3/6/26
After 27 hours of travel (including driving to/from airports and layovers), we are here in beautiful Iguazú National Park in Argentina! Our hotel is actually inside the park and has an incredible view of the cataratas, or waterfalls that Iguazú is famous for. There is a constant small cloud hanging over the falls from the sheer force of the biggest waterfall, and it's a whole horseshoe-shaped system at least ten times the width of Niagara Falls.
Our hotel made us sign a whole separate waiver about the Capuchin monkeys that like to hang around the room balconies. If you leave your door unlocked, they will break in (and you're responsible for the damages...)! The monkeys are so cute, and we even saw a baby on its mommy's back!
We only really had time to relax and take in the view after arriving this afternoon. We actually gave up our king bed room to get a waterfall view—all they had on that side was a room with two twin beds lol, but it's worth it! The bathroom even has a window to the view instead of a mirror over the sink. We also had an excellent Argentine barbecue dinner here at the hotel restaurant, and we're excited to get out into the park tomorrow!
3/8/26
Matthew apparently did not take the monkeys seriously enough, because he left the balcony door unlocked last night, and this morning we awoke to three little visitors! We feel pretty lucky they only took a single item from the mini bar and not any of our stuff (although now we do have to pay for that snack mix...). They know what they like, I guess, and once they heard us stirring, they made a break for it.
Yesterday, we hiked all around Iguazú National Park. The waterfalls are absolutely breathtaking. The river curves around into this hook-shaped delta, which is where you get the "Devil's Throat" (Garganta del Diablo), the biggest waterfall. But then there's this whole section that's probably a mile long that's just one big shelf with waterfalls cascading down the side and it is the most stunning panorama. There are three main paths in the park, one where you walk kind of below and across from the falls, one where you walk along the top of the shelf, and one where you walk all the way out onto the river (they have metal-grate walkways) to basically on top of the Devil's Throat. Every vista was just more incredible than the last, and then to come back to the hotel and see it from a distance gave me even more appreciation for it.
Each individual waterfall actually has a name, and some of them are more interconnected than others. I got a real kick out of "Salto Chico," which means "Little Waterfall" and it was literally like, a tiny trickle. Matthew liked the Dos Hermanas, and there were some flowers growing near them that were so fragrant.
I also have never seen so many different varieties of butterfly outside of a zoo or butterfly house. And we came across some local animals called coati that were hanging out along the trails.
We finished all the trail circuits by lunchtime, so afterward, we decided to hike out to the one spot in the entire national park that has a waterfall where it's safe to swim (it absolutely would be fatal to try it anywhere near the cataratas, or big/main falls). Unfortunately, when we asked the hotel concierge about the spot, she said it wasn't really deep enough for swimming and it's mostly just wading, so we didn't take our swimsuits. The trail out is quite long through the jungle, and when we got there, we first went to the lookout point at the top, and I saw someone in a swimsuit at the bottom and immediately knew I was in for some bitter regret. There was no way we were going to come back or that it made sense to try to return to the hotel for our suits, so we ended up just stripping off our underclothes and swimming in what we had. It was only waist-deep, but I still would have preferred to have a swimsuit. I left no regrets, though, and swimming in my clothes and getting to go up to the waterfall was totally worth it!
Then we made our way back to the hotel to get in the actual pool. I'm not usually much of a hotel pool person, but for one, it is insanely hot here, so cooling off in the pool was the only thing I wanted to do after hiking back from the waterfall. And for another, this pool has an infinity edge that faces the falls, so I mean, you have to. When we got to the pool area, an attendant greeted us and escorted us to an available lounge chair, which I thought was pretty swanky. We laid out in the chairs for a bit after swimming, and the attendants also came around and brought fruit skewers like cocktail waiters. And the pool was the absolute perfect temperature, cool enough to feel good when you get in but then almost pleasantly warm under the surface, and it was deep enough at the infinity end for me to just hang on the side and let my (sore from hiking all day) legs just suspend weightless. It was the perfect way to end the day.
Today we went to church in Puerto Iguazú, which is actually a 30-minute drive from the falls, which kind of made me glad we're staying inside the park. Matthew served as a missionary in this branch, so a big part of the reason for this trip was for him to have the chance to go back. He was keeping his hopes low of seeing anyone he knows, since most of the people he kept in touch with have moved away, but as he walked in the chapel door, a sister was walking out, and she looked up with the most beautiful look of shock and disbelieving joy I have ever seen and said, "Elder Kennedy?!" They hugged and cried and it was truly such a beautiful moment. He told me she was the one person he'd been hoping to get a chance to see.
And then the rest of the branch were so excited to have us there. The branch counselor who was conducting announced over the pulpit that we were visiting during the opening announcements and then at the close asked Matthew (also over the pulpit) to say the closing prayer for the meeting. Also, today is International Women's Day, which in Argentina they apparently treat like Mother's Day, so there was a little potted flower gift for all the women and the talks were focused on women in the scriptures, and everyone kept saying "Feliz dia" to me (which I didn't understand at first and gave one poor brother just a complete blank stare).
After church we went with Sister Cabrera (who had recognized Matthew) back to her home and met her husband, and then we spent the afternoon with them. We actually did spend a few minutes while waiting for the bus to go out to a lookout point near the church where the borders of Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil converge so that you can see all three countries at once. According to Matthew, the tourism in town has really ramped up since he was here. But we mostly spent the afternoon with the Cabreras. They don't speak English, so I was only able to follow about a third of the conversation (at best), but Matthew had a wonderful time catching up, and that made it really special.
3/10/26
Yesterday we booked a tour to take us to the Brazil side of Iguazú Falls! The trails on that side aren't as extensive, but you can see most of the curtain (the mile-long spread) and La Garganta (the big one) all in the same view, which is neat. Our guide warned us as we approached the Argentine border that crossing times can vary and you never know what you're going to get, but we had no issues and got through quickly, so we had plenty of time to mosey along the trail and take all the pictures. There were a lot more influencer types on this side, and there were a few spots where you had to, like, line up for a turn to take your photo.
They also have a walkway that goes out near the bottom of La Garganta, and it's close enough that the spray from the waterfall hits you as you walk along it. It was also super crowded, but only on the waterfall side. We managed to get some decent pictures, but Matthew did not enjoy the crush.
At the end of the trail they have this glass elevator that you take up to the top where the exit is. Our guide had told us to meet there and we weren't the last ones, so since we had talked to the guide earlier about wanting to try to do a helicopter ride (I've never been on a helicopter, and it seems like if there's any place worth seeing from above, it would be Iguazú) before heading back to Argentina, he had us run on ahead and meet the tour driver at the park entrance, who took us out to the helipad. They weren't busy and the ride is pretty short (just to the falls, a couple of passes back and forth, then back to the ground) so we did that while the driver went back to get the rest of the group. The helicopter ride was pretty neat. It didn't get down quite as low/close as I'd imagined, but our pictures turned out really cool.
When we got back to Argentina, we had the tour driver drop us off at the park entrance instead of all the way back at the hotel, and we just walked back up to the trails. Matthew left his phone in the van and we had to call the company and ask Ariel (our driver, who we had gotten to know by this point lol) to bring it back for us, but we still had a couple hours to walk the lower circuit again. We didn't quite have time to go back out to the top of La Garganta (the park closes at 4:30), but as I said to Matthew, the big waterfall is cool, but the curtain is what's beautiful, which is what you really get the best view of along the lower circuit.
Because we were flying out in the evening, we had to check out of the hotel before we went to Brazil, but they assured us we could come back to use the spa and the showers, and we even took another dip in the pool. They have a bunch of plaques on the wall at reception saying that they were awarded Best Hotel in Argentina for the last, like, seven years or so, and I'll tell you, they have my vote. We basically had another full day at the hotel after checking out, since our flight wasn't until 9 pm, and they were so nice and accommodating.
Our flight ended up getting delayed, which wasn't the best, but unbeknownst to me, Expedia had booked our return flight to the domestic airport in Buenos Aires, which is a lot closer to downtown than the one we'd flown into before, so that helped. We got to the hotel around 12:30 am even so, and then today we've just slept in and had a lazy morning.
We decided to do the hop on hop off bus tour, since we don't really know much about Buenos Aires and there doesn't seem to be anything it's particularly famous for. Our plan was to ride the whole tour through once and then decide what we might want to go back for, but the audio was out of sync on our bus, so we got off at the Boca stadium (one of the two city football/soccer clubs). We found a little street food seller and had very authentic Argentine empanadas, then went a few blocks down to explore this colorful little street with a bunch of shops that was kind of fun to wander for a minute.
By the time we got back on the bus, it was late enough that we started hitting traffic, so we only made it halfway through the tour route before we got off again to go to a jewelry store we wanted to find. On our way there we saw various statues and some really cool trees in this random square.
It also turned out that the jewelry store was across the street from the hotel where the Edward Jones Argentina trip are staying (we were supposed to go to Mexico for this trip but it got canceled, so we're not with Jones for this one), so we popped in to say hello and ask the trip organizers at Maritz if they had any suggestions for what to do in Buenos Aires. We decided to check out this bookstore that they mentioned with the hour or so of light left in the day. It's a converted theater, so all the bookshelves are set out among the balconies and frescoes, and it was really cool.
We wanted to check out a restaurant they recommended as well, but realized belatedly that anywhere worth going would probably require a reservation that we didn't have, so we had dinner at a truly terrible (like, comically so) cafe around the corner from our hotel and called it a night.
3/12/26
Yesterday I felt like we were getting a handle on seeing the sights in Buenos Aires, and then today we ended up just wandering kind of aimlessly again. We started out yesterday morning by finishing the bus tour loop, which ended at La Recoleta, the city cemetery where a lot of famous Argentinians are buried. I figured it might be worth a photo to go see Eva Peron's grave, but my expectations were not high. Because, here's the thing, whenever you ask someone what to do in Buenos Aires or look up like a listicle on the internet or anything, there's kind of this collective shrug on La Recoleta, like "Ya, it's there, you can go if you want." So we step inside, and immediately, my mind is completely blown. This is not your average cemetery, it is a veritable forest of tall, elaborate mausoleums, just lined up side by side as far as you can see! It was so cool, and I couldn't believe more people don't talk about this place. Eva's is actually rather diminutive, among all the others, but we did go see it. Matthew was interested in reading the guidebook about the actual people, but I just marveled and took pictures of all the amazing sculpture and architecture as we wandered around.
We had a tango show scheduled for the evening, but we misunderstood the time a bit and got there early, so we popped over to see the Casa Rosada (their version of the White House, but it's the Pink House). Then we had dinner, where we sat next to an Italian couple in their eighties who travel all over. They're in Buenos Aires to start a cruise across the Atlantic back to Italy! And of course, the tango show was fun. It was all on Argentine time, so dinner was served about 9, and the show didn't even start till 10!
This morning we took our last turn on the bus to get to the Plaza de Congreso, where we walked around for a bit. There's a bust of Rodin's "The Thinker" (the third of eight that he made), but a lot of the grounds were closed off because of recent protests (the national pastime of Argentina, according to some).
We went to a building nearby that has a rooftop bar with a view. It's interesting when you put it in the context of, like, New York, but all the viewpoints in the city are on the 16th or 17th floor, because that's as tall as the buildings get in Buenos Aires, apparently. Matthew made the point that they're not constricted by being on an island like Manhattan, so it's more sprawling than vertical. We also went to another observation deck at the top of the building where our tango show last night was. Apparently on a clear day you can see across the water to Uruguay, but it was a little hazy today.
Then, on our way out of town, we went to the Buenos Aires Temple, since it's right by the airport, and did a session there (little bit of an adventure for me, not speaking the language, but of course everyone was so nice).
And that's a wrap on Argentina! It's been really fun to get to know the country Matthew always thinks and talks about, and for him to revisit that nostalgia.
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