L´Chaim!

I am at my favorite internet cafe in San Telmo, eschewing the stuffy computer room at my current hostel for a bright lights, big city kind of blogging experience. The past 10 days or so have been filled with a glorious end to my vibrant month on the jungle farm. A caravan of Kimberly and Marcelo´s friends showed up unexpectedly on Thursday, the day we had planned to have a party to celebrate the end of this month´s internship and my departure. Suddenly, we had a crowd including two young kids and a baby! It was awesome. We uncorked our fresh lemoncello, made sangria with jungle fruit, made naan and chapatis, turned our fresh ricotta into a delicious herby dip, and their friends made a bonfire and slowly barbecued ribs, steak and chorizo all evening. We had a dance party, Marcos came from up the road a few kilometers, and a lively time was had by all. Soledad, the mother of baby Estrella Azul, who is also a psychologist and a spiritual healer, informed me that she can ¨see¨my babies on my shoulders. Interesting, eh?? I went to bed before further party hijinx ensued and slept a delightful 10 hours. The next day it was POURING and everyone was stressed because we had done laundry the day before and nothing was dry, so there were no clean dry clothes for our trip to Puerto Iguazu. In spite of this moaning and groaning, the five of us ladies plus Kimberly embarked on a ladies spa day where we scrambled up to the waterfall, covered ourselves in medicinal mud, engaged in a hilarious photoshoot and giggled like little girls. It was awesome. We came back and their friends had decided to build a sauna. BUILD A SAUNA. Yep, just like that. Apparently they engage in regular sweating as part of a spiritual cleansing process. The sauna was up and working in about 6 hours! They built it out of wood and plastic (eck), covering the mud floor with thick grasses and ginger flowers. Outside they built a huge fire over a number of big stones. When the stones were sufficiently hot, they moved them inside. Each episode of sweating lasted 20 minutes. Alvaro would use boughs of rosemary, eucalyptus and ginger flower to sprinkle water on the stones and on the sweaters inside. All in all, a great last day at mama roja. I felt sad and excited to say goodbye to Kim and Marcelo, the kitties and dogs and green glowing beetles. K and M become friends and caretakers so quickly. Kim gave me a very sweet going away present of balms she had made in a beautiful pouch and a letter. I am going to work on getting CJ to go back with me one of these days...

We still had many hours to kill in town before our bus to the corner of the country, at Puerto Iguazu. So we spent them alternately in the gas station cafe and the casino, the two places that are open 24 hours in this tiny town. Oh casino, you suck royally. However, we did end up bowling for a while, which was a great way to pass the time. Our bus to Iguazu showed at 4am and we slept our way there. When I woke up at 9am i was COVERED with new bug bites. My left foot was quite swollen and it was a challenge to bend my right leg at the knee. (Of course today i met a cab driver who told me that Chagas disease is endemic to the Misiones area and so I should be careful building with mud and adobe. Now I probably have Chagas disease. Shit.) Choosing to ignore the incredible grossness that is sleeping on a filthy, bug infested bus, we set out in the heat of the morning to find a hostel. I will not say too much about our time at Puerto Iguazu, save for these two highlights:
1. Have you ever gone out with a 19 year old girl from the USA who doesn´t get to go clubbing at home?? Let me tell you, it´s an experience. Stamina like I do not have. On the first night, Hannah and I crashed around 2am, to be woken at 5am and 7am when our dear friends returned from a seriously debauched night. Undergarments and shoes were lost. Everyone was ok. I felt like a mother hen.
2. Iguazu Falls is an incredible sight. I have never been too impressed by waterfalls, but these babies are so much more than waterfalls. The sound! The feel! The rainbows! The mist! The monkeys! The coatis! It was much cooler than I expected.

I am so excited to head for home tomorrow!!!
lovelovelove you all.