Iguazu Falls


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South America » Brazil » Paraná » Foz do Iguaçu
February 8th 2016
Published: February 8th 2016
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We left our cool Airbnb place in Buenos Aires and headed to the local airport for our flight up to Puerto Iguazu on the Argentine side of the falls. For once the travelling went without a hitch and we managed a sneak peak of the falls whilst we were landing. Once we arrived we were hit with the jungle humidity! It was in the mid 30s and all of our clothes automatically felt damp with the moisture in the air.

After spending the night in a room that had no air conditioning (just a really squeaky ceiling fan that looked like it was about to fall on us at any moment) we were a little tired but headed to the National Park on the Argentine side of the falls. We were told there are more trails on the Argentine side so we got started on one of three that was recommended to us, the Upper Falls loop. As soon as we started the trail we came across lots of “coatis” – they look like a mixture between a racoon and a badger. They were quite cute but as we soon saw later they stalked you if they saw you with food!

The trail was extremely busy with people and most of the viewpoints were packed and there was good reason as the views of the falls were stunning. Imagine Niagara Falls but on some serious steroids! It seemed like there was water falling from everywhere! Each set of falls had a different name but there are too many to remember. There were lots of walkways over the river so you could get up close and personal to the masses of water tumbling down the cliffs. The second trail, Lower Falls, was also heaving with people and took you down near the base of the falls. This meant getting the full blast of spray that they created.

The final trail involved catching a “train” to the “Devil’s Throat” part of the falls. This was a massive U-shaped set of falls and the amount of water going down them was seriously impressive. In all we walked about 8km around these trails and spent a large amount of time of time either marvelling at the falls or bitching about the number of people around us!

The next day we headed to our hostel in Foz du Iguazu on the Brazilian side of the falls. This obviously involved crossing a border. We caught a bus which stopped at Argentine customs, so we got stamped out of the country, but when we arrived at the Brazilian customs we could have quite easily just stayed on the bus without getting our passports stamped! It was very lapse, a little confusing but eventually we worked out that we had to get off the bus, go in, fill out a form, get our passports stamped and catch the next bus that came along.

That evening we headed out for some Caipiranhas at a local bar before our day in the National park on the Brazilian side of the falls.

The next day we caught a bus (after waiting a good 30mins and which turned out to be packed) that took us to the National Park and immediately balked at the number of people there. We ended up queuing for a good two hours for tickets into the park and for a bus to take us to the only trail (all the others involved paying extra for the privilege to do). The trail took you so some amazing viewpoints of the Devil’s Throat which you didn’t get from the Argentine side. The only issue was the sheer amount of people there, most of whom wouldn’t worry about elbowing you out of the way so they could get a shot of the falls or stopping slap bang in the middle of the path to take a photo holding everyone else up! It ended up feeling like we were constantly in the largest queue in the world. There was a walkway that took you pretty much right into the middle of them – we made it about half way along before stopping as we were already soaked from the spray. The views were good but the people did spoil it a little.

Overall we both agreed we are glad that we never have to come back here again (too hot and too many people) but glad that we did come here as the falls are spectacular!


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