The Countdown Begins

I haven't got anything all that exciting to report on from this week. Nor do I have any new photos. So I've decided I'll just give a little bit of a rundown on some of the more interesting points and throw in some random photos from my travels.

Much to my delight, the snow decided to stick around for several days this week. It was nothing short of bliss going about daily life marvelling at this natural wonder coating every surface. To see a landscape that has become so familiar to me, so dramatically reconfigured in the space of a day was incredible. It is almost as if this is the way that Junín is meant to be. The town seems to have come alive with the snowfall - it's as though the snow brings with it a renewed sense of joy in the people - or that may well just be me living in what, up until now, has always been a winter-wonderland reserved to ski parks and childhood fantasies.

My "lasts" have been going well. My last football session with my younger companions was wonderful.  The coach wanted to throw a little party for me so we spent the first hour pigging out on junk food and then, hyped up on all the sugar, took to the courts for a super-charged and very enjoyable game of football. They seemed to be caught between going easy on me seeing as it was my last week, or seizing their last chance to show me up. By the end, I had scored three goals and been "caño"ed (having the ball kicked between your legs) three times.

I had a great conversation with my football coach, who up until that point had only ever heard me say things like "How many pushups?" and "Where do I stand?". Once we were out of a fast-paced football context and my brain didn't have to try and deal with football and a foreign language simultaneously, we were able to converse really well. He seemed astounded by the amount of Spanish I was able to speak and understand. Another coach, who had a very broad grip on the English language, then decided to join in on the conversation. He spoke in English and I spoke in Spanish and whenever we felt necessary, each of us would revert to a bit of Spanglish. My coach was sitting there with a giant grin on his face - very chuffed that he could understand almost the entire conversation despite not knowing a word of English. Some of my teammates that spoke English decided to pitch in a little bit, making for a very entertaining conversation.

My last week of school went very well. I gave each of my teachers a "Temora High School" pen and a little Australia badge as a small token of my appreciation for accepting me into their classrooms. Each of them seemed shocked by the gesture and thanked me enormously. The last day of school affected me far more than I had expected. I found myself getting teary-eyed quite often, especially when I received applause from the entire school during an assembly to celebrate Argentina's national day of independence. It's hard enough finding the words to say goodbye in English. I gave up the search in Spanish, finding it far easier to just smile and offer a handshake or a hug and a kiss.

And from there, the countdown begins. In about two weeks time, I'll be hopping on a plane bound for Australia! Tomorrow we depart for Mendoza with plans for some snow skiing, as well as another trip across the border to Chile. Speaking of our Chilean neighbours, one of them is arriving to my family in Australia as we speak. A while ago my folks got contacted by WEP to ask if they would like to host an exchange student. They accepted on the condition that the student was from a Spanish speaking country - the hope being that I could continue practicing the language. Mum also insisted that they be male as she didn't feel that our household could cope with a girl. A Chilean by the name of Tomás made the cut and will be living with us for the next five months. Hopefully the next two weeks are not sufficient time for my family to realise that they would much rather a Chilean as a son than yours truly.

That's all I have for now. Sorry about the lack of quality and completeness -  this one was a bit of a rush job as I felt I should put up another post before departing for Mendoza. I will probably make a few improvements while I am away. Hope you enjoyed it regardless!  Until next time!

Snow!

I will get to the snow stuff eventually, however I'd first like to recount a recent incident in my host home and do a quick update on daily life.

Firstly daily life - everything continues to run quite smoothly - my Spanish is making slow and steady improvement, with conversations and situations with larger groups of people becoming far easier. I still enjoy my time at school and am improving (finally) at making productive use of my free sessions in the library. I even managed to complete (finally) my Agatha Christie book that I borrowed earlier on in the year, "Diez Negritos". The chilly weather makes it difficult to find motivation to exercise but I have been doing my best to take advantage of every clear patch of weather to go for a bit of a run and I still have my several sessions of football per week.

Now, 'the incident', which goes under the name of "Un Oso en el Baño" whenever it is recounted by my host father. He had taken note of my nightly trips to the bathroom to pee at 2:00 in the morning and decided he would leave me a bit of a surprise. Sitting on the toilet waiting for me was a giant stuffed bear - somewhat of a shock when entering the bathroom in a half-asleep state, early in the morning with a few second delay before the light flickers into life. This is where the recounts of my host father and I differ. He claims that I let out a loud, overly girly scream (complete with hand actions in his retellings). I maintain that he heard was actually my Dr Hibbert laugh, distorted by the bathroom wall. As for the girly hand actions, how he knew that is beyond me.

And now, as promised - the snow! A couple of days after I got back from my trip to the north-west, it began to snow here in Junin! Something that's probably not all that exciting to many of my readers, but it was a first for me! It was only a very light fall and not enough to produce the stereotypical snow-covering that I had always pictured, but it was enough to have my standing transfixed at the window for half an hour or so. To me it was simply magic! Then it decided to get considerably warmer for a bit over a week, much to the dismay of my host brother who was hanging out for the first opportunity to ski for the winter. However thankfully it cooled off again  (though I don't always feel all that thankful drudging home from school in wet, windy, sub-zero weather) and on Friday afternoon I went snow skiing at Chapelco Ski Resort with Luis, Agus and a few of his friends.

I had only been skiing a couple of times previously and not for several years but it didn't take me long to get back into the swing of things. Though I was still far inferior to my companions, I improved quickly and took a liking to skiing through the trees, something that I have never been able to try before. It felt incredible to be dodging backwards and forwards between the trees and other natural obstacles, sometimes through foot deep snow.  Whenever the speed became too much and my balance failed me, I would end up buried in a mountain of snow unable to contain my laughter. It was fun, exhilarating, and at times frightening - a feeling that I will hang onto until my next opportunity to partake in snow-sports. Though I have the opportunity to go water-skiing most summers, and many skills and feelings resonate through both sports, the freedom felt whilst snow-skiing cannot be beaten.

Possibly the best part of the day, was the fact that (besides the miniscule price for rental of boots and a helmet) the full day of skiing didn't cost me a cent! This was because it was the first day open for the resort. Despite being first day of the season there was a lot of snow and some slopes were closed as the visibility was too poor. This being said, well over half of the runs and lifts were not being used due to lack of snow so the lines for everything were aggravatingly long. That was the only real downside to the entire day however. I had an awesome time and cannot wait for my next opportunity to ski, whether it be here in Argentina, or back home in Australia.

After all that snow-related happiness, it began to snow while I was walking to church this morning. Then, just to make my weekend complete, while I was putting together this blog we got some heavier snow-fall and I was finally able to see that awesome snow-covering that I was talking about earlier. I ducked outside to get myself as many photos as I could before my hands started to freeze and came back in to complete this post by the warm fire, watching the snow continue to fall outside. I'm hoping that, and the following photos, are enough to invoke some jealousy in my readers.

When I elected to come to come to Argentina on exchange, experiencing the snow was something that I was not expecting. I must admit, until I received confirmation that I a host family had been found for me in a small community near the Andes and I did a bit of research, I wasn't even aware that there were places in Argentina where it snowed. I guess that's a good reminder of one of the reasons that I am here, not just for the incredible experiences and some sightseeing, but for the things that I am learning and knowledge that I am acquiring along the way.

After four months in Argentina, I'm still having daily realisations of how amazing it is that I am here -
whether it be on a gentle Sunday afternoon bike ride, seeing kids playing football in the street and smelling the asados grilling throughout the town, or a game of football with my classmates enjoying the continuous banter in Spanish (and every once in a while, English). Occasionally I reflect on the fact that it has become normal for me to be surrounded by conversation in a language that I probably would not have even been able to recognise a year ago and now am able to understand a great deal of. 

As I enter my final three weeks in Argentina it is very easy for me to spend my time thinking about the ever-approaching departure date (23 July for anyone who may be wondering), particularly as I approach 'the lasts' of everything - my last week of school, my last music lessons, my last football sessions and my last Spanish classes. However, as my mother reminded me in a recent phone call with my family at home, it is important for me to not dwell on this, but to make the most of my remaining time here. And that's what I hope to do - enjoying each of my 'lasts' as they come along and jumping at every opportunity to try or see something new in my remaining weeks. I have a week in Mendoza with my host family to look forward to, as well as a day in Buenos Aires before I leave, so I haven't got 'home' on the brain quite yet.

That's all I have for this time. I hope you enjoyed it and apologise for another delayed posting. The trip to the north-west caused a bit of a disruption to my blog-writing habits and it's taking me a while to get back into the swing of things. However, for my many loyal readers, I aim to re-establish the regular, polished professionalism that defined my earlier postings. I leave you with this disturbing image of the stuffed beast from my late-night bathroom encounter.

"El Oso" (which in reality is not a bear, but a lion) in his usual spot below the stairs.
 I was going to recreate the bathroom scene,
 however I found it far too traumatic and had to settle for this shot

Salta, Jujuy y Tucumán

My sincerest apologies for the lengthy absence. The trip to the north-west was quite a long one. I then found myself stuck in Rosario with a bit of a stomach bug, without a computer or internet. How I survived is beyond me. Sick stomach side, the trip was incredible - another one of those life-changing, unforgettable ones where you see amazing things in the company of amazing people. I'm extracting the order of events from my camera which is still set to Australian time so the division of days is a little harder to decipher. Just keep in mind that this all happened over a course of about 11 days.

As per usual, the best place to begin would probably be the start of my trip. Thankfully the travel to Rosario went a little more according to plan this time, with no missing of buses, nor any other major mishaps. It also seemed to fly by much faster as I had a travel buddy - a Dutch girl that had just finished her exchange in San Martin de los Andes and would be heading home after the trip. We got along well and talked a lot (but thankfully not so much that I would lose my voice again). When we got to Rosario we had several hours to fill in so we met up with some other exchange students that would be travelling to the north with us. This was when I first met the two infamous Scandinavian exchange students whom I had heard so much about. I would end up spending most of the trip in the company of the pair - a short, solid Norwegian and a tall blonde Swede. To my delight they spoke English all-but perfectly - as if it were their first language. One had with him a football (soccerball) that would make an appearance at every possible opportunity throughout the week.

Later we all headed to the bus where I caught up with the small group from orientation week that had decided to take part in this trip as well as a bunch of new faces. I also had the pleasure of meeting a South African that was seeing off one of my German friends. I always forget just how much of an international experience I am having! So far I've met people from no less than 12 different countries. The South African is in Argentina with his parents on missionary work. He was bursting with energy and a pleasure to be around, marvelling at my Australian accent as he had never met an Australian before.
From there, the real trip began. Our first stop was the bus terminal in Tucuman, about 11 hours drive from Rosario. There we picked up a couple more exchange students who had travelled directly to Tucuman from Mendoza. We also had a chance encounter with two Australian exchange student, one of whom I had travelled to Argentina with! The other was doing Australia proud, on crutches, nursing a hangover and speaking some of the worst Spanish I have ever heard (including my own).

Along the way to our accommodation we stopped at a beautiful lake to have lunch. Unfortunately its name and location escapes me, however I did manage to capture a bunch of nice photos.

I fell in love with San Miguel de Tucuman instantly. The architecture was spectacular and everything had a very welcoming feel. We also noted quite a difference in the people - darker skinned and seemingly with a strong indigenous influence. This difference was to become more pronounced the further north we travelled. We had a guided tour of the city, visiting a little museum as well as a couple of churches. The beautifully constructed and historically significant churches are a famous highlight of the north-western provinces. 

After this we headed skyward to get a wonderful view of the city at night. We got back to the hotel in time to see the majority of a football game on telly between Argentina and Bolivia.

From there, we made our way to Tilcara, Jujuy, our base camp for the next couple of days. On the way we bore witness to some truly spectacular scenery - the kind of stuff that I had previously held as a stereotypical view of South America. In fact, almost every location that we visited conformed to that stereotype - placid natives, jagged mountains, simple constructions and an abundance of cactuses and llamas.

While in Tilcara we also travelled to many of the surrounding tourist towns, including Purmamarca and Humahuaca. These towns were brimming with little stores to purchase souvenirs and the like. They were always exploding with colour, as bright coloured fabrics are another famous trait of the region. It took all my strength to not purchase something in every store that I entered, although I did somehow end up with several beanies, jumpers and other assorted bits and pieces. I was not the only one however, my Scandinavian amigos went as far as purchasing a poncho each. We were quite an amusing sight for many of the locals as we ran around playing football in the plaza in Tilcara.

Near the town of Tilcara is the remnants of a native village providing some beautiful scenes - stone buildings nestled in the hills amongst the cactuses. We had a guide show us around before roaming the ruins to get some photos.

From Tilcara we headed for the city Salta, stopping along the way at Las Salinas Grandes - giant salt plains. It was very impressive - a flat sea of white stretching out as far as the eye could see. We also found it to be a perfect spot for a bit of football.

The city of Salta was also very much to my liking as far as cities go. It was quite clean and open and I really enjoyed the architecture. The famous catholic church near the centre of the city was stunning. We spent two nights in Salta, on the second visiting the boliche/restaurant/bar, Balderrama de Salta - a definite highlight of the trip and a must see if you are ever in the area. As we ate some of the local cuisine - Saltinean empanadas and locro - we were treated to a display of singing and dancing in various traditional styles of the region. The dancing was something to behold.  The men in particular were very impressive to watch, one of the styles involving a great deal of jumping and boot-stomping. I also thoroughly enjoyed the musical entertainment, including three different bands playing various forms of regional folklore - from the traditional to a more modern style. Members of our group were also invited to try out a bit of the dancing with the professionals and by the final band we were all on the dance-floor having a great time.

During our stay at Salta we also took cable-cars up one of the nearby mountains to gain a stunning view of the city followed by an asado lunch - delicious as always! Unfortunately, at some point that morning we managed to misplace our football. The realisation of its absence was a very sad moment for all of the male group members.

Another very famous attraction of the north-western provinces is the 'Tren de las Nubles', a heritage railway that travels to an altitude of over 4000m - the third highest in the world. For some reason unbeknown to me (some time problem I think (my Spanish failed me at this point)) we elected to take the accompanying car route, rather than travelling in the train itself. The trip was still very cool - we got to travel through a couple of tiny little villages on the way, as well as seeing some really cool scenery, complete with llamas. We also went to one of the massive bridges running across a valley - the type of thing you see in typical photograph of the train. Whilst taking in the view from a distance, a couple of the males decided to head down the hill to empty their bladders. Lacking a football to occupy ourselves,  my Swedish mate and I decided to start hurling rocks in the general direction of our urinating companions (as boys do). Unfortunately, I was the one with the most accurate throw and found myself being run down by an angry Norwegian at an altitude of 4000m - a very different kind of breathtaking experience. (I have a bunch of photos of this trip as well as the night at Balderrama, however I haven't got to converting them to a format I can upload. Keep on the lookout though, I'll do my best to post them at some point.)

On a separate trip to some little villages in the mountains, the altitude rendered me a little worse for wear. Some of us that were really starting to feel the effects of altitude sickness decided to try out a local remedy - the chewing of coca leaves - the plant from which cocaine is extracted. Don't worry, the amount in the leaves is minute and at lower altitudes we found that they merely induced hyperactivity and a slight numbing of the body. They were very effective in curing the altitude sickness however.

From here, we began our return to Rosario, staying one night in Cafayate. We stopped at various attractions on the way home. Firstly, La Gargantua del Diablo, a very impressive rock structure formed by wind and water over the ages. For me, the surrounding landscape was reminiscent of typical Australian outback scenery (though perhaps the mountains were a little out of place).

We also stopped at the ruins of a village belonging to the ancient Quilmes people. It was constructed on the side of a hill and surrounded by massive, flat, cactus covered plains. Later that day, our Mendoza contingent was dumped at the Tucuman terminal and from there, it was straight back to Rosario, arriving early the following morning.

Seven of us stuck around in the main area of Rosario for one final catch up. This included a nice lunch and a guided tour of the city's art museum by the Scandinavians (who are probably sick of me grouping them together in this fashion, but it's far easier this way). They had volunteered at the museum, so they knew a bit about the art, and as the galleries were currently being changed, we got in for free and had the place completely to ourselves. On the ground floor there was a grand piano, and with permission from the museum staff, our big German companion gave us a private performance. It was exquisite! To see a massive German guy, with his interesting and very amusing use of the English language, caught in the improvised flow of his own jazz compositions, was something that I will always remember.

From there we returned to the Wep House, struggling to find the words to describe the beauty we had just witnessed and recounting a few of the more amusing moments from the trip, most of which revolved around the big German. Everybody collected their things and gradually we parted ways, promising to make every effort to see each other and visit respective home countries over the coming years.
 

Eventually I made the all too familiar, day-long trip back to Junin. It was mostly uneventful, other than some amusing conversations with a couple of fascinated primary school aged siblings that were seated either side of me, the younger of whom never seemed to accept that Australia is not a part of Italy and insisted on quizzing me on my Spanish vocabulary. It made a fitting, light-hearted end to an awesome trip and reminded me just what this adventure is all about - the discovery of another people, country and culture.

(Very) Quick Update

At the request of my biggest fan (my mother) this is just a quick post to notify all my loyal internet stalkers that I will not be able to update the blog for two weeks because I'm heading off this morning on another journey with my host organization! - once again they're sending us to the far North, but this time we're hitting up the Western  provinces of Tucuman, Salta and Jujuy. As usual, it seems that I'm going to be experiencing something completely different to that which I've experienced so far in my life both here and at home. Only four of my buddies from orientation week are taking part in this one. It's not going to be quite the same without them all, however it does mean that I'll get to meet a bunch of the exchange students that arrived in Argentina mid way through last year. I've learnt from my last experiences with the lost voice and hopefully I can refrain from talking too much.. The new audience could put that aim in jeopardy though..

I was hoping to fit in a quick post prior to this one however not all that much of note has occurred since I last posted and I've spent the last couple of days stressing out over whether everything would get sorted out with the various tickets that I require for my latest adventures. Until late yesterday afternoon there was a protest occurring that made travel between here and San Martin - the place where I needed to go to get money and to buy the tickets - very difficult. All is well now however, and with any luck in about an hour's time I'll be Rosario-bound once again!

Much love and best wishes to all my supporters at home and abroad! I leave you with one of my favourite pics from a leisurely bike ride on Sunday afternoon. Enjoy!

 

Learning the Lingo

It's getting cold here. Really cold. Far too cold for this poor Australian. In truth it's probably not all that bad, but in contrast to the pleasant, shorts and t-shirt weather of the north from which I recently returned, this is quite a shock to the body. My body's immediate reaction was to come down with a pretty uncomfortable case of the flu. I'm slowly recovering but I'm still a little under the weather and have been able to mooch a day or two off school from my (mostly) sympathetic family. Elsa's natural tendency as a mother and doctor is to take every possible precaution and check up on me several times a day, but they have all found my reaction to the weather to be quite amusing. Yesterday my host family was joking about sending me off to a warmer climate e.g. Brazil, in exchange for a slightly more accustomed exchange student, e.g. a Norwegian.

I find that sometimes even  the car trip to school in the morning can be quite a way out of my comfortable temperature range. Perhaps watching the reading on the outside temperature gauge drop to -5oC doesn't help. However, I gained a greater appreciation for the luxury of the car when my host father had to leave early this morning to get to a course in Neuquén and my host brothers and I had to layer up and brave the icy roads on foot. Thankfully when I arrived at the school library, the staff were ready and waiting with some nice warm mate. I'm currently awaiting a care package from home containing some extra clothes so that I can get some more layers happening as the weather cools off even further. I can't say I'm super excited about the mercury dropping a further 10 degrees over the course of my stay, although it will be a new challenge for me and I look forward to the promise of snow, quite likely in the next month! For someone who has, much to the amazement of the locals (and probably most overseas readers of this blog), never seen snow falling from the sky, this is a new experience that I will willingly endure the cold for! Already, a light covering of snow can be seen atop the mountains towards San Martin and our friendly local volcano, Lanin, has taken on more of a stereotypical 'volcano-y' look, with the top half covered in a thick layer of white. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of Lanin sporting this look.. I do however have some of it bearing a bit of a snow-covering. I took these pictures on my latest 'walking group' expedition with Luis. 

This walk wasn't anywhere near as spectacular or challenging as my first two experiences, but having just returned from our trip to Iguazu, I happily welcomed the light weight trek to get me back into the swing of things. This time we didn't have to drive to begin our hike, simply setting out from town. We covered a great deal of terrain that I had previously covered on runs with Luis earlier in my stay and it was quite interesting to see the dramatic changes in the scenery. While many of the spectacular greens, blues and brilliant yellows have now been replaced by oranges, browns and a far more pale shade of yellow, in my opinion, my surroundings have not become any less beautiful. I look forward to seeing what else the landscape has in store while I'm here.

At about the half way point in our walk we stopped by the river to have a nice asado lunch - chori-pan - the Argentinian equivalent of sausage sandwiches. However I feel that this description probably does them a bit of injustice, they were delicious!! Everyone was of very high spirit and it was lovely sitting around by the river sharing mate, stories and a few laughs. Our group had grown quite considerably since the last hike - I think we numbered around thirty. Whether this was due to the promise of a less demanding walk and a bbq lunch or simply word of the group spreading, I cannot be sure. I like to think that I have had some effect on the growing numbers, with people eager to meet the lovely Australian boy with his stilted yet creative take on the Spanish language.

My Spanish (they prefer if I call it Castellano here) is coming along really well. Before leaving for the north, I was feeling that my language had come to a bit of a standstill. Motivated by the progress of my fellow exchange students, on my return, I endeavoured to make a greater effort to participate in conversation in Spanish. This I am modelling on the English of some of my friends who speak it as a second or even third language. They just throw themselves into it, unafraid of whether they use the right tense or correct grammar and unperturbed if they are not fully understood, simply learning from each conversation and making rapid progress. While we sat to eat our lunch on the walk outside of Junin, I made the effort to chat with some of my fellow walkers, but was soon overwhelmed as those nearby moved in to ask questions and share their own opinions. On the return leg of the trek, however, I walked alongside my host mother and eventually decided to strike up conversation and see how long I could keep it going for. We ended up speaking non-stop all the way back to town. I was always able to convey my intended meaning and maintain her interest in what I was saying. My grammar was probably quite poor and I didn't feel all that fluent but I felt a massive improvement in both my speaking and understanding in the hour that we conversed for. Who would have thought that the best way to learn to speak a language would be to talk..

It appears that my Spanish teacher also got the memo about me wanting to practice my speaking. When I sat down for my first lesson since returning to Junín, she said something along the lines of "I think we've done enough grammar for now; it's time to put it into practice!" So we chatted for the entire duration of the lesson and then continued on for a half hour afterwards . By the time I leave Argentina she's going to be an expert on Temora and Australian history and culture. I've been trying to carry this conversational ability into daily life, but still prefer situations were I am speaking with only one or two people. It's a bit of a challenge after spending the first half of my time here preferring to simply listen and learn but, now that the words have started to flow, I doubt there'll be any stopping them. I guess it was inevitable that someone who likes to talk as much as myself would eventually tire of not having a say. I have to be patient though - now that I'm conversing more with people I've learnt the first unspoken rule of conversational etiquette when it comes to talking to foreigners like myself - the native speaker always gets the first say and right of way. In general, the Argentinians love to talk and I often just have to sit and wait for them to stop for a breath before I can have any input. I guess that's how people feel when they're speaking to me in English.. They're almost always very entertaining to listen too though and I'm finding that speaking in Spanish is now less of a chore and something that I really enjoy.

I've also had my first instances of not being understood in Spanish simply because of my accent. Even if I know that the sentence I've formed makes perfect sense, if I'm a little lazy in toning down the Australian accent I'm likely to get the same bemused expression as if I'd just spoken a phrase of Aussie slang. Thankfully Agus, who is much more accustomed to my accent, is often on hand to 'translate'. An improvement in language has also led to an improvement in my joke-making ability, much to my delight and I'm sure to the delight of my host family.

I am still encountering the occasional person really eager to try out their English, particularly younger people. Some, like the occasional kindergarten-aged kids that I meet when we go to get-togethers, are content just hearing me speak in English - even if it's something as simple as telling them my name and where I'm from.  The usual response is wide smiles and a few giggles, but every now and then there will be a wide-eyed child sitting in stunned disbelief that someone can so easily rattle-off some English. I had one amusing encounter at the CEF where I play futbol, when a twelve-year-old refused to believe that I was from Australia and that I spoke English as a first language. 

I often wonder to what point my language will progress before I return to Australia. While being 'fluent' is currently far beyond consideration, I've already come a long way and hope to make much greater improvements before my time here is up - a point in time that doesn’t feel all that far away now that I've passed the half way mark in my little adventure. I'm struggling to come to come to grips with how quickly time has passed and how much I've managed to see and do so far! I'm sure I'll be heading home before I know it, however I can also be certain that I have plenty more awesome experiences ahead of me here in Argentina.

Viaje a Las Cataratas del Iguazú

On the 30th of April I set out on what was to one of my most enjoyable experiences of my exchange so far. I was bound for Rosario to join ten of my fellow exchange students on a trip to the Iguazu Falls in the province of Misiones in the far north-east of Argentina. 

My journey didn't start out all that well. I managed to miss my first bus due to an error in departure times by my coordinator. We went in pursuit of the bus, however once we had made it half way to Neuquén (where I would be changing buses), my coordinator decided she might as well drive me the remaining few hours to the province's capital. There I was met by one of their friends who is studying at university in Neuquén. She is fluent in English so we chatted away for the next few hours while she listened to the announcements to make sure I wouldn't miss my bus to Rosario.
The bus to Rosario took around twenty hours, but thankfully most of this was overnight travel and I was able to sleep most of the way. Due to a dodgy train system, buses are the most popular method of long distance travel in Argentina. For this reason, the companies are in hot competition and all possess top quality, super comfortable double-decker buses. If you're wanting to see the country, one of these buses is an ideal way to do so!

I arrived at the WEP offices several hours before most of the other students, so I was taken to the lovely home of the WEP Argentina director (conveniently located just around the corner from the WEP offices) where I could shower and sleep before spending a little while having a wander around Rosario.
When everyone had arrived we spent a while catching up about our adventures so far. While everyone's experiences have been unique, there was general consensus that mine has been particularly different. My life here contrasts greatly to almost everyone else's - not surprising considering that most are centred around the big city of Rosario, while I live in a relatively tiny town on the opposite side of the country. Many were very jealous my beautiful surroundings and said that they would love to visit me here if it wasn't such an insanely long journey to get here.

We then loaded our gear into the minibus that would be carrying us the rest of the way to the Falls. This would later be dubbed "The Bus from Hell". Twenty-four straight hours in a cramped, far from comfortable minibus on long, straight and mostly very boring roads would never be my preferred method of travel. This being said, I would be hard-pressed to find a group of people I would rather share the journey with. The travelling was already half over for me, so it wasn't quite as daunting, and through all the complaining, freezing night hours and numb back-sides, the trip wasn't all that bad. Once we got a fair way north, the scenery started to get really cool - very different to anything I had seen up to that point. The dirt turned a deep red (reminding me a lot of the dirt in Temora) and everything slowly became more 'jungle-looking'.

Having had very few opportunities to speak English for an extended period of time since our orientation week, I was loving being able to regain my voice! The irony is that my vocal chords weren't all that prepared for the onslaught of language and ten hours of nonstop talking resulted in the loss of my voice for the next few days.. Not wanting to waste the opportunity to speak English however, I kept on talking (much to the delight of my fellow travellers) and slowly gravelled my way back to full health. 

Our first stop as far as the major attractions went was the San Ignacio ruins - the remains of a mission set up several centuries ago in an attempt to convert the natives. Our guide gave some pretty interesting talks in both English and Spanish and I quite enjoyed wandering the ruins. While we were all glad to be free of the minibus and regaining feeling in the parts of our bodies that had fallen asleep, our exhaustion and hunger put a little bit of a damper on things.

After a few food and rest stops, we finally arrived at our accommodation at Puerto Iguazu, much to everyone's delight. Puerto Iguazu was a nice place to set up camp - quite touristy but with a very small-town feel to it. 

The next day we set out for Iguazu National Park. We spent our first half a day with a tour guide who gave us a brief overview of the best way to experience the park and a bit of extra info on some of the sites. We got to see heaps of monkeys! I don't know if you could class them as wild though - they were freely roaming the park and really comfortable with human presence (except for one of our Germans who got a little too close with his camera). We also saw an armadillo, some sort of large reptile that resembled a crocodile, turtles, butterflies of every colour and size and an abundance of coatis. The coatis - little brown racoon looking things - were possibly the most annoying animals I have ever come across. When we stopped to have lunch we were having to physically fend off the swarms of them looking to snatch away our sandwiches. One of the particularly sneaky ones made off with the lunch of our Dutch comrade. To their credit they were pretty cute and at times I was torn between picking them up for a hug or laying a boot into them. I'll admit to giving a bit of a kick to some of the more persistent critters.

While the wildlife and jungle atmosphere was pretty cool, the main attraction was always the waterfalls - "Las Cataratas del Iguazu". I don't know how to begin to describe them. The view got better and better at each viewing point we reached.  At first I was thinking "Yeah they look nice, but are they really worth all the hype?", however I became increasingly amazed the more time I spent there. The nicest views of the falls were from a long distance, but the best experiences came when we were able to get up close, hear the roar and feel the spray of the natural marvels.

On the first day, the best example of this came when we ventured out to "La Garganta de Diablo"  - "The Devi's Throat". To reach this particular section of the falls, we had to walk along a seemingly never-ending trail of metal walkway across small islands and large masses of open water. When we reached the viewing platform, standing right on the edge of the Argentinian side of the falls, I was lost for words (and that wasn't just because I had destroyed my voice on the trip there). No matter how hard I tried I could not find the words in English or Spanish to describe what I was feeling. My companion, a giant German boy with a very thick accent and interesting use of the English language, thought he might give it a go. Amongst the soaking spray of the falls he grabbed me by the shoulders and yelled above the roar of the falls "Have you ever seen anything so amazing!? I cannot believe it! It is so awesome man!".

I lost track of how much time we spent at La Garganta, taking countless photos, yelling to each other above the roar and just standing in awe, gazing through the spray at the beauty stretched out before us. Some of the photos turned out alright, but it really is something that needs to be experienced. The sound is incredible and the incomprehensible surge of water creates a spray so thick that you cannot see the bottom of the falls, and when the wind is right it rises up to soak those staring in from the top.

As amazing as this was, it wasn't to be our most up-close encounter with the falls. The next day we entered the park again (at a discounted rate because we went two days in a row (I still can't believe how cheap entry into and activities within the park were - we paid no more than the equivalent of AU$150 for entry and all activities at the falls!)). We then went on a little safari tour, learning a bit more about the park and its wildlife. Apparently there are pumas and other big cats that venture out during the night! The safari concluded at the entry to a boat ride that would take us closer to the falls for some picture opportunities and then into the base of part of the falls! If you ever have the opportunity to visit Iguazu, this boat ride is a must! We got back to shore thoroughly drenched and unable to wipe the smiles from our faces. I was one of the lucky two in our group to possess a fully waterproof camera (the girl from Holland that lost her lunch to the wildlife being the other) and was able to get some great pictures before, during and after the repeated drenchings.

After this we spent some time on San Martin Island, basking in the sun, having a bite to eat (safe from the coatis this time) and simply relaxing with out awesome view of the waterfalls. We then trekked up to some over viewing points. I chose not to take my camera for these, and while the views were again spectacular, it was nice to just stand and reflect on God's creation without having to worry about getting a picture from every possible angle. From there we headed back to the entrance, purchased some souvenirs (unfortunately not quite as fairly priced as the entry fee) and heading back to our accommodation to recover.

Over the course of the week we also visited a precious stone mine and the place where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet, as well as a wildlife park. Here we got to see toucans, monkeys and various types of eagles. The park also keeps some of the cooler animals like the native big cats, but unfortunately they don't have any at this time of the year because it is breeding season and the have too many issues with the wild animals trying to get in. At one point we had to hurry out of the way of a large, jealous and rather aggressive female monkey that was making her way through. 

When we weren't busy seeing the sites we enjoyed our time relaxing at the hotel. Many of us had purchased mates (the cups for drinking yerba mate) and were eager to try them out so we spent a lot of time feeding our yerba and 'mafia' addictions. For the uninformed: 'mafia' is a card game in which each participant is given a card unknown to the rest of the players. During the 'night' everybody falls asleep and those with the cards signifying 'assassins' wake and chose a person to kill off. During the 'day' everyone wakes to discuss who they believe to be the assassins and before going to sleep again someone is executed. The assassins win if one of them makes it to the end of the game, while civilians win if they are able to pick both assassins. I think it is a testament to how close our group was that we could play the game to its full potential - lying, backstabbing and furiously debating - yet come out of each game with no hard feelings.

On Sunday it was our coordinator's birthday so we all went out for dinner on Monday night. Following this, we returned to the accommodation for one last game of mafia before our trip home. During the 'night' someone ran and grabbed a cake that we had purchased earlier, lit the candles and placed it on the table in front of the coordinator so that he could 'awake' to it. After we had finished several repetitions of the of the Spanish birthday song he was still looking a little shocked but was very appreciative of the gesture. He said that he had felt the warmth of the candles yet had not suspected a thing. Thankfully the organisers of the cake placing managed to avoid lighting his hair on fire.

We began our journey home on Sunday afternoon. We were all dreading having to spend another full day in the bus but the return trip ended up being quite enjoyable. We spent a massive portion of it playing mafia - turns out it's even more fun playing in a mini-bus! By this point my voice had all but returned to normal and was better conditioned to extended periods of talking so I employed the tactic of talking non-stop. I'm sure my companions were all very fond of my voice by the end of the trip. We returned to Rosario very well travelled, quite exhausted but very much thrilled with the week that was. It was a week that I will never forget!

We gradually parted ways as people made for their respective modes of travel back to host families, a couple of us with further to travel sticking around over night. While we were all smiles, it was a little sad to be saying goodbye - I have formed some amazing friendships and feel very close to the whole group but it may have been the last time that I will see some. (The last time in Argentina anyway - we have all formulated plans to travel the world and visit each other in our respective home countries when our time in South America expires)
Either way, I very much hope that I will get to meet up with many of my intercambio amigos again during my stay in Argentina. To have such strong friendships and to be able to share my feelings with people that are taking part in the same life-changing experience is something very special to me.

My apologies for taking so long in posting this update - hopefully the extra photos make up for it!