Iguazu

Iguazu Falls

Are you ready for a lot of water?  Well – maybe not, but if you ever come to Iguazu, it’s all about water. Lots of water, and if you go all the way, you get wet.

The waterfall is an amazing sight and should be viewed from both the Brazilian and the Argentine side. The National Park in Brazil is much smaller than on the Argentine side, but it is on the Brazilian side you can see the beautiful view of the falls. In Argentina there are paths on two levels, so you can see the waterfalls close either from above or from below.

The largest fall is called Gaganta the Diabo or Devil’s Throat, and on both sides it is possible to get up close and get wet – actually very wet.

The Brazilian National Park

When the entrance to the national park on the Brazilian side are paid in cash and Brazilian Real, you can take a bus into the waterfall – about 15 km. In the morning they run nonstop otherwise about every 20 min. The bus have a stop, where the waterfall starts, and from there you can follow a path along the river but high up so you can admire the numerous waterfalls. The path is easy, slightly hilly, with railings and sometimes stairs. You walk in a line with a lot of other people and at some parts “fighting” for the best places to take pictures. That’s where you find out that selfies takes an unbelievable long time. People posing in all directions to get the right pictures of themselves with and without friends and with the right background – so No – I’m not a fan of the selfie culture and you will not see anyone this blog😀  Well – apart from that, there is so much beautiful scenery to look at all the way, and it is truly breathtaking to see the waterfalls.

Immediately before the path ends, you can go down to get the best view of Gaganta the Diabo and get a shower. Here they have built a footbridge in front of the waterfall.

You have two options: Buy a rain cap and get wet  from the inside, since it is almost always hot or skip the rain cape and become wet from the cascades of water coming at regular intervals.

It was actually not a problem, the weather was good, and we quickly dried again, but remember to cover your camera. I have been told, it is always very windy at water falls, so I don’t think you can avoid getting hit by the water.

The fall is enormous, and the amount of water falling down is truly amazing.

There is a lookout tower that includes an elevator and a balcony where the fall can be viewed,  so if you are not able to walk down, you still have the chance to see this amazing view.

After the waterfalls there is an area with a restaurant and a cafe, so you can enjoy lunch before heading back to the entrance. The trip along the waterfall takes no more than half a day; the rest of the day, you can then use to a safari tour. (It can also be done in Argentina)  You can also take a helicopter tour or visit a bird park which are both next to the park’s entrance.

Safari Tour

If you want to get very close to the waterfall a safari trip by boat is the solution. In Brazil the tour started with a short tour through the woods down to the river. Partly in a safari car and partly as a short walk and finally the boattrip to the waterfall.

Here was also two choices. A wet or dry tour. On the wet tour you get really close to the waterfall and you are sure to become soaked wet. Before the trip, you can therefore rent a locker room for your luggage. You can change clothes and leave your shoes, it’s also a good idea to leave the camera unless it is waterproof. From experience – the water is cold and a little shocking when you get hit the first time.

I’m not quite sure why I had to try this, but I guess I wanted see how it was. The trip goes pretty quickly back again and is being filmed all the way so you can buy a video with the experience.

Before the trip you have to put on a lifewest and coming back the people taking care of that are waiting for you. While they kindly ask, if we had enjoyed the tour, I have a feeling they were wondering what on earth gets adults of all ages to take the trip and come back totally soaked wet from top to toe or maybe I just felt a little silly being so wet.

The Argentine National Park

As I stayed in Brazil, I had to cross the border to go to the Argentine National Park. There are local buses, but my hotel had a tour, so I did not have to organize anything, but could be taken from “door to door”, which would save me a lot of time. This tour also included a trip to a place on the Argentine side – In the town of Puerto Iguazu – where we could see 3 countries: Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina and two rivers Rio Parana and Rio Iguazu

It was the closest I came to Paraguay. I do feel a little sorry for this country. Like Bolivia they don’t have a coastline and here they are so close to a major tourist attraction, but have no part in it, since the waterfall is only between Argentina and Brazil

At the entrance to the Argentine National Park you also pay an entrance fee, which is only payable in cash in Argentine pesos. Then you can take a train to the center of the park – the station called Centro. From here you can start both the upper and lower trails, or you can take another train to Gaganta the Diabo

A short walk from Centro station, is also where you will find the restaurant area

There were many buses arriving at the same time, which meant there were long queues for the train to Gaganta the Diabo, a trip for about half an hour. However once the train arrived, it was filled up fairly quickly. On the Argentine side, they have also built a number of foot bridges from the station and out to the waterfall, and the train and the walk back and forth takes most of the morning but it is a unique experience, and yes here you get wet too

At the train station you can get both food and something to drink, while waiting for the next train back to Centro station.

The rest of the day, you can then use to walk the upper and lower paths passing the numerous waterfalls.

Practical Information

At the entrance to the parks, you can as so many other places, buy selfie sticks, but here they also sold something far more useful. Waterproof bags for the phone, and my recommendation is, if you don’t have one buy one. Depending on how you keep your money, you should also consider a safe way to protect them, otherwise you can end up as the man next to me on the bus home from Argentina. To cross the border, he needed his ID card (the locals do not need passports) which was in his wallet. It was a brown leather wallet, and is was soaked wet. The same was his money, and they had also been colored brown after his wallet. Although he tried to dry them with any paper he could get from the people around him, I don’t think he got them all separated from each other. He was not a happy man.

When I researched about Iguazu, the recommendation was to spend a day on the Argentine side and a half-day on the Brazilian side. It is possible, but the park in Argentina is huge, and I wish I had planned to do it in 2 days. It would fit better with my pace and be a lot less stressful. If you can avoid following the big groups arriving by bus especially in the morning, I think you can avoid the queues and enjoy the views a lot more.

Summary

Maybe it did have an impact that I unfortunately was not quite on top but I don’t think the visit to the Argentinian National Park was as great as I had imagined. It was a very hot day and maybe I did not drink enough water. I had as usual also lost the battle with the air conditioning, so to see see everything, I will have to go back, which is always disappointing.

I could have gone back the following day, but I woke up very early to thunder, lightning and lots of rain. It continued almost all day, so none of my ideas for the day made sense. No trip back to Argentina, no trip to Paraguay and not even what had been my original plan; a day in a chair at the pool. The temperature had dropped a lot, so it was too cold to sit outside.

I have since met others who have visited Iguazu and they did not think either, it had been that great an experience. The waterfalls are huge and a fantastic sight, but there are too many people and you have to do too much in a short time.

My recommendation: Plan to go through the park in Argentina on two days in a slightly different order then the groups arriving with bus, then I think the pleasure is much better. Moreover, it is possible to buy a 2 day ticket to the park, and you can also stay at the hotel in the park.

Maybe you should just keep your expectations low, but I was happy, I visited the Brazilian side first. The first sight of the waterfalls was breathtaking and it is difficult not to be impressed about Gaganta the Diabo on both sides.

Bird Park

I also visited the bird park. It was a pretty big park with a lot of different birds and especially very noisy parrots. The park was very close to my hotel, and on my first day at the hotel I wondered what the noise was, I could hear, now I got the answer. Parrots.

It was a pleasant walk through the park with the variety of birds. It took a couple og hours and was very enjoyable. Inside you also find cafes and on my visit a group of indignious people were singing.

Border Crossing

To get the night bus to Buenos Aires, I had to cross the border. Before leaving, I had a few hours by the pool. Maybe I should have spent a little less time there, as my trip from Brazil to Argentina were a little more hectic than expected. I had ordered a taxi to the hotel, and they estimated it would take 45 minutes. It sounded ok for me based on my experience a few days earlier. The taxi came in good time, so we had a little more than an hour before I was to check in and swap my reservation with a real ticket. Passport check out of Brazil went quickly, but when we came out on the road again, there was a queue. My taxi driver sounded very surprised, so it was obviously not the usual situation. First he tried to cross from one lane to the other, but it did not help much – we were stocked.

We had 55 minutes when we left the Brazilian border, but time passes quickly when you have to be somewhere in time. With a little more than half an hour left, I showed my ticket to my taxi driver and tried to find out how close we were to the Argentine border. The driver studied the ticket, looked at traffic and decided; he had to do something. There were fortunately not much traffic going to Brazil, so he went out in that lane. We met bicycles, motorcycles, but no cars until we were stopped by two  police officers on motorcycles. They got the story, looked at my ticket and YES they let us continue. A little further on we met a police car. The taxi driver repeated the story, referred to the police on motorcycles, and they also let us continue. Finally, at the border the staff looked at us in disbelief, but when they got the story, they showed us to a queue with 3 cars. The taxi driver decided that we could not wait, so he drove up in front of them. It meant we were stopped by a person – I guess with some kind of authority in the area – when he heard the story and got my ticket, he let us park and go to the passport control. He was obviously also used to walk around with papers, as he continued on with my ticket in hand. As soon as the car was parked, I had to run after him to get my ticket back. Inside the building, there were only 4 immigration officers who were sitting with stacks of ID cards and passports from the various bus passengers. They did not care  much about my story, so we had to wait, but eventually a lady opened one more boot, and we were asked to go there. Passport control was quickly done, so back to the car and finally we were able to head towards Puerto Iguazu. We did not have much time left, but the city is close and 3 min before my deadline, we parked at the bus terminal. There was still half an hour until the bus would leave, but I was nervous about whether there would be a waiting list so that my reservation would be sold. After a quick adios and big thank you to my taxi driver, I went into the building to find the office for my bus company. There were about 20 different bus companies each with a little office, but almost at the end, I found my company and I got my reservation switched to the correct bus ticket.

Bye Brazil

It was also “welcome” to Argentina. This time I was not greeted by someone with a big smile. I had got so used to the smiling and happy Brazilians, so the episode was very obvious. Here was I, with adrenaline pumping due to the last hour of excitement. Very happy because I had reached it on time, but the person on the other side, hardly looked at me and did not smile at all. A bit like it would probably happen in many og the other places in the world I have visited – except Brazil.

So goodbye Brazil, many thanks for a great time. I am pretty sure I will come back. I would like to find out the secret behind the smiles and the very positive attitude. Though life is hard, some do not even get paid their salary for the moment, but they are still happy and smiling and not least, they also make other people happy. – Just have to ask – how do they do it?

Thank you for reading the blog. Next stop is Buenos Aires. Until then, check out my photos from: Iguazu