Brazil

Friday & Saturday October 9 & 10:

We left at 4:00 pm on Friday for our 20 hour bus ride. We played lots of games, almost all of us had our own seats on the way there, so sleeping was better than on a normal bus. The time passed fairly quickly. On Saturday before leaving Argentina we went and visited the Jesuit Ruins and Horacio Quiroga's House. We finally arrived at our hotel in Brazil our rooms were rather small but we were never in them for that long. It felt really good to shower. We ate dinner then just hung out, watched a little soccer on tv, and people hung out in our room. Kate and Matt had a INTS book duel, it was rather funny. I fell asleep while everyone was still in our room. I was so tired.

Sunday October 11:

First we went to the bird park that is pretty much across the street from the National Park. There are over 150 species of birds there. They are all either endangered or were injured and could not survive on their own in the wild. We were able to walk through some of the cages and get right up next to the birds, the toucans in particular were very friendly. Next we walked over to the falls. The line to get in was epicly long, you could not see the entrance from the end of the line but we did make it eventually. Because there was a chance of rain later in the afternoon we went ahead and went on the boat ride as soon as we got there. It included a short safari ride, a little hike to see a hidden waterfall, and then into the boat where we got to go through the mist of one of the falls, we got soaked, it was so fun. There was so much mist that we could only see that one little set of falls..we all thought it was amazing, yet we had seen nothing yet. There was so much more to see. We went and changed out of our wet clothes and walked the trail to see the rest of the falls. The most amazing thing I have ever seen. You can truely see the power of God when you look at how much water is pouring out in any given second. There are not even words to describe! Pictures too are nothing! They are pretty but are nothing compared to the real thing. After we got back almost our whole group got in the pool and we played volleyball. Afterwards we went to dinner, then had our own worship service, during which it started pouring rain! When we finished Taylor and I went and stood in the rain, it felt so good to stand and smell the rain. Then several of us went and played mow and Uruguayan BS until time for bed.

Monday October 12:

This was the day that we were suppose to go to the Argentina side of the falls but due to the rain we switched our days. So we went to the Itaipu Dam instead and we went on the Dam Tour. The Itaipu Dam is one of the 7 Wonders of the Modern World. lol. On our way back we stopped in Cuidad del Este, Paraguay. Before we went this town was explained to us as Wal-Mart on crack that exploded into the street, and that is basically what it looked like. We ate in the Mona Lisa building, which is like a 7 story department store. They have the nicest public bathroom in the town. Afterwards we went shopping and most of us bought cheap jerseys. Once we got back to the hotel all of the Biochem majors videod an experiment for Chemistry Circus. It's on youtube and if you have not seen it you should go watch it. It is hilarious. It can be found under ACU Chemistry Circus :). We played some more volleyball in the pool. This became pretty much a nightly thing. Then we all showered and got ready to go to a dinner show. It showed the different types of dances throughout South America. They even invited Amber up on stage for a little bit. It was rather entertaining. We all went to bed after this.

Tuesday October 13:

This was when we got to go back to the falls on the Argentine side. Unfortunately we found out upon arriving that it had rained so much everywhere else in Brazil that the rivers had filled up and there was about 3.5 times more water than usual. This meant that the devil's throat was closed. We were all kind of bummed at first, but it ended up being okay. The point of seeing the devil's throat is the power of the water rushing over it. This day we were seeing that in all of the falls. It was like nothing I have ever seen before. We went on both lower trail and as far as we could go safely on the upper trail. It got to one point where it was blocked off cause you could see the water gushing over the walkway. We got to go stand and take pictures in some of the mist. I was glad we had gotten to see the Devil's Throat from the Brazil side. We stopped at an Artisan Market on our way back to the hotel. Once at the hotel we played more volleyball in the pool. Went to dinner at a place called Bottega, but this time we did not stay for their show. We played mow in Alli and Karaline's room and then went to bed.

Wednesday October 14:

This was our last day in Brazil. We started out the day by visiting a Guarani Village just over the border in Argentina. We saw different traps they set for animals, some of the children sang for us, and we bought handmade souvenirs they had made. We ate lunch at Pizza Hut for Amanda's birthday, it was so good to eat American style pizza. The pizza here is really good, but it is not the same. After lunch, Amanda, Jaimie, Dara, Josh, Lauren, and I went shopping on one of the main streets. Once we were done we took a bus back to the hotel but we ended up getting off way early so we start walking down the highway towards our hotel. We got a good walk and all was good until it started raining on us! It made a good memory though. When we got back to the hotel 15 of us went to Autumn's room to watch the futbol game on tv. Uruguay vs. Argentina for the 4th and 5th spots. There was 16 people in a tiny room in Brazil cheering for Uruguay. Who unfortuantely lost and now much play Costa Rica for a chance to go to the world cup in the spring. We ate dinner after the game and we had a cake for Amanda. Talked to people on the computer and went to bed.

Thursday morning we loaded up and spent the next 20 hours on the bus back to Montevideo. Again I spent the entire time in the back of the bus playing games, we played the marriage game and came up with a family tree. I didn't sleep quite as well on the bus this time cause I didn't get my own seat, but it was terrible, we had a foot rest. :P