Wednesday 21 March
Niagra, you suck. Well, at least when compared to the Iguazú. Spelled Iguaçu in Portuguese and Iguazú in Spanish, the falls happen on the Iguazu river forming a border between Brazil and Argentina. Both sides have have their view of the falls (poor Paraguay is so close, but doesn’t get the falls).
I found the two sides to be very complementary. The Brazilian side offers great panoramic view of the falls while the Argentinian side you get up close and personal (and wet).
I arrived into Foz do Iguaçu (the town on the Brazilian side) on Wednesday early afternoon. I ran into a friend from Rio on the bus who was staying at the same hostel. The directions the hostel gave were not particularly great (or accurate), so it was definitely helpful having someone who knew where they were going. After checking in, the weather was overcast and the clouds portended rain. But my time was limited, so I decided to risk it. It never rained that day (or if it did, it was impossible to distinguish from the mists created by the pounding falls).
The Brazilian park is set up nicely: you take a bus from the park entrance and are dropped off a few meters from the first viewpoint. From that first lookout, the falls are immediately impressive. Tens of small waterfalls cascading from the river above.
Then you walk along the path and are greeted by even more falls, even more impressive than the first group.
Finally, you come along to the final location with its view of the immense Garganta de Diablo (Devil’s Throat). You pretty much can’t make it out in the photos because of all the mist, but that’s it around the corner:
After an hour and a half or so (that’s all you really need for the Brazilian side), I sat down for a beer. Coatis, a relative of racoons, were everywhere. And they want your food. If you have food in a bag, they will bite through your bag. Coati “>don’t give a shit. One tried to steal my beer and led to me spilling all over myself.
The next day I moved over to the Argentinian side, but as this post has grown too long, and I’m in need of a nap, I’ll save the rest for later.
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