Iguazu and Buenos Aires

Hello family and friends! Lots has happened since I last posted (by the way, the last post went underneath BJ's last one I think). We finished up our clinicals in Tucuman- in the hospital and in the community. On our last day of community clinical, we all went to one comedor, and did a garbage clean up that we involved the children in. It was actually a lot of fun! We were so sad to leave, and they were sad too. All the little girls were kissing and hugging us, and we got a bunch of pictures, which I don't have yet. They followed us for quite a ways too, when we had to leave! On Tuesday we left for Iguazu. We had a very difficult time saying goodbye to our friends in Tucuman. We had the privilege of meeting some really wonderful people- those who worked at the hostel, and some people from the ward we attended. We loved all the hostel employees- a truly great experience to stay there and get to know them- Martin, the owner of the hostel, my good friend Virginia, her sister Romina, who came a lot even though she didn't work there, Carolina, and Pedro. It was great to share the experience with them and make friendships. We were all very emotional when we left- I was surprised, because I thought I would be fine, and then it was time to go, and with all of us gathered together, we said our goodbyes. They told us they hoped that we would consider the hostel our other home. It was so hard to leave! They walked us out and waved us off as we drove away. So hard!
The busride was supposed to be a 16 hours... it turned out to be 21 hours! Ugh! I learned what it means to have swollen ankles... bummer. Iguazu was amazing! I have never seen anything like it in my life. Talk about a piece of paradise! I have some fun pictures, which I can't upload right now because the internet connection is pretty slow here. I will post them when I can. We visited the falls on the Argentina side the first day. We walked a bunch of trails along the falls (there are actually many many falls, but Devil's Throat is the most famous) and we also did a raft ride, a jeep ride through the jungle, and a speedboat ride which took us really close to some of the falls. We got completely soaked! It was a blast though. Iguazu, unlike the rest of Argentina right now, was quite warm- in the 70s and 80s, and quite humid. We went to the Brazil side of Iguazu falls on Friday. The falls are mainly on the Argentina side, but the most gorgeous, panoramic views are from the Brazil side. We rode a bus to get to some trails which we walked and took pictures from. Then we had to pretty much head back and get back on our bus to drive to Buenos Aires- another 16 hour bus ride. We got to Buenos Aires Saturday afternoon. We are staying at a hotel here- two stars- and I must say, we are thrilled! Only two to three per room, we have real bathrooms, with toilet paper, hot showers, mirrors, and soap, and they bring you new towels everyday! We have all been using travel towels so long, we forgot what regular towels felt like! We are staying downtown, about three blocks from Florida street, which is a famous pedestrian street with tons of vendors, musicians, artists, and magicians, besides the stores and restaurants. Very fun. Today we attended church here in Buenos Aires. This is a beautiful city- the biggest I have ever been in, though. There are 14 million people living in the inner city, almost 40 thousand in the province. We will be spending about two more days here, and then we return home! I can't believe how fast and slow this trip has gone! I am sad to leave, happy to return home. I will write more soon about what we do here in Buenos Aires in the next few days, post pictures, etc. I love you all, miss you, and hope to see you soon!