Jesuit Ruins + Mate plantation + Iguazu Falls = Paradise!

This weekend we went to Iguazu Falls in Northern Argentina in the provience of Misiones, the Falls border Paraguay, Brasil and Argentina. We took an overnight bus and arrived in Misiones Friday morning. We toured the Jesuit ruins in the area. They were absolutly beautiful. The rock is red from the Iron and Bauxite in it and the climate is tropical, so everything is very green. Muy lindo!

The next stop was this Beautiful Mate Plantation. We arrived and looked like a party/spa day! there was a rolling lawn of green grass with vollyball, soccer, swiming pool and pavilion sort of thing with hamocks, pingpong and fuseball. We were introduced to the lady of the house and she told to relax and have fun! They had 2 horses outback along with a set of oxen pulling a cart that you could visit with, pet and ride! We all went swiming and then they called us for lunch, which was a delicious BBQ with all sorts of meat and salads. They had cold Mate to drink, tasting like ice tea! After lunch they took us on a tour of the plantation and we saw how Mate yerba is made. Mate yerba  is the National Drink of Argentina.  It tastes like the bitterest of all tea and it is served hot in a cup called a Mate and drank with a metal straw. It is a social drink. The mate cup is passed around the group. one person will drink the whole cup. It will then be refilled and passed to the next person, same straw and all! People that work in the country will strike if they do not get a Mate break, it is very important! after thanking the lady of the house and cook for dinner we headed to the hotel and had dinner and went to bed.

On Saturday we went to Iguazu Falls. SO PRETTY!! We toured the upper falls in the morning and slowly worked our way down to the botton throughout the day. There really is no way to describe the falls except to look up beautiful in the theasurus. I will try to get up some pictures later this week!

Our last part of the tour was a boat ride under some of the falls! I wore my raincoat and my top stayed dry but my legs got soaked! We would yell MAS! MAS! MAS! to get the baot driver to take us under the falls again. It looked as if we had all gone for a swim when we got off the boat!

We travelled back to the hotel all soggy wet cleaned up and went for dinner. This morning we caught a flight back to Beunos Aires and I'm back safe and sounds plus a couple bug bites but ready for another week of school!

Besos- Anna