boys, please skip ahead. well if there's anything worse then being sick on your vacation, it's being sick and on your period on vacation. yeah that's right, i started today.

this morning we said good-bye to são paulo and took a plane to foz do iguaç. at the airport were other okinawan groups also taking the same flight, including my relatives from okinawa. no, we didn't plan it, it's just one of those happy coincidences. while waiting for our flight, we looked at one of the souvenir shops and there were a couple things we were interested in, but we figured instead of lugging them around argentina, we'll get them when we have a layover back at this same airport when we head back to america.

falls just visible under the wing

shortly before arriving at foz do iguaç, i was just able to make out the falls from the window i was sitting next to. that was cool. now i don't have to pay for the helicopter ride. however, around this time i was plagued by the most intense pain i have ever felt in my right ear. i have flown before when i was sick but this time there must have been some nasty air pressure going on in my sinus cavities or something because as we descended, i felt this immense pain, almost like there was a child screaming in my head. it hurt so bad that i wanted to cry, which is saying a lot. my ears wouldn't pop and relieve it either. when they did pop, the pain just continued.

our arrival as far as stepping off the plane was quite interesting. there was a small group of musicians playing and handing out flyers for a show. i can't remember the last time if ever that i was greeted off a plane with musicians. it was kinda cheesy but cool. we went to the taxi stand and arranged for a cab to the argentina side, where we booked a hostel. crossing over was interesting and i should've had my camera ready but i didn't get any pictures of the ordeal. first, we went through the brazil side, where we officially exited the country. it was like a drive through checkpoint. we didn't have to leave the car because the taxi driver took our passports and went up to the window. sure it was a little nerve wracking to hand over our passports like this but that's the guy's job and he does it all the time. then, we drove for what felt like a long time. now, according to our passports, we weren't in any country at all--we must be back home! we have exited a country but not entered any country. should some robbers or any incident happen now... anyway, then we crossed a bridge whose sides were decorated with the colors of the flags of both countries. first it was brazilian colors, then once we reached the center of the bridge, it became argentine colors. then we arrived at the argentine checkpoint, where we did have to exit the car and go up to the window. now we're officially in another country again!

we arrived in puerto iguazu and checked in to our hostel, the hostel iguazu falls. we chose to stay on the argentina side of the falls for a couple reasons. it's a smaller town than the brazil side and i read that is a positive, that it can be tranquil and such. the exchange rate is much more in our favor in argentina. finally, twiddle thumbs is fluent in spanish so the sooner we can start communicating smoothly with people instead of struggling, the better! the first thing we did was tell the hostel that we need to exchange our money before we can pay. they were totally cool with that. they told us where to go. next, we asked about laundry, which they advertise on their website that they have. no, they do not have laundry, we have to haul it over to a place that does laundry. i had debated doing laundry in são paulo but it seemed a little expensive but now i'm kinda thinking i should have because i don't feel like lugging around town my dirty clothes. i'm mad that the hostel lies about this feature on their website. but, we need money so we walked to where they said to go to exchange money and it seemed far. the first time you go anywhere, you're a bit nervous that you're going the right way and it can feel like forever. we exchanged our money. again being cautious, i quickly hid most of it on my body. then the next thing we did was try to take care of this cold i contracted and went to the drugstore to get some cold medicine.

as we were walking back to the hostel, we stopped at a small restaurant, caffe d'melanio, and ordered some vegetarian sandwiches and freshly squeezed juice. they are really big on fresh juice in latin america and for that i am thankful. i can get plenty of vitamin c this way. already we are learning the differences in spanish between what we are used to (mexico) and argentina. for example, strawberry is frutilla over here (i'm used to fresa) and pineapples are anana (i'm used to piña). we just sat there outside on the patio, enjoying our food and the slow pace of puerto iguazu.