Iguazu Falls, Argentina
Argentina is perhaps most famous for its mountains or coastline. Most people have probably already heard of the Mendoza wine region at the foothills of the Andes, or Patagonia, or know Buenos Aires is a city on the water. But Argentina also has a piece of the Amazon Jungle. The northern edge of Argentina is a lush rainforest and at the corner of the country, shared with Brazil, is a stunning waterfall called Iguazu Falls. Our short weekend took us to the literal edge of the falls and even under the thundering falls themselves!
Iguazu Falls sits in Parque Nacional Iguazu but is actually split down the middle between Argentina and Brazil as the river that flows over the falls, Iguazu River, is the shared border between the two countries. We split our trip up and did one day on the Argentina side and one day on the Brazil side. Iguazu Falls has the 6th largest volume of water flowing through it in the world and according to certain definitions is the world's largest waterfall; it is 3 times taller than Niagara Falls and is wider than Victoria Falls but Victoria Falls has the largest uninterrupted stretch of falls.
The Argentina side has multiple walking paths taking you to different areas of the falls and a boat tour that takes you right up to the falls from the river below. We entered the park and walked two different paths to view the falls.
Circuito Superior takes you above the falls so you can see the water flowing over the edge at multiple locations; there are actually between 150 and 300 unique sections depending on the height of the Iguazu River. The path takes you to the falls through the rain forest and rivers that feed the waterfalls. The view from the top was incredible and the size and sound of the water growing over the falls was amazing. We also saw some monkeys and plenty of birds and butterflies on our walk.
Circuito Inferior is another path that takes you to the middle level of the falls (on the south rim of the falls there is a middle level of rock that the highest falls hit before falling again to the river below. On the northern side in the canyon the falls mostly make the full drop in one go). Here we were able to see some of the falls from the side and some of the smaller ones up close. Unfortunately the area of the path that takes you to the top edge of bigger falls was closed due to a recent flash flood.
Our afternoon was spent on the boat tour of the falls. This is an adventure tour that takes you right up to the bottom of the falls from the river below. It was only as we were boarding the bus that we learned we didn’t just go up to the falls, we went inside the falls; glad we had our rain jackets! We hopped on a safari bus that took us through the jungle and talked to us about the park and wildlife. We then descended down steps to get to the river, where we boarded the boat to take us to the falls. The river was already quite large and moving fast so getting to the falls was an adventure; the captain had to gun it up a few sections just to fight the currents and rapids. We first went up the canyon to the northern side a bit to get a sense of the scale of the falls (they were HUGE). We then went around to the south side and the captain took the boat into the spray of the water hitting the river. The water was so intense you couldn’t keep your eyes open and we all got soaked. Luckily the sound of the water blocked out both of our screams (ok, it was just Matt who was screaming). We did this a couple more times, went back to the first waterfall, and got soaked again in these falls. It was an absolutely thrilling and insane time. We will never forget how ridiculous the scale and power of the falls felt that close.
The next day we headed to the Brazil side of the falls. This involved us catching a bus from Puerto Iguazu and crossing the border into Brazil. Weirdly, we didn’t have to do any type of immigration or checks getting into brazil, but this definitely still counts as another country visited on our trip. One thing we did forget was that they don’t speak Spanish in Brazil; the signs immediately changed into Portuguese and we were so lost. We had never heard Portuguese before but I can assure you it is not just a different dialect of Spanish. Luckily we had plenty of help from the guides at the park and the Brazil park is a little simpler than the Argentina side. There is only one path and a bus takes you to the start and picks you up at the end. The path on the Brazil side is along the cliffs above the river and gives you panorama views of the falls the whole time. We got some great shots of where we were walking yesterday and a better perspective on the true size of the falls. We also were able to get more into the northern canyon where the falls are even more intense than the south rim. We couldn’t see the actual water going over the falls at certain points because the mist from the water crashing into the river clouded the falls themselves. The end of the walking path takes you to a middle level of the falls and you can even walk out to stand right on the edge of the 2nd level of falls. We were so close to the falls that the spray from the upper falls felt like heavy rain blowing in the wind.
Iguazu Falls was absolutely incredible. We would definitely recommend anyone traveling in Argentina or Brazil make time to experience the incredible size and scale of the waterfall. We didn’t love the town of Puerto Iguazu, especially after getting a quick glimpse of the charm of Buenos Aires before our visit. So if visiting, we think you should find a nice hotel or resort and don’t bother much with seeing the town itself. With most of our time spent at the two National Parks, the weekend went by with a blur but we are sure glad we made the trek to this incredible place!