Exploring Buenos Aires

I guess I'd better get around to blogging about our quick weekend in Buenos Aires, before we head back there this weekend, this time for 4 whole days!  With it being Easter, and here in Argentina that means no work until Tuesday, we're getting time off!  And boy, are we looking forward to relishing some down time.  We're also looking forward to something else.  But that's a surprise, so I won't spoil it.

After the day spent in the Brazilian capital, a long afternoon and evening of travel from Brazil to Argentina, another customs adventure, we settled into a hotel near the airport, glad to be back in this wonderful country!  For some reason, it's just more comfortable than Brazil.  I think it's because we can have some level of independence since we have the language and have spent several weeks in this culture.  There's nothing like not knowing your way around and not being able to communicate that makes you really dependent.  

Anyway, Sunday we took some time to explore this colorful South American city.  We figured, 2 government capitals in 2 days, that's got to be some kind of record!  We made our way downtown and wandered through a lovely street bazaar where we bought a painting from a local artist. 

The street bazaar--all kinds for sale, cobblestone street, 

tall, old buildings perusing the merchandise from either side.

Our goal was to get to the official buildings, but, because of some political protest going on, everything was blocked off.  We didn't stick around the main plaza too long, since it was obvious the marchers were headed that way to make their sentiments known to the presidenta.

 Instead of the White House, the Pink House (Casa Rosada).

All those ugly graffitied signs are courtesy of the protest, I think.

The scaffolding is the stage where passionate speeches were to be given, I presume.

Needless to say, that wasn't the greatest experience Buenos Aires had to offer.  Good thing we found some other treasures!

 The only English used book store in Buenos Aires, 

and we stumbled upon it.

Walrus Books is in a gorgeous old section of town called San Telmo.  It looked straight out of England, for sure!  We perused, and I bought an adorable picture book about a French mouse who loves music and his adventures as he tries to find a mouse-sized piano.

 So many of the city's buildings are this style.

While there are modern buildings, too, these are so quaint!

We wandered down to the river walk where José told us we could find some great restaurants.  He was right!

 I'm not a steak-lover, but this was excellent!

The little cow says, "Estoy jugoso," (I'm juicy!)

Feeling full, but needing some coffee before we set out on our long drive north, we went to the French district, called Recoleta.  This section of town was absolutely endearing!  Old buildings, tree-lined cobblestone streets, grassy parks, and street cafés all over.  

 We picked one with charming decor and seating in the loft.

 I'd say, Buenos Aires is a fantastic city, well-worth the trip!

I can't wait to go back this weekend!

After the long drive back to the farming region, we found ourselves once again in Villa Cañas, a small town, but home to our favorite restaurant.  Monday was back to the field.  If we learned anything while in Brazil, it'd be that we have an awesome team here in Argentina.  The farm we visited in the land of vast agriculture was great, but big and not so friendly as the guys on the team outside Villa Cañas.  They gave us a hearty welcome and we stood around chatting for quite awhile about how things have been for them, how our trip went...There's a real level of comfort, almost family-like, with these guys.  

The week was busy.  Once again, lots of hours worked, for both of us, but especially Jonathan.  One particularly late night, after harvesting ended for the day, the guys had us into their casilla (the mobile home where they live while camping out in the field for harvest) where we sat around munching on sandwiches and swapping stories.  It was fun.  

These guys have become our friends.

One thing has changed since we were last here.  The evenings and mornings have become crisper, the fields have all turned a rich golden color, some of the trees are putting out yellows and oranges where there was only green.  It struck me as I walked across the field late one night, breathing deeply of the harvest scent in the cool air, gazing up at the clear sky full of stars only slightly dimmed by the full moon rising over the scene.  It's fall.  Autumn.  How long has it been since I witnessed the transformation from summer to fall?  I can't even remember.  Probably 4 or 5 years.  I think I've missed it.  There is something captivating about the changing of the seasons.  

Which reminds me of this song.  The "turning of the season is upon us, my friends", and it should make us think.  Jesus had a lot to say about the lost, and he compared our work to the harvest.  

For all that we've grown, how could we forget,

those who don't know, or just know yet?

Let's harvest this field from sunrise to sunset!

The Master is coming; we are not done yet.

Wherever we are,

"Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are [golden] for harvest."

-Jesus. 

Brazil: Work and Play

The week in Brazil seemed long and short at the same time.  Though only a few days, they were busy ones.  We traveled with quite the entourage.  Justin and us two from the States, José and Leandro from Precision Planting Argentina, and no less than 4 Monsanto Brazil employees.  Maybe that's why the week was so long, too many people!  All things considered, things went well.  We did one installation at a big farm in Bahía state.  This farm operation grows soybeans, corn, and interestingly enough, cotton.  We spent a good portion of the first day at the cotton gin. 

This is a modern-day cotton gin.

Forget Eli Whitney, this thing would blow him away!

And this, of all the cotton-pickin' things, is a cotton picker.

This is cotton in its raw form.

Some of the entourage.

There was a time crunch for this install since they were itching to get back to the field.  But, "many hands make light work" (shout-out to Grandpa Knapp!).  

My part of the harvest system to put together.

I can handle that phillips screwdriver like a pro 

and have those ram mounts put together in no time.

The climate in Bahía is almost tropical.  Don't worry.  No rain forests were harmed in the development of fields in this area.  It rains almost every day, and like they always say ("they" meaning Justin), rain makes grain.  We grabbed lunch during the daily downpour.

It was gloriously CVE-like.  

The farm employees are provided meals in a cafeteria, which reminded me of the good ole comedor in Mexico.  Not only that, what should they be serving but rice and beans.  Oh, how I miss rice and beans sometimes!  It was a little different, no tortillas for one, but it was delicious!  

Then, out to the field.  These ginormous farms in Brazil are so vast.  I can't describe what it's like to look out over a field of soybeans that stretches to the horizon, nothing to interrupt the flat expanse.  

Storm on the horizon. 

After just two days, it was back to Brasilia.  Our stay in Brazil's capital city was...interesting.  We had luxurious accommodations, especially compared to the two-night stay in the boon-docks.  Brasilia was built to be the capital.  Literally.  It didn't exist before some president had a brilliant idea in the 50s: design a state-of-the-art city full of modern architecture to be the new seat of the federal government.  It's the city that "developed 50 years in 5."  While it's lost is grandeur over the years, it's still a sight to behold.  That said, we weren't impressed with the quality of life and general depravity of inhabitants.  Two natives took us on a whirlwind tour to see the government sights before our plane left Saturday morning.  They related how Brazilians tend to distrust their own corrupt government and leaders.  Subtle signs of tight security testified of the state of things.  And my first real-life glimpse of blatant prostitution will always be in Brasilia, Brazil, to my horror.  I was struck by how such deliberate design and planning put into a city made by man cannot bring lasting hope and security to a hurting people.  

The architecture of Brasilia was wonderfully unique.  No white columns and tall domes here.  It sort of reminded me of the other-worldly kind of space fascination that's evident in the culture of the 70s.  

 Jonathan walking toward one of the official buildings.

 The symbolic flame and towering flag of Brazil.

 Executive office, complete with dressed-up guards.

 The Senate buildings, tall and skinny.  

The weird-shaped thing to the left is some modern art in the governmental plaza,

2 "shells", one facing up, the other, down, symbolize something,

not sure what.

 All South American towns have a cathedral in the central plaza.

Brasilia's is definitely unique.

After spending about an hour visiting another nation's capital--something about that is just kind of weird--we wound our way through the city streets to the airport.  Later that evening we touched down in Buenos Aires, another country's capital.  Strange.  

It felt so good to be back.  Strange how just a few weeks in one place can give it a level of comfort.  And I was quickly reminded that for all that's lacking in my Spanish skills, it's good to at least be able to make heads or tails out of what someone is saying!  Customs was a pain  --er--an adventure, but we made it out of the airport by ten, so glad to be staying nearby rather than attempting the 4 hour trek back to One-Eyed Deer.  We landed and decided to welcome the Sabbath and put away work.  It has been glorious!  I am reminded once again that God gave us a day of rest for a reason!  Relaxing and refocusing, we still found time to see some sights in Buenos Aires before hitting the road this evening.  

But, more on that next time...

Here we are...Brazil!

After a wonderful (although too short!) weekend back in California, we repacked and put our traveling clothes on again.  Once again it was a short flight to Texas followed by a long flight to South America (which feels even longer when you can't sleep, unfortunately).  This time, Sao Paulo was our destination.  

Brazil is unexpectedly...fun!  Our quick afternoon visit to Foz do Iguacu had me dreading coming back to this colorful country, mostly due to my own distaste for the "lost" feeling of foreign culture combined with language barrier.  But actually, we've had a great experience so far!  Customs and the airport scene went surprisingly well, praise the Lord!  I'm not sure I could have handled anything else in my overtired state!  Between Spanish and our broken Portuguese, we made it to the hotel with little difficulty.  Then came the hour ride into downtown to Monsanto.  Yeah, I know, we all have our own opinion of Monsanto as a corporation, but let me just say, for all the bad rap it gets, it's made up of some wonderful people working very hard!  We were greeted warmly, treated to real Brazilian coffee, and ushered into a meeting room where the magic was worked once again!  Ana and Galli were expressive and impressed which made telling them about the harvest monitor an exciting meeting!  Their wheels are turning--they'd like us to do some testing, not in the Sao Paulo area, like we'd thought, but in the big-business Mato Grosso state.  We'll see.  

 Jonathan and Justin at Monsanto.

Though we had a great time downtown, I was drooping.  We got back to the hotel decently early and, because we didn't fly out for Brasilia until early afternoon, we had a glorious, slow-start morning!  Just what we needed to work in some rest and recovery from the crazy weekend and 24 hour travel!  

A quick flight to Brasilia, more handshakes with Monsanto people (yay! people who speak Portuguese and English!) and we set off on the long car ride toward the first farm.  We just arrived at our hotel and won't be headed out to the farm until tomorrow morning.  Early.  Well, you can't have 8 hours of sleep every night.

Now here comes the cool part of the post.  Brace yourselves!

Last week, Justin got a newsletter from some missionary friends of friends (Matt and Janelle Steidinger with PAZ) who are living in Sao Paulo as they begin their language training before heading to the Amazon region of Brazil.  He forwarded it to us, and Jonathan sent them an email on Sunday introducing ourselves and letting them know we'd be traveling through Sao Paulo.  We told them we didn't expect to have time to meet them since they live about an hour outside the city, but that we'd love to bring them any supplies they need from the States.  By the time we left on Monday, we had a small package to send to them, complete with Easter candy goodies!  Through some email correspondence, we learned that Matt was up north of Brasilia picking up a car for the family.  Hmm, north of Brasilia, that's where we're headed.  Actually, he mentioned he was stopping a farm to visit someone he knew from his farming days in Illinois.  Hmm, an American farmer from Illinois with a farm north of Brasilia.  Could it be?  Yup!  God is like that--always setting up connections!  He was stopping by the same farm where we will be installing harvest systems.  There wasn't much overlap since they (he's road tripping with his son and another PAZ missionary) were just driving through, and we're on a tight schedule, but we made time to grab dinner with them.  

 There's nothing like the sweet fellowship of the servants of the Kingdom!

Can I just testify of the beauty of the instant connection that only comes from the Spirit?  Seriously!  I know the ones who've never tasted it will just write that last sentence off, but...Listen to me!  There is a bond running deep when people who know the same God, who have never met before in their lives, experience that real brother-to-brother, we're-in-this-together, you-know-what-it's-like, meaningful, tangible experience of mutual understanding.  It's unreal!  And only possible because by the Spirit living in us, we can sense the Spirit living in them as well!  Absolutely breathtakingly beautiful!  No other way to describe it.  

It was such a gift from God!  And...it's got our minds spinning.  Getting to hear them testify of revival in Brazil as the church explosively grows through the power of the gospel of Christ...it gave us the chills.  But even before all that, our Brazil experience was tugging at us...planting seeds maybe?  In our Monsanto meeting, right off the bat, Ana mentioned how thrilled she was that "one of the Precision Planting guys brought his wife"!  She's been trying to convince Monsanto they need to get someone from Precision to help the transition into the Brazilian market.  Put simply, there's a whole lot of potential in the farming industry right now in Brazil.  A whole lot.  This technology, and all of Precision Planting's products, could completely turn farming practice upside down and do wonders for the Brazilian growers!  But Monsanto struggles to fully understand all Precision's technology; they're more about seeds and chemicals and stuff.  Basically, if Jonathan was looking for an international job, doors could be opening for Precision engineering positions in Brazil.  Whoa!  Just a second, right?

Anyway...just seeds.  God knows what He plans to see through to a harvest.  I learned a long time ago that His thoughts are far above ours.  That story of the sower and his seeds?  It's more than just an illustration of the response to the gospel.  If God's the sower, He can place each seed exactly where He wants it to go.  He knows if this one's going to make it past germination.  Meanwhile, it's powerful to see the Kingdom at work in this place so far removed from our daily life.  

And that's a reason to glorify the King!

Surprise!!!

Thursday afternoon we began the long journey home.  That's right, did I forget to mention we were heading home to the beach cottage for the weekend?  Actually, I didn't forget.  I purposely didn't mention it because...

It was a SURPRISE!!!

The original plan was to be in South America for 6 weeks--back and forth between Argentina and Brazil.  After about a week in Argentina, as plans began to cement and some complications came up with Brazil's import stuff, it looked like we would arrive at a natural break and should plan a weekend "recuperation" trip home.  This was extra-exciting news!  You see, Dad and Mom Sauder had been planning a spring visit to California, and when it turned out to be while we were abroad, all of us were a little disappointed.  Now that we could feasibly be back in good ole' LA that weekend to see them, we decided to make it happen.  And...to keep it a SURPRISE!!!

Through various conversations with Aunt Sue, who also got Grammy in on it, plans were made.  We were scheduled arrive Friday morning.  Grammy would bring Mom down to the beach cities that afternoon, and SURPRISE!!!  Then, that evening, when Dad flew in, we'd go to the airport and, SURPRISE!!!  So fun!  

Well, after another night on a plane we arrived in Miami International Airport...late.  Knowing we were most likely going to miss our connection to LAX, we steeled ourselves and tried valiantly to make a mad dash for luggage and a quick customs event.  We still missed the flight and were put on another flight departing a few hours later.  Okay, so we wouldn't get into LA until afternoon, that shouldn't mess up the SURPRISE!!!

Little did we know as our late plane taxied to the jetway in Miami, that we were in for a SURPRISE!!! of our own!  Glancing through emails, Jonathan read one from Dad with the news that Steven was on his way to Haiti.  Wheels began turning.  Don't Haiti trips usually have a layover in Miami?  We called Steven.  Sure enough, he was in Miami airport along with a dozen other work team folks headed off for a week in Les Cayes.  

So we met up and had breakfast with Steve-o.

We had to take a picture so you all would believe it!

It's not a great picture, obviously.

But it is proof!

He headed off for Haiti, we headed a few gates down to hop on our flight to California.  Turns out, flights across the country can seem just as long as an overnight flight all the way from South America.  LA was smoggy and overcast, but a sight for sore eyes!  Aunt Sue took us home with her since Grammy and Mom were coming down in a few hours.  We were set up for the first SURPRISE!!!  It was wonderful!  No dramatic screams, but mouth-open-wide wonder..."Are you really here?"  Captured for your viewing pleasure below.   The second clip captures the second SURPRISE!!!  Dad was a little more verbal..."No way!!"

Success!

Argentina Randomness

Just some observations...

1.  Apparently mopeds and motorcycles are not obligated to follow the rules of the road.  Well, actually, cars are only minimally required to obey basic traffic laws.  No problem.  Just make sure you look both ways, right?

2.  Speaking of driving safely, speed limits are just a suggestion, passing is pretty much allowed whenever you want, but don't you dare drive without your lights on, even in broad daylight.  That'll getcha' pulled over (speaking from experience).

3.  It stormed and rained yesterday.  Nice treat.

The storm rolling in.

3.  There are giant iguanas.  I almost smashed one today as it wriggled across the road.  There are also funny little creatures that look like squirrels without the bushy tails.

4.  Typical breakfast (okay, really the only breakfast available anywhere): medialunas and café con leche.  Flaky croissant rolls and espresso with milk.  Delish!

5.  While we're on the topic of food...they really like ham.  A lot.  I mean, like, a lot, a lot.  They put ham with cheese on sandwiches (not so weird).  They put ham on pizza (Hawaiian maybe, but all kinds of pizza?).  They put ham on hamburgers (thrown right in there with the other toppings like tomato, lettuce, fried egg, cheese, HAM!).  They put ham on chicken and smother it with sauce ("Is there anything on this menu that isn't swimming in gravy ham?!?")

6.  All hotels have the old fashioned key locks, not card keys.  Fun!!  At first, then it gets kind of tedious to just open the door!

7.  Today we did this:

Look a little counterproductive?

Passing the grain between weight carts,

all in a day's work!

8.  Yesterday, late, driving back from the field, as we drove through what I always think of as the swamp (ponds and lakes beside the road complete with cattail looking things and big fronds of swamp-like fauna) there was mist everywhere!  I loved it!  It felt like driving through a cloud!

9.  People are friendly and wave a lot.  People say "Cómo andás?" in greeting and "Ciao!" when you or they leave, even if they don't know you from anybody.

10.  Late night last night...

Early morning this morning.

Polo!

We decided to stick around the area this weekend instead of traipsing off to some exotic location.  I know, it sounds lame, but we were kind of tired of traveling, we already had to take a road trip this week to the farm show, and Jonathan had a lot of work to finish over the weekend.  

Saturday morning began like every other: out to the field.  

 The grain trucks lining up.  

This is only a few of them, there are probably at least double that down the road.

 Just chilling under the combine.

(Not really, he was measuring some stuff and noting it on his phone.)

We moved hotels for a night because our beloved Miró Park Hotel was hosting a wedding.  The Riviera was quaint.  A vintage wrought iron chandelier hung over the quilt-covered bed.  The floors were dark wood and creaky, but in a homey kind of way.  Jonathan got some work done and I purchased our plane tickets for Brazil.  We head there next week.  You can start praying now.

Today, was Sunday.  A day of rest.  We actually slept in a little!  After a glorious time of worship over café con leche, we met up with José in the afternoon at the polo club again.  As we walked over the manicured grass toward the group of people and horses congregated alongside the playing field, we met Carmen, one of José daughters.  "Where is everyone?"  I asked.  "Over there.  By the horses," was the reply.  "Who's playing polo today?" was my second question.  "Papá."  And sure enough.  José was strapping on his boots and helmet while his um...stable boy, for lack of a better word...held the reins of an impressive looking caballo.  Another one of his daughters, Emma, an aspiring polo player herself, was warming up his second horse (remember, a player uses up to 6 horses per game).

 Emma and Mamita.

 Onto a fresh horse.

 Action shot.

 There's José on the left.

Apparently, polo was not invented by the British, although they popularized it and developed the official rules.  The game actually has its roots as far back as before Christ's life!  The Persians were the first to play the game and used it as a method of training calvary for battle.  It spread east actually into China, India, and even as far as Japan before the British adopted it and began playing in many of their colonies around the world.  Argentina took to it especially well even as early as the 1800s.  

 "I wanna be like Daddy!"

 Toni's well on his way to being an expert polo player!

Next, it was our turn.  Right about now, my girls are cracking up.  I know, I know, I always dragged my feet about riding even the tame little horses at CVE.  There's just something freaky about sitting way up high on the back of the living, breathing creature who could knock you off and trample you without even thinking about it.  I know, the point is, you're in control of the horse, and it's meek and trained to obey its rider.  I've never actually felt that way, though, and usually just avoid the creatures.  

 But, and opportunity like a polo lesson only comes around once in a lifetime, usually.

Let me tell you, added to the challenge of simply controlling your horse, polo is not as easy as it seems. José makes it look so fluid and effortless.  In reality, it's super hard!  It's sort of like golf, but from the back of a moving animal!  And the taco (the polo stick) is really heavy and hard to control!  I had to keep apologizing to my horse for almost smacking her the face.

 Looking good!  We're naturals!

As misleading as the picture appears, I did not actually control my own horse (I'm not as cool as Jonathan.).  Dear Emma patiently led me around and tried to steer me as close as she could to the white ball.  She was so encouraging and sweet as I freaked out every time the horse swished her tail at a fly!  

 I actually did hit the ball a few times.

Only a few feet.  Okay, more like just a few inches.

Well, actually, most times I completely missed.

 Jonathan got pretty good.

Let's just hope he doesn't decide to take up polo, 

I'm not sure 6 horses would fit in the alley behind our apartment.

Emma, my patient teacher.  

She's competing next month in the junior polo tournament.

Overall, I'd say it was a good experience.  And I'm totally convinced that polo really is the "game of kings", as the Persians called it.  It's that classy!  I'm thinking Jesse, the family horseman, should take it up, just to add to our status!  

Another adventure-filled weekend!

A dusty, sweaty week.

After exciting times last weekend, this week's news will probably bore you all to death.  But here it is anyway, faithfully recorded for your reading pleasure.

We hit the ground running Monday morning, no matter that hours of sleep were few.  It was out the door by 8 am.  

 The road out to the field.

This doesn't do the bumpiness and dustiness justice, but it gives you an idea.  We checked in with the guys (the combine operators) and got caught up on how their weekend went.  Rain.  Good for us, we didn't miss anything.  Not so good for them, apparently harvesters don't like to be slowed down.  

It's sort of strange.  Now that the big stuff is done, the installations and explanations, José and Leandro haven't been coming out to the field with us (not to mention they're busy with their own jobs!).  That leaves the translating work to me.  It's been fun, actually.  The guys have been gracious about my lack of technical Spanish vocabulary (Jonathan, not so gracious, was quick to point out when he knew the word for auger cart before I did).  And I've seen just how vital language is to this whole process.  Testing the product really wouldn't work well without the ability to get to know the group who does the testing for you.  Communication is key.  While that makes me feel very needed, I'm a little worried about what Brazil will be like.  I guess that will be a whole different adventure.

Yesterday, we went to Agroexpo, a farm progress show a few hours south.  José had a booth, and we went to do some corporate espionage research regarding planters in Argentina.  Fact: the U.S. has 3 major planter brands.  Argentina has, like, 50.  No joke.  And we went to every single one, got a tour of several of their models, and took hundreds of pictures.  In the hot sun.  At least I got to work on my tan.    Actually, that didn't go so well, sun screen was a complete oversight on my part and we both turned out burnt to a crisp by the end of the day. 

 Standing on a planter.

Thankfully, José's booth was in an air conditioned building.  Very nice.  I recognized that it was the right booth instantly because of the video of Greg Sauder playing against the back wall.

A familiar sight.  "technosem" is the name of José's business.

This wasn't the kind of ag show a lumberjack show, unfortunately, and there weren't any booths with free pens.  But at least there was good meat for lunch.  Speaking of food, we'll be ready to get back to some american food.  Of course, as expected, the meat is really good here, but that's about all they have.  Not much variety at all.  Every restaurant has just about the same menu.  We did find one place that we really like and have eaten there probably ten times.  It's a small place in the middle-of-nowhere farm town we stayed in for awhile.  The waitress was always the same girl about my age with a little girl (her daughter?) about 3 or so hanging around too.  The waitress might have doubled as the cook too; we never saw anyone else.  They always had only 2 choices for the menu, so there was a little more variety.  Looking at that sentence, it makes no sense.  But it's true, I guess the only way to have more variety around here is to have fewer options.  That said, we are getting our fill of milanesa (breaded tenderloin), bife (cut of steak), jamón (ham), white bread, and salad with oil and vinegar.  

Today we're back in good 'ole One-Eyed Deer.  The guys have moved to a different field which is much closer to this area.  Now...on to thinking about weekend plans...

Las Cataratas de Iguazú (Iguazu Falls)

Our weekend away ended with some spectacular views, hot, sticky hikes, and wet, roaring waterfalls!  Saturday evening when we got back from Brazil, we raced to the Falls to hopefully get in a few hours of sightseeing before the park closed in the early evening.  We were also thinking this might be a cooler option than going at, say, noon.  No such luck there.  Pretty sure this is the most humid place on earth.  (Jonathan thinks California has softened me and I'm not properly remembering summer nights in good ole Illinois)

 Our first view of the falls.

I wish the pictures could fully convey the exotic contrast of colors!  The bright shiny greens of the jungle, the bouncing white foam of the water, the black sharp edges of the rock cliffs...

Iguazú Falls are different than Niagra Falls.  While Niagra has the largest single curtain of falling water (or something like that), Iguazú has thousands of waterfalls falling over acres of cliff from the upper Paraná river into the lower in stair steps of varying heights.  

 Many of the walkways had you looking over the edge. Vertigo!

 Rainbow from all mist!

 The jungle.  

Some interesting and quite graphic signs warned us not to touch the wildlife as coatis and monkeys can apparently leave some gory bite marks!  Another sign warned us to stay on the path or else be subject to snake attack (okay, so it didn't say that, but it did say there we dangerous snakes in the nearby trees).

 This is our favorite view.

Once again, it doesn't do it justice.

We came back Sunday afternoon and did the train ride (exactly like Wildlife Prairie Park) and hike out to Garganta del Diablo (throat of the devil).  See all those thousands of waterfalls, some big, some small, some long, some short...now, get this!  Half of the river flow passes on three sides through one spot called Garaganta del Diablo.  Some crazy power in that water!  It roared!  

There's a reason it's one of the seven natural wonders of the world!

 Yes, I'm quite apprehensive. 

You should have seen those graphic warning signs!

They may seem harmless...

It was absolutely breathtaking!  Such exotic beauty!  So much raw power!  I couldn't help but stare in wonder and think, what happened here?  It's like God just raised black rock up out of a rushing river at spectacular heights, and then brought glorious green life out of it all while the river literally pours out endless praise to its Creator!  

You can't help but join in!