Holy bananas. That was amazing.
Okay, super quick recap of our time before heading to the falls. We landed, we got to the hotel, we went into town for an entirely unsatisfying meal. We had drinks on our balcony back at the hotel. We had breakfast (they had cupcakes at breakfast!) and we got picked up by our driver. We had an awesome day.
We spent our morning on the Argentine side of the falls and the afternoon on the Brazilian side. It was incredible. Iguazú Falls is a series of waterfalls that make up the largest waterfall system in the world. Both sides of the falls have chosen to create national parks around the falls so while both sides have pathways, you’re still in the forest as you wander along - you aren’t in a tourist town like Niagara Falls. On the Argentine side, there are a series of trails, including a lower circuit, an upper circuit and a walk out to the Devil’s Throat, where you are right along the top of that waterfall. We did all three in a few hours (a good chunk of the lower circuit is closed) and it was absolutely stunning. You get quite close to the various waterfalls and the thundering of the water at the Devil’s Throat is intense. While we clocked a fair number of kilometres, it was easy walking because all of these raised trails have been constructed to guide you along. Once we had our fill of the Argentine side, we got some lunch and then headed over to the Brazilian side.
Now, obviously, going to the other side means crossing an international border. And that can be lengthy if it’s busy. But we had a car that wasn’t the van that picked us up in the morning get us from the Argentine falls and started driving us towards Brazil. Then we slowed down and we were told we were in the line for the cars to cross the border. BUT! The van that look us out to the fall in the morning was a special vehicle that got to bypass that line and it was waiting for us! So we jumped in there and off we went. Our driver took our passports, disappeared out of the car for a while and soon enough, was back with the passports and we were zooming towards the Brazil park.
The Brazil park really only has one trail along the river & falls and you have to be bussed up to it. So you end up moving as a pack once you get up there and it feels much busier. You get really spectacular views of the falls from the Brazil side because while the river is mainly in Brazil, the waterfalls are in Argentina. So you get the great views from Brazil but get much closer from Argentina. We didn’t get as close to the Devil’s Throat but we were quite close to the base of one of the waterfalls right near it that had much less water flowing over and we still got pretty wet so I think it’s okay we didn’t get closer to the base of the Devil’s Throat! The mist felt pretty good though, because it’s gotten rather warm and the rain in the forecast never showed up.
Then it was back to the van and back over the border. As we approached, our driver asked if it was okay if we walked over the border while he drove across since it would be easier for him to get back into Argentina without foreigners in the car. I had actually read about this so wasn’t too sketched out and out we got! There’s a proper border crossing, we went through customs, etc. It’s used for a lot of tour buses and that sort of thing. It took us no time at all to get across and our driver was already waiting for us when we got through. He took us back to the hotel and we had a nice dinner at the hotel before packing up to be ready for our shuttle back to the airport in the morning for our flight to Córdoba. The plan there is to try to get out to the Parque Nacional Quebrada del Condorito and see some condors!