This past weekend, I went on the last journey included in my program: a 2-night trip to the province of Misiones in Argentina to visit Las Cataratas de Iguazu (Iguazu waterfalls). Iguazu is one of the new Seven Natural Wonders of the World, and is located on the border of Argentina and Brazil.

We left on Thursday evening and took a 13-hour overnight bus ride to Posados. We spent Friday at a mate plantation, eating an asado and trying different yerbas. Mate is the traditional drink of Argentina, which is an herb like tea that is drank out of a small hollowed out gourd with a metal straw (called a bombilla).

Saturday was our full day excursion to the falls.  Unfortunately, we woke up to see it was steadily raining outside, not a good sign.  But we all ate breakfast, bought $10 peso ponchos, and went to the National Park with, “the sun in our hearts” (Pamela, our chaperone’s words).

There are three main viewing levels at the falls, we started at the top, and made our way down. The rain was the heaviest on the top level, but it was our first glimpse of the falls so we were very impressed. Next, we took a train to the lower level, which is the walkway to the Devil’s Throat. The Devil’s Throat is a huge waterfall in a tight semi-circle that really does resemble a throat! After getting thoroughly wet from the spray, we took the train down to the lowest level where we stopped for lunch.  By this time, the rain had stopped and the sun was coming up, so by the time we headed for the lowest viewing platforms, our pictures came out a thousand times better! From this point, we went on a boat trip, which took us really close to the falls.

Iguazu was easily one of the most beautiful places I’ve been too (which was hard to match after my trip down south to Patagonia). Although the rain may have put a damper on the beginning of the day, we ended our trip with a sunny day and a rainbow over the waterfalls.

Carolyn Tiernan can be reached for comment at [email protected].