Note: This email is full of facts but not so much deep thoughts. This is due to lack of "downtime". Having none of my own to share, please accept this thought from Athos, a 17th century French musketeer as substitute: "If God is the supreme physician and healer of the broken-hearted, the contemplation of nature is a sovereign remedy."
It`s been a busy ten days for me since I last wrote to you. Btw, if somehow I figured out how to send this to undisclosed recipients then you`d think this would be a personal email. But you`d be wrong because it`s not. I got in from Valparaiso, Chile on Monday last week and since then have been moving about. Wednesday I left for Misiones province in Northeast Argentina for the second group trip of the semester (the first being Tilcara in Northwest Argentina). This time we took a 16 hour bus ride but because they paid for it, I finally experienced the heaven on wheels that is the Coche Cama...fully reclining quasileather seats, better movies than Taxi and Boogeyman (featured on the drive back from Chile), among other things.
We, we being 40 exchange students, spent three days at an estancia (ranch) in the flat and lush lands near the Paraguayan border. One guy, Isaac, had a birthday and so brought a blowup crocodile we named Crocolina and used in various pools playing a game we called Water Crocket (like Cricket but in the water with a volleyball and a blowup crocodile named Crocolina). I also had two opportunities to redeem my honor by not falling off a horse whilst riding. The first time we went to the Rio Corrientes, the border with Paraguay, and forded a river (fortunately no wheel axles nor little Timmy nor any oxen were lost and we didn`t have to trade five skins for the Indians to ferry us across) and swam in said river. The second time 7 of us stayed back from the group visit to a mate factory to go with the gauchos (Argentine cowboys) on their afternoon duties. We were of course absolutely no use to them but did enjoy galloping off in various directions sometimes dictated by us, sometimes by the horses; touring the estancia`s property for four hours (big property); and even trying to corral cattle (easy to surround) and some water buffalo (not so easy).
Every night we had an asado (big barbeque) and I fancied that the cowskulls on the wall were the very same that we consumed. But I was wrong. After our stay at this estancia, on Saturday we visited the Jesuit ruins (San Ignacio Mini to be exact) from the 17th century and went to another estancia known for its tea and mate that struck me as what life would have been like being a Brit in early 1900s British Kenya (clay tennis courts with women holding tea in one hand, playing with the other and wearing sundresses; men lounging by the huge pool playing Water Crocket; sumptuous lunches under the veranda of the central house followed by live music and waltzish dancing). But of course I was wrong because it was the tropics of NE Argentina, not 19th century British Kenya.
Because we were so close to the Brazilian border (as any Brazilian with a map of Northeastern Argentina handy would easily tell you), the same 7 of us decided to go to Iguazu falls for a couple of days while everyone else went back to Buenos Aires. And so we did for three days. Iguazu falls is like Niagara falls on steriods. It literally looks like the end of the world from the 2km walkway leading out to the main waterfall...an entire countryside flooded by brownish water with only the tops of some green trees showing. But I was wrong. It`s just a huge huge river with little islands in it that falls off a plateau and has the most incredible look ever.
Mark and I (Mark being a Brownian man and I being me) took a crazy boat ride up to several of the falls (The 3 Musketeers and San Martin if you must know) but were quickly repelled by the force of the water. Our group had our own asado and split up with Mark taking the early bus back, aforementioned Isaac and I taking the 20 hour bus that`d get us to BsAs at 7am, and the others taking planes back.
I got into Buenos Aires on Tuesday morning and thoughts of Iguazu filled my mind for most of Tuesday (the of part being filled with 2 phone calls, class, and Game 3 of the World Series). I reflected how often I`d been wrong (flood=river, 1900 Kenya= 2005 NE Argentina, dinner= not wall mounting, cattle not = water buffalo, 17th century Jesuit ruins = 1st occupation of my Jesuit Georgetown professors, etc.) and I realized my only conjecture that hadn`t been proven wrong was the End of the World one and the name of the waterfall I got soaked by but not past.
So the next day, yesterday, I bought a ticket to Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, and after my morning class (during which my laundry was done at a laundromat) boarded a plane to the southernmost city of the world also known as El Fin del Mundo (End of the World). It is from here that I write, and my adventures have started already and tomorrow greatly increase (a yacht ride down the Beagle Channel to some islands inhabited by penguins and seals, and a hike to a glaciar). These will have to be in the next email though.
To finish the best week ever I attach my salutation,
salutations
Josh Bull
ps I also bought The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas, the final book in the Three Musketeers series for my trip to Ushuaia, thus completing my Iguazu falls to Tierra del Fuego thought process.
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