After our week in Buenos Aires and after saying our goodbyes to Jen and LaMont, Kate, Will, Isaiah and I took a short flight to Puerto Iguazu, Argentina to check out the beautiful waterfalls of Iguazu Falls we had heard so much about. Yes, we had just been there with Jen and LaMont but if anything it made me more excited to go back. I hadn’t forgotten about all those rainbows.

The grounds alone are expansive with many trails to hike, spotting the waterfalls from different angles and distances. This time around we even got to ride a little boat out to a small island that was closed on our first visit due to water levels.

It is a magical place with the powerful, rushing falls, the butterflies and animals that greet you and welcome you in to their lovely corner of the world.

Since I wrote more about it before, today I’ll let the photography speak for itself. I culled the photos to my favorites but there are still so, so many to enjoy!

There is so much to do in Buenos Aires. Some highlights for us over the week that we spent there include the walking tour that introduced us to the town, touring the magnificent Teatro Colón, seeing the famous Recoleta Cemetery, and going to a tango show.

But to be completely honest, the real highlight was being in the same room as 5 of my all-time favorite friends. Jen, Lamont, Isaiah and I arrived a couple days earlier, but when we saw a little yellow taxi pull up outside our apartment and Kate and Will hop out of it, you bet I let out a squeal of excitement from our second story balcony. Upon hearing that, Kate and Will knew they were in the right place.

Help me set the scene by imagining being in the same group of friends with these visitors throughout our college days – most often as roommates, housemates, or next door neighbors.

Then after graduation we girls got a house together and dove into the real world. The working world, not The Real World. Slowly we married off to friends we all already knew and remained in the same small town hanging out as much as possible. Perfect, right?

Then one couple gets the bright idea to move to Paraguay for Peace Corps and the other couple moves out to California for a new experience than the town she’d grown up in. All three couples separated for the first time in more than 10 years. What a transition.

We’ve kept in great touch via email and video calling, but having a flesh and blood reunion in Buenos Aires still brings me to tears. It was amazing. Life giving. An instant circle of comfort created by people who truly know you. Oh how good it feels to be known.

So it may now be more understandable why one of my favorite parts of the trip was sitting on one of our terraces laughing or crying with our favorite friends. It didn’t hurt that the apartment we rented was amazing. Recently fixed up but in the original, ornate style.

We did a lot of walking and talking, taking in the feel of the city and the styles of the different neighborhoods. Like when we stopped for breakfast in Puerto Madero along the river-way, admiring the graceful Puente de la Mujer (Woman’s Bridge).

Or the brightly colored buildings in the funky La Boca neighborhood where we picked up a unique painting of a boat on the water that we plan to hang in our new house.

I highly recommend taking the tour through Teatro Colón. Our tour guide was professional but witty and spoke perfect English. The size of the theater is impressive but the detailing of nearly every inch of floor, wall, and ceiling takes your breath away.

He told stories of the fancy couples who attended the events at the theater to be seen. And the special box in the front right-hand side of the theater saved always for the president of Argentina.

We saw for ourselves that the view from that particular box wasn’t great, with part of the stage being blocked due to the angle. But sitting in that box, the audience can’t help but to look at you in eyesight of the stage. In a way, you become part of the show. And for the president, that is the point.

I also give all thumbs up to a guided tour of the Recoleta Cemetery.

Without one, it would still be a huge cemetery with small streets almost like a miniature town and worth seeing. But the background stories are what makes it so intriguing.

Like the meaning behind the adornments that families chose for their mausoleum. Or how the materials used changed over the years and why. Or how many times the body of Eva Peron, more affectionately known as Evita, was moved over the years.

Or the story of the young girl who was pronounced dead from a heart attack. Following tradition, the ceremony was held right away and the sealed casket placed in the family’s mausoleum. But a few days later the groundskeeper called the family to tell them the casket was slightly ajar and, so the story goes, scratch marks were found on the inside of the casket. It was later discovered that the young girl was in what we now know as a coma, and upon waking had tried to escape.

Our friendly tour guide was quick to point out the line between historical stories and legends gets blurred over time. And how it’s thought that there are so many cats in the cemetery because they like to play with the spirits. Our tour guide, on the other hand, choses to believe they live in the cemetery because two elderly ladies feed them there each day. You be the judge.

We saw the fancy mausoleum of the man who learned how to remove the lactose from milk, therefore becoming Will’s hero. There are no longer any available spots in the cemetery that is known as the resting place of the rich families of Buenos Aires. But there were a few spots for sale if you’re interested, somewhere in the range $100,000 a piece.

It didn’t seem right to spend time in Buenos Aires, home of the tango, without taking in a tango show. So we gussied up and headed out to El Viejo Almacén to be entertained by songs and tango dancing. It was geared toward tourists, but nevertheless impressed and entertained us and had us all walking home with an extra dance in our step.

Our time in Buenos Aires was one to remember. Isaiah and I are still so grateful and honored that our friends took the effort, vacation time, and moolah to make this coordinated trip that got the gang together again a reality. From Buenos Aires, Jen and LaMont flew back stateside while Kate and Will journeyed on to Paraguay with us.

Have you been to Buenos Aires? What are your must-see recommendations?

Just when we thought our passport troubles were behind us, our long distance bus to Buenos Aires was stopped before the Paraguay/Argentina border for a document check. We held our breath as the large man who had boarded our bus looked and looked at Jen and LaMont’s passports. Finally, he went into a lecture about how we needed two stamps: one for exiting a country and one for entering. And we were missing one.

I had to stifle a laugh just because his speech was nearly verbatim what we heard from the border controller a day or two prior. I couldn’t be mad. They are only doing their job and I’m happy to know they actually check that things are being done properly.

But when he explained that our friends were technically in the country illegally, due to their lack of proper stampage (he hadn’t gotten to our passports yet, where the same problem awaited), I had visions of things going terribly wrong, no one listening to our story about it being an honest mistake, and having to watch Jen and LaMont get sent off on the next plane outta there.

Even though he left with our passports for what felt like an entire Lord of the Rings and we began to hear (imagine?) the groans of the other passengers who were ready to get back on the road, they eventually showed grace and we were home free. Phew.

Relaxed and relieved, we tilted our fancy bus seats way, way back and drifted off to sleep. Moments later, our bus stopped and everyone got out. A bathroom break? Why can’t people just use the bathroom on the bus? Why are we the only ones who don’t know what’s going on? Eventually we’re ushered into a nice dining hall where the rest of our bus mates are already seated enjoying an empanada appetizer. Waiters donning fancy suits efficiently served us drinks, a nice chicken and rice meal, and then a flan dessert. We were herded back to the bus as quickly as we entered. On the road again with stomachs full of an unexpectedly legitimate meal, with clocks pushing the midnight hour.

One of the first things we did in Buenos Aires was take a walking tour from a company called BA Free Tours. Our guide was informative and entertaining and spoke clear English. It was tipped base at the end of the tour and I highly recommend it as an intro to the city and the stories behind some hot spots downtown.

Like this normal looking street of businesses near downtown Buenos Aires.

But scroll up for another look. Do you see anything unusual? Along the top of the buildings on the left-hand side? There’s a house! The story is that someone built it there so he could have time to go home for his lunch break. Not a bad idea. It’s right next to the tall Obelisk monument.

We also learned about the congress building that only opens its front doors about once a year when the president visits. (She doesn’t like to have to explain herself to the people, our guide explained with a laugh.)

We saw the Pink House where the president “works.” (Air marks compliments of our tour guide who explained that the president lives a 45-minute helicopter ride from the Pink House. She flies in each day.) You can see when the president is inside the building if there are two Argentine flags flying outside. If she’s not there, there is only one. I found these public symbols interesting since the US sometimes tries to hide where our president is for security reasons.

We admired the monument at the Plaza de mayo where mothers started meeting to protest the disappearance of their children in the Dirty War. At the time it was illegal for more than 3 people to congregate in public, so the group of mothers broke into groups of 3 and walked around the plaza in protest. To this day, more than 30 years later, they still meet once a week to walk in protest for their children, many who were never found.

We saw the oldest coffee shop in Buenos Aires, Cafe Tortoni, and later went back for drinks. I had tasty sweet churros dunked in the richest hot chocolate. And I do believe the café paired the two menu items especially for dunking purposes. My favorite.

And of course, the city is alive with the spirit of Evita, the beloved former first lady and the base of the musical in her namesake. She’s honored on sides of buildings, shown below, as well as remembered on one of the left balconies of the Pink House, shown 3 photos up, where Evita (and later Madonna playing Evita) passionately spoke to the people.

The city is vibrant and its buildings are entertainment for the eye. It has lush tree-filled plazas to stroll and refreshing fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice for sale on the street.

Through the morning tour and exploring on our own, we started to get our bearings in this new city. Of course all that walking can be tiring, so an ice cream slash coffee break was in order.

We ended the day touring the oldest part of the church, now set up as a museum, that claims the famous Recoleta Cemetery as its own.

Through its small windows we got glimpses of the impressive cemetery which we would tour in all its glory (and I will write about) another day.