centavo is worth it. The falls are basically two large groupings, the southern chain and La Garganta del Diablo (The Devils Throat) The southern falls are basically set up like a massive lower case c with millions of gallons of water falling over the edges every second. You can see the north curve here..





We were able to be really cliche tourists and take a boat to both tips of the "c" under the waterfall, though a little corny, it really was amazing to look up and see the shear force these bad boys produce. It's insane that these falls have been this powerful for hundreds of years, day and night, month after month of non-stop pounding energy. Truly surreal it was. (yoda) Next we took a nice little baby train up to the Devils Throat as seen here...





The devils throat is absolutely like nothing I've seen before. You look north and it seems like any other calm jungle river (though, thinking now I haven't seen too many a those) then you see the water stop abruptly at a giant hole and one ponders, "huh thats weird, where could all that water go?" as seen here..





Then you walk down the very well kept walkway (no offense but extremely well kept compared to all sidewalks/any pathway in existence in Buenos Aires) to stand on a dock overlooking the falls' basin. As seen here..





You can look straight across and see Brazil and look downstream to see the turbulent water barreling down towards the southen falls for round two. Every few minutes the wind blows the mist at the bottom of the falls away and you can see the insane whirpool/deathzone created downthere. It was surreal and beautiful and a little nauseating, especially after staying a night in a hostel where you can Pool O'Clock until 4 in the morning. In this foto Brasil is to the right, straight down is the southern falls and what would be behind you is the north wall of the devils' throat.





Here's a pic of that wall behind you...





And another pic of the Brazilian side...





Dang there's a lot more I want to say but I don't want to go on too long, noble like a rambler. Basically if you have the opportunity to go to either Buenos Aires, Rio or Sau Paulo, you should go to Iguazu. It's a realatively close trip and it is an awe inspiringly awesome sight to see. I'm reading a book about the Moon landing and they talk about seeing the earth from space for the first time and how humbling it is. I'm not going that far, yet, but it truly was incredible to see nature in such an uncontrolled, beautiful way. Man didn't design or plan any of the spectacle but for that it was so, ahh, so much better.

Allright guys good talk. My buddy Wade is running in the BA marathon this Sunday and he's asked me to pace him the last 5 miles. So there's a good chance this will be the last post I have for a while after I pass out from exhaustion on mile 3.6 and hit my head while the man who just ran 22 miles picks me up and carries me to a bench than grabs me a gatorade.

Hope all is well with you guys, I'm getting nostalgic about Argentina and pumped for the E.E.U.U. Chi town christmas let's do it.

No tengo un mango = I don't have any money (the gauchos (Argentine Cowboys) used to carry their money in hollowed out mangos)

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