After our super early flight from Mendoza to Puerto Iguazu, we took a rest day before going to see Iguazu Falls the next day. The falls are right where Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay meet, and can be seen from Argentina and Brazil. On the Argentina side are many trails that take you below, beside, and over some of the more than 200 falls. The Brazil side is good for being able to see the full panoramic view of all the falls.

We took a public bus out to the falls, and began our walking tour of the huge complex. It was a gorgeous day – super sunny and pretty warm. A train that reminded me of Disney World or the zoo took us out to where the trails start. At the start of the trail were coatis, animals that are known to attack park visitors for their food. We snapped a couple pics of them, and then headed down the trail. As we were heading down the stairs, we heard a rustle in the trees. And out popped about 8 coatis heading towards us. We started to walk faster, and they seemed to as well. So we broke into a jog so we wouldn’t be swarmed by them!

Argentinian Falls

There are miles of trails on the Argentina side of the falls, and it’s recommended to allow at least six hours to cover them all. The trails are in three sections – one that takes you near the sides of some of the smaller falls, one that takes you over top of some of the smaller falls, and the one that takes you over the Devil’s Throat – one of the huge falls. We went through all the sections, which I’ll try to keep more to pictures below, as those are far more impressive than my words!

During the first section of the falls, we saw some impressive smaller falls, as well as the large Devil’s Throat further in the distance. The trail started out fairly empty, but as we got closer to the falls, all the other tourists were there crowding and pushing. This was the most touristy activity we’d done in a while, so it took us some time to get used to the mass of humanity jostling and elbowing us for position. I’ll admit, I handled this worse than John, and got myself into a pretty foul little mood. I didn’t want this to ruin our day though, so I started some positive affirmations and tried to fix my face. “I can’t control others’ actions, I can only control my reactions.” “My attitude is for me to decide.” I also plastered a smile on my face to physically convince myself I was happy. John said he felt like he was walking with a crappy self-help book! Regardless, I pulled myself together so we could enjoy the insane natural beauty all around us.

The second section of the trail had us walking over the falls we’d just seen as well as through some beautiful trails through the jungle. The park has really done an incredible job of setting up and maintaining these series of trails that go on for miles.

At the end of the second section, we came across a group of monkeys in the trees. There were about 10 in the group, including a mom that was holding a small baby! We watched them for a while, but scampered out of there once the coatis appeared.

To get to the third section, you can take the train. But, as we were walking up, the train pulled out leaving us with the option to walk or wait for the next train, which was scheduled to leave in 30 minutes. We opted for the walk since it was gorgeous out, and were rewarded by seeing tons of butterflies on the path! We’d been seeing them all day, but there were hoards on this path. All different colors and sizes.

 

Once we got to the end of the path, which was much longer than we’d expected, we set off on the third section and found a place to sit and eat the lunch we’d packed. While we were there, two strikingly beautiful birds joined us. They were stunning!

After lunch we walked to the end of the path and viewed Devil’s Throat. The amount of water at the top of the falls as well as pouring over the sides is unbelievable, as is the roar it makes. The pictures really don’t do it justice!

Walking back from Devil’s Throat, it was starting to become evening, and I saw a couple birds flying away in the distance. Based on the silhouette, I was pretty sure they were toucans, but John wasn’t convinced. I’d told him all day that I was looking for them because we knew they lived in the park. I’ve seen one before in Guatemala, but I wanted John to be able to see them too, so I’d been telling him I was going to make them appear. And they did! We saw more land in some trees before us and fly over the river! I was so excited! Their noses are so ridiculous looking! I excitedly told John I’d produced some toucans for him. He joked that it was nine-cans. Teeheehee!

We also saw some crazy caterpillars on our walk back, no doubt the predecessor to the butterflies we saw earlier.

We caught the last train back to the beginning of the park, and took the bus back to the city. From there, we immediately started walking to the end of town where you can see where Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay all touch. Unfortunately we arrived after sundown, but we still saw it!

Into Brazil

The next day, we got up and took the bus into Brazil. The bus stops at the Argentinian immigration office first, where we hopped off the bus and got our exit stamps. As in many other border crossings we’ve had, no one talked to us. Not to ask where we’ve been, where we’re going, or to even acknowledge our hellos.

We hopped back on the bus, and it took us to the Brazilian immigration office. At this stop, not everyone had to get off – Brazilians and Argentinians didn’t have to go through immigration. So about eight of us got left at immigration to get our stamps and then wait for the next bus to come through. The stamping went very quickly – probably about 10 minutes – especially since no one talked to us again. Waiting for the bus took about an hour. This was pretty depressing as we stood outside under an awning to avoid the torrential rain.

Finally the bus picked us up and dropped us off about two blocks from our hotel. Which would’ve been great if it hadn’t been pouring. We threw on our ponchos and waded to our hotel. At this point, getting to Foz do Iguacu, the Brazilian city closest to the fall had taken so long, I wasn’t too interested in going to see the falls, but John was still interested in seeing them from Brazil, so we dropped our stuff at the hotel and hopped a local bus to the falls. It had briefly stopped raining, just to start again as we arrived. This tour of the falls wasn’t going to have nearly the same weather as we’d had the day before!

Brazilian Falls

The Brazil side of the falls is much smaller, with far less walking, and just a short path giving panoramic views of the falls. Since it was raining, the falls were much muddier than the day before. As we were walking to one of the overlooks, I slipped on the wet concrete, catching myself on one wrist. Fortunately, it didn’t break, and we didn’t have to test out our travel insurance!

Up and walking again, John yells out, “Watch out! Snake!”. I jumped and screamed bloody murder as a brown snake about an inch in diameter and 2-3 feet long slithered off the path. Another tourist heard me scream and came to look at the snake. Based on the shape of the head, she thought it was poisonous. Great! Second chance missed in the span of 10 minutes to test out our travel insurance!

The views from the overlooks were amazing!

At the end of the trail is the real treat of the Brazilian side of the falls. The trail extends over the raging waterfalls. The water falls from the top of the river, hits the small plateau that the boardwalk is on, then falls again to the bottom of the river. The force of the river is terrifying, and you get completely drenched from the spray! We were too worried about drowning a phone to get pics while walking out there, but see below for the walkway.

We took the public bus back to our hotel, where we could dry off and change before going out to dinner. While I was in the room I could hear John making a bunch of noise in the bathroom, stomping around. I asked what he was doing, and he said, “I have a situation”. I came in to find him fighting at least 200 ants that had suddenly materialized. It looked like the white tiled floor had become black. John did as much stomping as he could. I was just relieved they were ants and not the baby roaches we’d had in our shower at the last place!

We took our hotel’s advice and went to a Brazilian steakhouse a block from the hotel. It wasn’t cheap, but my god it was good! Huge buffet and every meat imaginable brought to our table! They even brought a grilled pineapple to the table, which allowed me to show off one of the few Portuguese words I’d learned from doing Duolingo, “abacaxi”. I was so proud of myself!

What’s Next?

The next day, we got up, packed all our stuff, and took the public bus to the airport. Which was packed! We definitely didn’t fit on there with Franz and Helga on our backs. We exited the bus at the airport a sweaty mess. But filled with excitement to get to our next stop – Florianopolis! Check back next time to hear about our trip to the beach!