Iguazu Falls – Brazilian and Argentine sides

We decided to spend one day at the Brazilian side of the falls and another at the Argentine side, and what a difference there was. The town closest to the Brazilian side is called Foz do Iguacu and it’s pretty sleepy. When we arrived (later than expected) in Foz do Iguacu, the streets were quiet. Our pousada host had recommended us a churrascaria place so we’d headed off there in a rush, only to find it closed on Sundays. But thankfully on the way we’d passed another – Tropicana – so we then rushed back there to find they were still very much open and happy to have us. It felt like most of Foz was in there getting their fill of barbecued meats and the salad bar. Our first (and it turned out last) churrascaria experience didn’t disappoint – the meat skewers came around thick and fast and after about 10 minutes we were already protesting and apologising for not being able to eat anymore. They seemed a little offended (worried?) as most of the other diners were piling their plates high.

The next day we aimed to get to the falls by 9am as we’d heard that the crowds start to build up after that. In the end we arrived at 10am but it didn’t seem that busy. Buying a ticket was quick and easy and – after being forced to have our official photo taken in various poses – we hopped onto a double decker bus for the ride to the start of the trail. Everyone else clambered up onto the top deck, leaving Kim and I with a private trip in the air conditioned inside of the bus. We got off at the second stop and then walked the Trilha das Cataratas (Waterfall Trail) right until the main event which is the Garganta do Diabo. Along the trail we kept thinking ‘this is the main event’, then we’d go around a corner and see an even bigger waterfall, and so it went until we were definitely at the heart of the beast.

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We think the pictures speak for themselves, so let’s get back to…food. We finished the trail at lunchtime and given that it was going to take us potentially another hour to get back to town, we decided to splash out on the buffet restaurant overlooking the river at the top of the falls. With caiprinhas and ceviche galore, we were pretty pleased with our choice. Definitely worth spending the extra bit of money on, and a nice relaxing pitstop before we returned to town and spent 40 minutes queueing at the post office to send a postcard…

The next day we crossed into Argentina which was super easy. We’d booked (before leaving Belgium) a transfer as it was possible we were going to need to prove we planned to leave Brazil within 90 days. Turns out we didn’t need this at customs but the transfer also included the driver sorting out your stamps for you (we never even got out of the car…) so this made it very easy. We left Foz at 9am and were already at our guesthouse in Puerto Iguazu Argentina by 9.40am.

So our 3 day visit to the falls turned into a waterfall and admin sandwich. The middle day was spent getting laundry done, buying an Argentine SIM card, working out where we were going to go next (this involved a trip back in time to an internet cafe to print tickets…), and hassling about with money. First our cards weren’t accepted at the guesthouse because they were taking payment in USD rather than Argentine peso, and we hadn’t activated the cards for the US. Then we couldn’t use cards in restaurants because they only had swipey machines and not chip and pin ones. You have to show ID too, if you want to use a credit card. And you also need to sign a bit of paper (even if you’ve entered a pin code). Then there was the fun of withdrawing cash at the bank. There is currently a limit of how much you can take out – 4000 pesos (60 Euros) – and every time you do so there’s a 10 euro fee to pay (from the Argentine bank, not ours). So pretty much every transaction we made in Puerto had something complicated about it. We’d had absolutely no problems in Brazil so this was a bit of a downer at the start of our Argentine leg.

After our admin filling, we did our second day at the falls. We walked to the bus station and were surprised to find that we’d have to pay about 10 times more than we did in Brazil for a ticket on a Rio Uruguay bus. There didn’t seem to be a true local bus. In Foz there were hardly any tourists, but Puerto has a completely different feel – souvenir shops all over the place, American style bars and diners, and lots of tour groups at the falls themselves. Once we’d arrived at the park and bought our ticket (ID needs to be shown, by the way) we followed the crowd and could feel ourselves being dragged onto a toy train ride (extra charge but we never found out how much) to the main waterfall. We decided to walk it and hopefully get away from the crowds. It definitely got better, and we did both the circuito superior and inferior (the better one) in a couple of hours in 35 degree heat and humidity like I’ve never felt before. We were shattered at the end of it, but it took a lot less time than the map in the park told us it would. We’d already decided not to eat at the falls and were glad we didn’t – it was mainly hamburgers and fries.

In his dehydrated state, Kim decided to draw an analogy with a record. There’s an A side and a B side, but in the case of Iguazu Falls, it was the B side we would play again and again. Brazil 1 – Argentina 0.

Some other practical info:

• We took a Catarinense bus from Curitiba to Foz do Iguacu, which we thought was going to be a 9-hour ride but it turned into 11 hours. Unfortunately the weather was so bad (rain, fog etc) for about the first 10 hours of the journey so we didn’t really see much in terms of scenery.
• There was one main lunch stop where we had some coxinha which definitely weren’t as good as the ones in Curitiba’s Oscar Niemeyer Museum. For the rest of the journey we only stopped to pick off and drop passengers.
• We got a taxi from the main bus station in Foz do Iguacu to our pousada in the centre of town, and this cost us less than 5 euros.
• To get to the falls from Foz, we walked to the main bus station. You need to pay for your ticket (3.95 real per person per trip) before entering the station. They don’t give you a ticket but if you manage to get past the guy at the gates, the bus driver knows you’ve paid. We didn’t have to wait long for a number 120 bus to ‘Parque Nacional’. It also goes to the airport so it was easy to find. The bus took about 40 minutes to drop us at the final stop – the national park.