Argentina - Part I

We met the Plaizier's up in Iguazu after our 21-hour travel trip to get there. (But going to Ecuador was so worth it!). We showered and headed out to the falls and trails. This is the view of the falls from our hotel room! They were so beautiful. Pictures don’t do them justice and the water is so powerful crashing. The falls are twice as high as Niagra and four times as wide. The next morning we walked more trails of the falls then went on a jungle excursion. We saw wild monkeys! When the jeep stopped about 30 of them popped out and started jumping from tree to tree, one had a baby monkey on its back and one threw palm tree at us. It was so cool! Then we hopped on a motorized raft that took us around the base of the falls and we got soaked. That day was definitely a highlight of the trip – I love monkeys!

Friday we had to get up and head to the airport to go back to Buenos Aires. Our plane got delayed so once we got checked into our hotel, the bus was there to take us to our tango lesson. We had an hour tango lesson that was so fun. The instructor was really nice and made everyone feel at ease instead of like fools. Afterward they had dinner for us and a tango show. It had a semi-scandalous part but those dancers are extremely talented! They should be on Dancing With the Stars!

Saturday Allie and I headed off to the Estancia (ranch) while Mike & Mary went down south to visit her cousins and Dallin & Thomas went to a soccer game. We went to this ranch in a little town called San Antonio about 2 hours north of Buenos Aires and were met by a gaucho who spoke really good English and asked if we were Mormons when we told him we were from Utah. We said yes then he asked us how many husbands we have. :P He said he wanted to be a Mormon one time after hanging out with the missionaries in Miami. Then he got all philosophical and stuff – weird. So we went and rode horses then had this huge lunch and there were some traditional Argentine dancers who did dances from the various regions. Then there was a gaucho show where they did horse races and tricks and stuff. We got back and Dallin was asleep. I guess their game package they purchased didn’t turn out to be everything they said. They were late picking the boys up so they didn’t get their all-you-can-eat pizza or a guide (it is in a really scary part of town) or good seats they were promised (they were right next to the dangerous section in the stadium) but they had a lot of fun. Thomas had two companions come into town so we got to meet them then went out to eat for all-you-can-eat pizza across the street for $6/per person and it was sooooo good! (Don't worry, I'll devote an entire post to food here pretty quick).

Sunday we slept in and then took a bus to Rosario where Dal’s grandma lives. The buses were really nice and the seats laid back to beds so I took a nice 3-hour nap - the only way to travel! When we were almost there we started to see traffic then this car on its side came into view. It had probably rolled about 100 yards. We looked out the window and there was a lady laying on the shoulder who had been ejected! She wasn’t moving. It traumatized me. She eventually tried to get up but they kept her down and there was a little girl this guy was carrying around who’d been ejected too. It was bad and after ½ hour the paramedics still weren’t there. Some lady hobbled up hysterical, I imagine she was in the car too. We got into Rosario and took the scariest taxi ride of my life (and trust me, I've been on a lot of them!). There are no stop signs so you just blow through the intersection and hope you don’t get hit. We went and visited Dallin’s aunt and cousin then went to eat and went to bed.

Mike & Mary met us in Rosario the next morning and we went and visited his abuela. She was skin and bones and looked so old. She has Alzheimer’s and it’s really taken its toll and she didn’t know who anybody was. She was so sweet and talked in this whisper and could barely walk. It was great to spend time with her. We went sightseeing then shopping a bit after then went for this fabulous dinner with Mary’s sister, her husband and daughter. Best steak I’ve ever had.

Tuesday we went back to visit abuela and it was really hard on everyone to say goodbye because they’ll realistically never see her again in this life. Little did I know that we'd be coming back to say goodbye to my grandma as well.