Day 258 Argentina, Puerto Iguazú, Brazil, Foz de Iguacú, Iguazu Falls (Brazilian side)


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South America » Brazil » Paraná » Foz do Iguaçu
August 2nd 2015
Published: August 11th 2015
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Hey People,



Iguassu Falls was created as the result of a volcanic eruption that left a large crack in the earth. Taller than Niagara Falls (and twice as wide), Iguassu consists of 275 cascading falls spread out over nearly 2 miles (3.2 km) in a horseshoe shape. During the rainy season, between November and March, the rate of water that flows over the falls can reach more than 450,000 cubic feet (12,750 cubic m) per second. In short, it’s a phenomenal natural wonder that we want to see from as many angles as possible, which is why we are going over to the Brazilian side today to see the falls.



After our free breakfast at the hostel, the Viator Company who we booked through picked us up again. Leaving Puerto Iguazú behind, we crossed the border into Brazil to visit ‘Devil´s Throat’, the largest waterfall in the region and one best seen from the Brazilian side of Iguassu Falls for the full picture. Here, we watched as 14 falls dropped 350 feet (107 meters) with such force that a 100-foot (30-meter) tall cloud of mist stays permanently suspended overhead.



We walked through the subtropical forest of Iguacu National Park to the base of Salto Floriano for a close up. Then we walked to the top of the falls for impressive views once again.



This spectacular wonder really can’t be described in words to do it justice.



However, if you are planning to see the Iguazu Falls, whichever way you choose to see them, whether booking through a tour online, through your hostel or on your own, it is still expensive. If you go by tour, the cost of entry into the park usually needs to be paid separately on arrival, which is approximately £20/ARS290 on each side! Plus the transport to get there and back is around £7/ARS100 return. Then if you want to do a boat ride (which we recommend) that’s another £35/ARS520. So when we booked through Viator it was not much more than these prices and included a tour guide. It is easy to navigate by yourself however, and the train inside the Argentinian NP is free to use. FYI: We met people who didn’t recommend the 4by4 jeep adventure.



When the tour was finished we bought reasonably priced snacks at the café, we then were dropped back off at the hostel by 1.30pm.



Neil and I then grabbed our rucksacks and walked to the bus station to get back over to the Brazilian side to catch our long distance over night bus to Campo Grande. In hindsight we should have taken our big bags with us on the trip and stayed on that side, but we weren’t sure if we could leave them safely on the same tour bus.



We caught the first bus (out of three) to the boarder crossing ok, got stamped, then had to wait another hour for the next bus to come through to take us the next part of the journey. We had saved just enough ARS currency to make it on the buses because we were told it’s hard to get rid of ARS outside the country. During the hour wait we had many taxis drive by lowly from the Argentinian side through the boarder, so I eventually asked one guy if he would take us to the international bus station on the money we had left for the bus. I spoke to the man in Spanish so I automatically assumed he was an Argentinian taxi who had accessed across the boarder...wrong. He agreed to the money we had left and started driving, it was only after about 5 minutes I confirmed it was 80 pesos and not Brazilian Real-it was Real! He kindly dropped us off at the next bus station without charging us anything. My fault, I was just so focused on making sure he understood the correct bus station we wanted to go to that I forgot that little detail of currency. Neil was a little mad and told me it was obvious that as we’re in Brazil we pay in Brazilian Real.



Anyway to cut a long story short, we finally made it to the International bus station in Foz after walking literally 2 hours (the city map at each station is completely out of scale). We weren’t sure if the bus we wanted to catch was actually going to stop at that station the taxi man had dropped us at, so we decided to walk.



After feeling completely exhausted, and dripping in sweat, we made it in time for our 13.5 hour bus journey at 6pm.



Good night





V&N x


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21st July 2017

Great!
Hey Neil and Vicky! The Falls are just amazing, aren't they? We have been there many times and always want to see them again. Have you gone to the Argentinian side too? Besides the Falls, we think the region has some great thing to do. We listed some of them here: http://www.localplanet.com.br/en/touristic-attractions-foz-do-iguacu/

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