Iguaçu Falls from Argentina and Brazil
Trip dates: April 13, 2017 - April 16, 2017
Surprise - we are still blogging! On to the last of our 4 continents of the trip.
Our first stop in South America was Iguaçu Falls - largest waterfall system in the world (based on width). It’s not as tall as Victoria Falls that we just saw in Zimbabwe, but it has 275 waterfalls and stretches 1.7 miles wide (twice as wide as Niagra Falls - which is the largest waterfall by volume).
To get here, we flew from Johannesburg -> São Paolo on South African Airways which was from our main itinerary, and then we separately booked a flight on GOL (the Brazilian airline) from São Paolo to Foz do Iguaçu (Brazil).
There are two sides to the falls: the Brazilian side and Argentinian side. Even though we flew into the Brazilian side, we actually went to the park first on the Argentinian side. It’s a pretty normal thing, where taxis pick you up from the Foz de Iguaçu airport and bring you through customs. It was nice that that taxis here all had set rates - we double checked price with the driver but didn’t really have to worry as much about taxi mafia-like behavior that you see in bigger airports throughout South America. Drivers do generally take both Brazilian reals or Argentinian pesos, since they spend time on both sides of the border.
We arrived in the evening when the park was closed, but since we were staying at the Sheraton which is actually inside the official park, we were able to enter after hours without paying an admission fee. Typically, you pay the park entrance fee on the way in to the hotel.
One of the ridiculous things with this border crossing is that we didn’t have any Argentinian pesos at all, since we came in all through Brazil. Also, the entrance fee must be paid in cash, in pesos only (no Brazilian reals nor USD accepted nor credit card). There are also no ATMs or anything useful on the way in to the park. There is one ATM at the front of the park that I tried multiple times, but it was always out of order. Luckily, there is one ATM inside the park that was working, although it was hidden away. Good thing we read on some random TripAdvisor reviews that it existed or else, I probably would have been trying to make shady cash deals with people around.
Given that I generally worried about the logistics/cash situation, this stressed me out way too much and I wish they would modernize their systems to at least take credit card.
One of the downsides to staying at the Sheraton is that you are pretty limited on food options. There are two different restaurants in the Sheraton, a nicer one and a more casual one. We ended up eating at the casual one a few times simply because we didn’t want to have to taxi back and forth from the nearest town (taking valuable cash). Others seem to have done this with no problem, YMMV. There are also a couple options inside the park during the day to get food and snacks, which are more reasonably priced than the Sheraton.
There also a ton of animals, called coati, that are around the park. They look cute initially, but have really sharp teeth and claws. Imagine if raccoons were roaming around - it’s kind of like that. There are lots of signs warning people to avoid interacting with them, though we still saw some tourists trying to feed these South American trash pandas.
We also saw some monkeys hanging out in the trees when walking around, though it was pretty dense and hard to get a good photo. Lishan was constantly on the lookout hoping to see a toucan, but we didn’t see any :(
Weather wise, it was super hot and humid at the falls. It was also super duper jam packed with mostly South American tourists (we ran into many from Brazil who spoke no English). We happened to be visiting the falls during a holiday weekend so there were lots of local families and not nearly as many international tourists.
A common situation for us when interacting with people:
Us: “Fala inglês?” - “Do you speak English” in Portugese
Them: “No, I do not speak English” in perfect English. We were skeptical initially but soon learned that they were being perfectly honest and this is the only thing they can say in English. They just say it without an accent and it seems ridiculous.
South American tourists reminded us of Asian tourists in that they also didn’t seem to care about personal space and we often got jostled or had someone stand right next to us when we were trying to take photos. Yay people…
Anyways, it was really pretty at the falls - the colors are very vibrant, trees very lush, and butterflies would land on our hands. There’s a whole network of boardwalks that take you around the falls to various viewpoints. The albums below are split into three:
Argentinian side of the falls
The Devil’s Throat (Garganta del Diablo) - the largest waterfall in Iguaçu Falls
Brazilian side of the falls
From the Argentinian side:
To get to the Devil’s Throat, we took the little scenic train there. We saw from the first day that it was super crowded, so we went earlier the following day to try and avoid the crowds. It was still busy but the wait wasn’t too terrible.
The actual falls section where you can take photos is pretty tight. It was jam packed with people and photographers, and also very loud due to the sheer amount of water that was shooting through the “throat”.
Garganta del Diablo - the Devil’s Throat
Finally, we did a day trip to the Brazilian side of the falls. It gives a different perspective of the falls, since you are further away. The park on the Brazilian side was a little more put together & less crowded, which made for a much more pleasant experience. Some people had mentioned spending multiple days here, but honestly one day/afternoon felt like more than enough. There are some side hikes and areas you can visit in the area beyond the main falls, but it was so hot and humid that we only walked to the various viewpoints of the falls.
There is a shuttle bus system that brings you from the entrance to the different parts of the park that actually had some English announcements which was nice.
We took a taxi from one side to the other - I think our same taxi waited for us to come back and we paid a generally pre-set rate in order for him to do so. I wish I could remember how much, but it’s been almost 2 years so details are a bit fuzzy. Sorry!
We would definitely recommend visiting both the Argentinian and Brazilian side if you are going to Iguaçu Falls. Even though you’re seeing the same water feature, the perspective that you get from the two sides is pretty different. The viewpoints in Argentina are much closer to the waterfalls, with some being over the waterfalls. The Brazilian viewpoints, on the other hand, provide much more panoramic views and allows you to appreciate the width of the falls much better.
