Uruguay and Iguazú

So after Buenos Aires, we traveled to Colonia, Uruguay with a friend we met from Scotland! We were exhausted from going out the night before so we slept our whole day in Colonia and walked around a bit at night! We had a pretty good dinner at a local restaurant where many local women come play bridge every night. Then we went down to the shore of the Río de la Plata. A random group of uruguayos were hanging out nearby and playing music, and then came over for a bit and offered us pot! Ahh! We also had a great talk with Bob, a Englishman that hasn´t lived in England for over 20 years! We talked about religion and politics and all the stuff you aren´t supposed to. He was an atheist and he posed a question that I didn´t know how to answer: Why do you need God, or religion, or someone else telling you how to live your life?

I didn´t know how to answer this for a long time, but I just started praying about it and then I realized that I need God! I need him to tell me that my life isn´t just about living for myself but for pouring myself out and experiencing everything! I need him to tell me that I am free from my fears and insecurities. The whole concept that a relationship with God offers us freedom and a relationship with religion offers us rules and regulations has really sunk in this summer. That is why I got a tattoo last Thursday of the word libertad which means freedom or liberty in Spanish. Then, the pastor at the children´s home that we are at in Arequipa asked me to give my testimony in front of the whole church. I had no idea where to start or how to summarize my relationship with God over the past 8ish years. Then God led me to think about this question posed by the atheist in Uruguay. I posed the same question to the congregation: Why do you need God? Not why does the world need God, or this church, but why do YOU? What has He done for you in your life? The answer won´t be the same as anyone else because we are all different and have different relationships with God, ya?

Anyways, Colonia was beautiful and only had about 20,000 residents, so it was one of the most tranquil times of the trip! I want to go back someday ... maybe on my honeymoon? ¿quién sabe? So we headed to Montevideo for a bit and found out that there is not all that much to do there. We walked around the first day and bought some stuff from markets, but it was also a really chill place to be. We hung out mostly in the hostal, where we met a group of believers from Memphis. We went with them on Monday to do some service work! We started off by sorting cards for games for kids and then went to another site to paint a room in a community center. It was really cool meeting some good southern people all the way in Montevideo and getting to talk in English about God!

We left then for Iguazú, which took sooo long to get to. We had to take a 6-7 hour busride to Salto, where we had to sleep in the terminal that night. We then took a 1-2 hour busride to Corrientes, then to Posadas where we took a bus at 1:30 in the morning and it was late (5-6 hours), then to Puerto Iguazú! On our journey to Iguazú we met a girl named Dana who was from California! She traveled through Canada, went to London, and now is going to teach English in Antofogasta, Chile until November or December. It took her 5 or 6 years to do college, but she has 3 or 4 minors. This is amazing to me because it´s another example of how everyone´s path is different!

We dropped our bags off at the hostal and then headed for the falls. Andrew read in the travel book that there were swimming areas, so we all wore our bathing suits. Everyone else was wearing warm clothing, so we were like oh shoot! The falls were absolutely amazing and I can only describe them through the pictures and videos I took while we were there. There is an island that the falls created called La isla de San Martín. We went over to it and climbed off the pathway because we were determined to swim! We climbed up some little falls and found awesome swimming holes. It was by far the best part of the day! There were so many condors that petrified me, but thankfully Andrew went first and shooed them away! I got shivers everytime I saw them!

We were also trying to meet up with our Colombian friends who were following a similar route as us, and towards the end of the day it looked like we weren´t going to be able to find them at Iguazú! But after seeing the last and most amazing fall who should come along? Carolina and Johanna! It was awesome being able to see them one last time on our trip because now we know colombianas and have some people to know when I make my way to Colombia!

I would go on to talk about Salta and Arequipa again, but I want to write good posts, so I´ll write them once I get back to the States on FRIDAY! ahh locura