Iguazu Falls

Iguazu Falls is the largest waterfall system in the world and was a great stop in between the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires.   The falls are located where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet.  It's really hard to describe in words or even capture in pictures how massive the falls are.  The number of waterfalls varies between 150 and 300 depending on the weather and some are over 250 feet high.  When reading about the falls I learned that US First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt reportedly exclaimed "Poor Niagara!" upon seeing the falls.  I'd agree Eleanor.

Getting to Iguazu was a bit of an adventure in and of itself.  I wanted to be sure to see the falls from both the Argentinian and Brazilian side, but also wanted to do it as efficiently as possible and with just one border crossing.  I also didn't want to have to stay in Brazil one night just to pack up and then spend the second night in Argentina.  There were airports nearby in both countries so that helped make this work.  The plan was to land at the airport on the Brazilian side of the falls at around 9:00 in the morning, take a cab or bus to the falls and check our bags there. (I of course researched this to death, and the made sure there were plenty of lockers large enough to hold luggage.)  After seeing the falls from Brazil we'd then take a taxi across the border (yes, that's a thing) and check into a hotel on the Argentinian side.  The next day would be dedicated to the falls from Argentina.  Then the morning of day three we'd be off to Buenos Aires from the airport on the Argentinian side.

All of that went just as planned except for one little hiccup.  Upon landing at Foz de Igauzu in Brazil, a very helpful airport employee explained to us that we could take a bus to the falls so we did that instead of taking a cab.  Getting on the bus with bags was a bit of a challenge.  It is an airport bus so you'd think it'd be designed for this sort of thing.  I got on and tried to pay the driver, but he pointed to a woman behind him with a little cash register and a turnstyle!  So you guessed it, you're expected to lift your suitcase over the turnstyle, while the bus is moving.  Give me a break chicos.  I hope you're picturing this and how at times I can be a little clumsy.  My bag is not even that big so I have no idea how tourists with larger bags would even attempt this.  Anyway, a very helpful Brazilian man on the other side of the turnstyle took pity on me and helped me with my bag which I handed to him over the turnstyle.  I then did the same for my friend Adam.  So, we were on the bus, en route to the falls.  We figured it'd be pretty obvious once the bus arrived at the falls, which again, are the largest waterfall system in the world, and probably one of the biggest tourist attractions in the continent.  Well folks, that assumption would be wrong!  I should also point out it was pouring rain, so much so that the power had flickered at the airport, though maybe that's normal, who knows.  After about 15 minutes the bus makes a stop and just about everyone gets off and the woman manning the turnstyle of death gave Adam and I a nod.  So, we get off, and proceed to get drenched by rain and run for shelter to figure out where we're supposed to go as the bus pulls away.  I see a sign the says something like bird sanctuary.  My first thought was "Is this Chirpy's way of getting back at me for not writing or sending birdseed?"  Perhaps, because we were at a bird sanctuary, and not the falls.  What now?!

I had Google maps of the area on my phone and realized the falls were several miles away.  Oh no!  So it was either wait for the next bus and do the luggage dance again or find a cab.  We went with option two.  Luckily there were cabs right at the bird aviary.  So, getting drenched some more, we made our way to a cab, loaded our bags into the back and asked the driver to take us to the falls.  He responded with, "Foz de Iguazu en Brazil?"  Emphasis on the word, "Brazil."  Our reply was, "Uhh, si."  He laughed at us, though in a playful way, and informed us that they were about 200 meters away.  So basically across the street, we just couldn't see the entrance around the corner from the bird aviary.  When I looked on my phone, the falls were indeed miles away, but the entrance to the park, where there is a shuttle bus that takes you to the various viewpoints, was across the street.  Ha!  So the fare was like 6 Brazilian Reals which is barely 2 dollars.  I gave him a 10 and just ran away.

With that adventure behind us, we still made pretty good time as it was about 11:00 am, so we had most of the day to enjoy the falls.  Luckily, the park on the Brazilian side is pretty simple to navigate.  You take a bus through the park and then are dropped off at the start of the trail that takes you on about a mile walk along the length of the falls.  The majority of the falls are actually in Argentina, so from Brazil you get a striking panoramic view of most of the falls.  The rain had stopped, but it was still cloudy, though we had some pretty good views.

At the end of the path you get a great view of the "Devil's Throat" the highest and deepest of the falls.

You can actually walk across this terrifying looking path to get right up close to some of the falls.

Here I am standing at the end of the path from the photos above.

Here we are after getting drenched, not by rain, but by the falls.  We actually bought overpriced ponchos, but did we wear them? No.

After spending some more time at the falls, we grabbed a snack and then set out to get our bags out of the lockers and find a cab to take us to Argentina.  This was actually pretty easy to do, and quite common for cabs to take tourists across the border.  We stopped twice, once when leaving Brazil and again when entering Argentina to have our passports stamped.  After about 45 minutes we arrived at our hotel which had a neat view of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay from the balcony.

The next day, with much better weather, we made our way to the park on the Argentinian side.  Here, instead of one long panoramic trail, there are several smaller trails that get you pretty close to parts of the falls.  The first trail takes you over top of the Devil's Throat.

That last photo shows you these little metal bridges that are the paths that you follow to walk over and around the falls. I have no idea how they built them because as you can see they go right over the waterfall!  Also, if you look at the structure across the water, that is the little restaurant on the Brazilian side of the falls where we had our snack the day before.

After the devil's throat trail we took one of the upper trails.

The number of rainbows we saw was pretty amazing! Here's another shot of the metal trails that take you around the falls.  The current of the water below is pretty fast and these trails are quite long going several hundred feet before passing over land, so I have no idea how they were constructed.

After the upper trail we took a lower trail which again gives you the opportunity to get soaked.  We wore our ponchos this time!

With that, we came to the end of our two day tour of Iguazu Falls.  The magnitude of the falls really was impressive to see up close.   They were so loud too and the intensity of the amount of water flowing all around you really was quite amazing.

Up next, my final city, Buenos Aires!