Argentine Watsons: Another week, no post!

Another week has passed by, and Brent has not updated the blog. What a slacker! Actually, we were out of town, and very busy at Iguazú Falls. Yes, I took my laptop so we could watch conference, but that is the only use it got while we were gone. Our flight arrived Friday night, and left Monday morning. We spent a bunch of time at the falls (of course) and then walking around the city of Puerto Iguazú. If you have seen Facebook, you have seen the photos. Nevertheless, I am including them here as well. This week's post will be mostly photos, and not as much blab.

Let me just say that Iguazú is unbelievable! Words cannot express the grandeur, nor the beauty, nor the power. Now most of you have probably been to Niagara Falls. Let me make a comparison so you get a better idea of what Iguazú is. Think of the last time you had a leaky faucet. Now compare that to Niagara. That is about the same thing as the comparison between Niagara and Iguazú.

Iguazú is made up of about 275 different falls. The height of the falls is up to 275 feet. It varies because many of the falls are two level. They fall onto an intermediate level and then again to the bottom of the canyon. Peak flow can be as high as 3.6 million gallons of water per second. The falls are nearly 2 miles wide. Needless to say, it took all day to see what we could from the Argentine side. We didn't go over to the Brazilian side because of visa issues - we don't have a Brazilian visa and we didn't want to pay $350.00 US to get one. But most of the falls are on the Argentine side.

Other things of interest were a site (La Aripuca or trap) where they are trying to conserve the jungle. They had examples of VERY large trees that are no longer there. They are growing new ones, but it will take hundreds of years to get them to their maximum size. They have some very unique furnishings made of these salvaged large trees, including light fixtures, a LOG CABIN, and interesting tables and chairs.

There is actually an Eco House where the builder has made just about anything necessary for his house out of used soda bottles. He has made walls, roofs, tables, chairs, beds, etc. He has made about 75 homes now. This is a great way to construct shelter for those folks who cannot afford much else.

Our apartment continues to suffer from water problems. Both of the large hot water heaters we have are broken. They use steam to heat the water, but the boiler water leaks into the heated water. They have replacements, and one of them is on line. Unfortunately, now both of the boilers are non-functional. It will be good to get all of these water problems repaired and get clean, hot water. Up to now it has been either clean or hot, but not both. Well, actually not that hot either. Hmmmmm.

Now, it's back to the temple. Attendance is very low now. Everyone is either at work or at school. Yesterday, about the only people who came were the full time missionaries.

But on the plus side, Claudia's Spanish is progressing very nicely. Her accent is pretty good, and she is starting to get to the point where she can converse a little. It is really fun to watch her progress.