Iguazu Falls

      Iguazu Falls in the Misiones Province was the first trip we went on in Argentina.

      We took a 12 hour-long bus ride to get there over night. It was pretty crazy because I was sitting in the top of a double-decked bus and when it was light out and we could see, it was like playing a video game with no driver. Plus everyone drives like maniacs and the bus driver was passing people over double yellow lines, but everyone here drives this way. 

Yup ... passing on a bridge ... OMG were gonna die
(haha no it was ok... )

Amazing red dirt. Everywhere has this intense wet terra-cotta dirt. 

         Once we were there we went to an old Jesuit Missionary site. Which was a place where a group of Jesuits, Priests basically, came as a mission from Spain to help the Indians there become more “civilized”. They taught them how to live right by taking away their mode of existing in the world and creating a fixed neighborhood with a church, school, government, and stuff like that. They no longer lived off the land and instead worked in farming and sold their products. This mind you is a harsh summary of what happened, everything is always more complicated then that.  But basically what I’m talking about is how these people lived all over the misiones area. One of the groups actually lived at the top of the waterfall area and was a major area where the movie Misiones took place.

Graveyard on the other side of the ruins 

Passing by a neighboring village. 

            It was really interesting for me because not only was it the first time we had left the city, but I had just learned a little bit about the region before coming. The semester before I took a class called Political Ecology with Professor Jeremy Campbell. We just touched the surface of a lot of issues that happen with globalization, but originally colonization. Basically just seeing the ramifications from those moves by mainly Europeans to transform the America's into participating commercial producers. Now we were looking back at what the place has become. Which is a tourist commodity, which is brilliant, but devastating if you think about how it got this way. There is now a price tag on the falls. There is a labyrinth of walkways you are allowed to walk on to get there, but your not allowed to move off the path. The place is “saved”, roped off, so it can be enjoyed by us. It really is amazing, because if you think of what would have happened if people were allowed to own property there it would have been horrible. Its just when you know how it got that way its hard to see past the plastic that it now is. Its kind of sick if you think about it. This once mighty fearful amazing place is now something we can pay to go look at. On the brochure I’m holding in my hand the title reads “One with Nature!” Really? This is what being one with nature is like?

         The reality exists outside the park in extreme and utter poverty.  The Guarani people were the Indians that lived in the area and they were an immense group of people that had many different sects and tribes all over the Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina area. They were only one group of Indians that lived in what is now called Argentina. They now live in the areas around the tourism areas. I mean literally, there is a fence around ruins that we were going to admire that changed Argentina and helped “growth and civilization”, and outside that fence is the faces of the people who it “helped”.  Children without shoes, mothers holding infants, run down sheet metal houses. I can’t even describe to you what I saw. Some people don’t want to hear this. They just don’t look, but I have no choice I can’t not see it. I asked the tour guide who gets the money that this tourism brings into the town. He told me its owned by a private company. So the people who used to live in this place able to survive off the land, and happy to do so, were “saved” and brought into a life of extreme poverty, desperation and struggle. Now they have no other choice but to live this way. Its impossible to go back to the way things might have been. So this is the reality. 

The second Mission settlement ruins site. 

Stray dog

Children outside the fence.

Ruins of the settlement church.

Outside the fence. 

Village outside the fence.

Looking into the leaders courtyard. There was usually 1 or 2 Jesuit missionaries
that controlled each settlement of about 3,000 Indians. 

More stray dogs.

        During our bus ride to the Amethyst mines we actually had a detour as well, which sent our bus offroading through the back roads of Argentina, which was CRAZY but a lot of fun. This is mostly because the roads are all dirt and not even really flat at all. What happened is the road was "Cut", which means it was blocked by protestors. This is a common occurrence here because there is a LOT of political instability and people are without jobs and need money so they are always protesting in the streets. So we were sent another way and eventually made it to the Misiones Province. 

off-roading in Argentina !!!! 

This was the traffic from the road cut. 

This is a bubble of amathysit that happens when magma comes up and mixes with Co2.
It creates these crystal forms. The more purple the better. 

Argentine Flag

The falls were beautiful.

Truly, everything about the falls was absolutely beautiful. It’s sometimes hard for me to see past the politics of a place like this, but it truly is a wonderful place to be. The past needs to be understood, but that doesn’t change how truly amazing it is that we were lucky enough to have experienced his place. 

 

First boat ride above the falls in the river 

looking at Brazil

          If you’re looking at Argentina, we are at the top basically touching the tip of Brazil. It was the biggest waterfalls I've ever seen in my life. Basically there are bigger rivers that converge in a lake basically and its like the rock just broke off in a cliff that looks like an enormous long semi-circle. So it created hundreds of amazing waterfalls and island in the middle at the bottom, which divides the Argentina side from the Brazil side. We weren't allowed to go on the Brazil side because we have to pay an entrance fee and stuff to enter the country. We were in a semi-tropical climate so the area was lush with trees and tropical landscapes. There were amazing flowers that were just breath taking.

Basically an Argentinian raccoon. It attached itself to my purse because
it could smell I had cookies. They are so used to people, though it was harmless. 

  The next day we went back to the waterfalls again ... The feeling that we got from standing under the falls were just out of this world it really makes you wonder how the world could be so amazing and beautiful. I could have stayed under those falls forever. We were lucky because the first day at the falls we got to go see the main waterfalls and then take a boat around the calm part of the river before they converge into the falls. We saw toucans and beautiful scenery and you could hear the massiveness of the falls crashing in the distance. The second day we went to see the falls from a distance which really let you take it all in and see it as a totality.  Then we actually got to ride on a motorized zodiac and ride under the falls, 3 times!!! Well kinda, we touched the edge of them. Its cold, because its winter, so we were all trembling but oh my god it was a rush. The falls are just so powerful and there is soooo much water, just forcing its way down. 

Brazil on left, the island on the right.
So the boat ride under the falls was into this waterfall and the one below. 

Island on the left, Argentina on the right.
(im standing in Argentina as well) 

       That night we went to an amazing parilla. Which is pronounced per-ee-sh-a. It is the typical Argentinian meal. Parilla basically means grill and they made amazing meats. Steaks [Bife Chorizo], Ribs [Asado]. Blood sausages, guts, brains, hearts, liver, whatever disgusting stuff you can grill, they do. Most of all they don't use sauces on anything. They use a little oil and some spice and thats all it needs, its fantastic.

      

   

The third day we got to relax on the island and just sit in the sun and enjoy the beauty of the place. We even saw rainbows in the waterfalls; it couldn’t have been more perfect.

on the 'island'