Blogs from Iguaçu Falls, Paraná, Brazil, South America

(Day 372 on the road) Iguazu. Big Water. What a fitting name for this fantastical natural wonder. Like the Atacama Desert in Chile, I had visited Iguazu Falls over 20 years ago. I do have faint memories and thus kind of knew what to expect. Yet it still blew me away. The falls are located on the border of Brazil and Argentina, and - like most visitors - I visited them on both sides of the border. They are both distinctively different, and I liked both sides a lot. I had entered Brazil on foot from Paraguay across the friendship bridge, and settled into a small private apartment in the town of Foz do Iguazu, about an hour drive north of the actual waterfalls. Leaving Spanish speaking countries behind after a year now felt strange, and ... read more

Iguazu Falls Declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1984, Iguazu Falls is often quoted as the world’s most spectacular waterfall. Situated on the border of the Brazil & Argentina the Falls spans 1.7 miles in width, and features 275 individual waterfalls, with heights ranging from 196-270ft. The name ‘Iguazu’ is loosely translated from the indigenous Guarani language as “big water”. The falls form part of both the Iguacu National Park (Argentina) and the Iguazu National Park (Brazil), which have both been declared World Heritage sites. Approximately, 80% of the falls are located in Argentina and 20% in Brazil. Today on our virtual tour we were in Brazil. Our guide was very knowledgable and it was interesting to hear her stories. There is a legend to explain the falls: God wanted to marry Naipí, an ... read more

Up early today at 05:15 to finish packing, have breakfast and be ready for 06:25 pick-up for Rio Airport. We ended up with a lot of time to kill as we got through the check-in very quickly but as we were waiting we heard very familiar accents sitting behind us, so I started up a conversation with Graham and Karen from Perth(ex-Sydney residents) who still have family in Sydney. They also do a lot of traveling and put us onto a company they use called expatexplore.com. We exchanged travel stories and it certainly made the time go quickly. The plane left on time and we arrived as scheduled. We were met by our guide Reggie and his driver and we went straight to Iguazu Falls. These are definitely the most magnificent falls we have ever seen ... read more

We arrived this morning in Puerto Iguazu after 19 hours of bus travel, and after showering, changing and organising our day bags decided to heat to the Brazilian side of the Iguazu falls. There are numerous ways to get there, you can choose to go by your car, tourist bus, or a local bus. We purchased tickets with the Rio Uruguay company which were 80Arg pesos return each, less than $10- Australian. Beware have pesos, you can't pay for a lot of things with a credit card. So a quick lunch of a savoury flan of half and half spinach and pumpkin, a coffee and we were off on the 12-30pm bus. This takes about 30 minutes to get to the falls main area, you go through a customs area, you all get off and on ... read more

Gina and Arlete wanted us ready to go early this morning to cross back to the Argentinian side of the falls. I woke up feeling a bit like death warmed up and had to get myself showered and breakfasted and ready for a very full day of sightseeing by 7.00am. Ugh! At least this morning's gourmet breakfast buffet was a vast and very welcome improvement on the fare that was on offer for the last two days in BA! A decent breakfast - and a cup of coffee - certainly helped to improve my mood. As always our very punctual group was ready to go at 7.00am. Julio drove us to the Brazilian border check point and Arlete went in to have all our passports stamped. Then we drove to the Argentinean border check point and ... read more