Day 164 (December 3): Iguazu Falls (or "So Much Water")
I've written dozens of posts in the last five months and never has the feeling struck me, or struck me as hard as it does here, to instruct you to visit this place where we've been. I think I implored you to go to Alabama, especially Montgomery, to understand civil rights history firsthand. But here, for reasons more adventurous than ethical, I am compelled to instruct you to visit Igauzu Falls.
EE-gwa-zoo. Appearing variously as Iguazu, Iguassu and Iguacu.
The falls reside just upstream from the convergence of the Iguazu river, which divides southern Brazil on the north/east from northern Argentina on the south/west, and the Parana River, which divides both from Paraguay to the west (of both). In other words, it's a little like Pittsburgh;)
The singular characteristic of these falls, relative to peers such as Niagara and Victoria, is the breadth. There are roughly 250 distinct falls spread across roughly 2 miles with the highlight being "Devil's Throat." A pair of terrific national parks on each side (Brazil, Argentina) offer boardwalks so that you can experience these falls from just about every angle, more or less including in/under. You can also board a boat to address the sweat you built up walking around in this heat and humidity!
In advance of our arrival, we hired an independent guide through an online booking service, toursbylocals.com. I recommend the service generally (although AirBnB is catching up quickly) and our guide specifically as she was exceptional. We were picked up at our hotel and escorted in a comfortable van through border crossings, park entrances and more with nary a worry. It was exceptional.
On the first day, we visited the Brazilian side. A very short and crowded walk took us to various viewpoints, closer and closer to the Devil's Throat itself. Finally, we walked out a boardwalk until, as far as I can tell, you are nearly in the current. So much so that, according to our Lilian, almost all of the walkways were destroyed by flooding about five years ago. (48 million liters per minute will do that, even when the typical is 2 million.)
On the first day we also opted for a jet boat tour that took us up river to near the same spot. Because we chose the "dry" tour we didn't get soaked but we got a very nice (cooling) misting. It was definitely the best 25 minutes we've had in a long time.
On the second day we started by visiting the monuments at the convergence of the rivers. Each country has a small tower/column/obelisk painted in their respective colors. It's a beautiful vista and a nice photo op.
Then we went to the Argentinian National Park for the falls. We started by riding a lovely narrow-gauge train to the trailhead for the Devil's Throat, redux. The hike is about a kilometer roundtrip, mostly on a metal boardwalk. It's a solid line of tourists going in both directions and one quickly notices that many of the people walking back are soaking wet under a bright blue sky. We were happily distracted by butterflies along the way, too.
We took the train most of the way back to the start and found our way to one of the park's cafeterias, which was very good (as was the one from the day before). The US national parks could take a page from this, for sure. We passed some extra time here as a heavy rainstorm passed over us. There was some ice cream involved. Then we embarked on the "superior circuit" 2km hike, which was much more beautiful than the hike on the Brazilian side, riddled as it is with viewpoints and numerous minor/intermediate waterfalls. There's a final boardwalk out to a viewpoint extremely close to the falls.
This outlook is at the top, whereas the Brazilian viewpoint is toward the bottom. Here, on the Argentinian side, the roar of the water is somehow louder and the mist is enveloping. I think I have expressed this thought earlier in the trip: experiences like this make me feel simultaneously larger than life ("I'm here, look at the marvel of humans for making this experience possible!") and also infinitesimally small ("Wow, humans are really nothing in the scheme of the universe and the earth; we could we washed away like a drop of rain over these falls.")
In addition to the falls, we had the good luck to stay at a lovely resort, El Pueblito. This is outside of the small town, which is a disadvantage. Without a car, we were essentially stranded. The bad news on this is that the hotel restaurant was unimpressive. Some of the dinner dishes were quite good but the service was mostly very slow (bad when eating late with tired, small children) and 50% of the time the food was badly overcooked. On the other hand, the hotel is also a small zoo of sorts. The kids barely remembered it had a pool when faced with the joys of a butterfly house, an assortment of snakes and even an alligator. Did I mention the warthog?
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| Igauzu Falls from the short boat trip we enjoyed! |
EE-gwa-zoo. Appearing variously as Iguazu, Iguassu and Iguacu.
The falls reside just upstream from the convergence of the Iguazu river, which divides southern Brazil on the north/east from northern Argentina on the south/west, and the Parana River, which divides both from Paraguay to the west (of both). In other words, it's a little like Pittsburgh;)
The singular characteristic of these falls, relative to peers such as Niagara and Victoria, is the breadth. There are roughly 250 distinct falls spread across roughly 2 miles with the highlight being "Devil's Throat." A pair of terrific national parks on each side (Brazil, Argentina) offer boardwalks so that you can experience these falls from just about every angle, more or less including in/under. You can also board a boat to address the sweat you built up walking around in this heat and humidity!
In advance of our arrival, we hired an independent guide through an online booking service, toursbylocals.com. I recommend the service generally (although AirBnB is catching up quickly) and our guide specifically as she was exceptional. We were picked up at our hotel and escorted in a comfortable van through border crossings, park entrances and more with nary a worry. It was exceptional.
 |
| Ali, who spent most of two days attached to our terrific guide, Lilian Regina. |
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| We were honored to include our guide's feet with ours on a catwalk over one of the hundreds of falls that comprise Iguazu |
On the first day, we visited the Brazilian side. A very short and crowded walk took us to various viewpoints, closer and closer to the Devil's Throat itself. Finally, we walked out a boardwalk until, as far as I can tell, you are nearly in the current. So much so that, according to our Lilian, almost all of the walkways were destroyed by flooding about five years ago. (48 million liters per minute will do that, even when the typical is 2 million.)
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| Our first glimpse |
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| Getting closer to the water... |
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| How many tourists does it take to snap a selfie of 250 waterfalls? |
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| You can't help but smile |
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| Not a photo trick, I'm really that close. |
On the first day we also opted for a jet boat tour that took us up river to near the same spot. Because we chose the "dry" tour we didn't get soaked but we got a very nice (cooling) misting. It was definitely the best 25 minutes we've had in a long time.
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| Boat trip! |
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| Aren't we a nice looking bunch? |
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| Yeah, kinda fun! |
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| Not a bad scene |
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| More smiles! |
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| Smiles! |
On the second day we started by visiting the monuments at the convergence of the rivers. Each country has a small tower/column/obelisk painted in their respective colors. It's a beautiful vista and a nice photo op.
 |
| The Brazilian monument is far in the background |
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| The Paraguay monument is way in the distance of this one. |
Then we went to the Argentinian National Park for the falls. We started by riding a lovely narrow-gauge train to the trailhead for the Devil's Throat, redux. The hike is about a kilometer roundtrip, mostly on a metal boardwalk. It's a solid line of tourists going in both directions and one quickly notices that many of the people walking back are soaking wet under a bright blue sky. We were happily distracted by butterflies along the way, too.
 |
| Cate didn't want to get wet. |
 |
| Butterflies! |
We took the train most of the way back to the start and found our way to one of the park's cafeterias, which was very good (as was the one from the day before). The US national parks could take a page from this, for sure. We passed some extra time here as a heavy rainstorm passed over us. There was some ice cream involved. Then we embarked on the "superior circuit" 2km hike, which was much more beautiful than the hike on the Brazilian side, riddled as it is with viewpoints and numerous minor/intermediate waterfalls. There's a final boardwalk out to a viewpoint extremely close to the falls.
 |
| Smiles! |
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| Inner smile |
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| Here's half of the 12 set against one of the falls. |
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| Cate was very excited to be on her own during the hike |
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| In his happy place (looking for fish) |
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| Beauty |
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| Water in the foreground. Water in the background. |
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| Like I said, 250 falls in 2 miles. |
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| See above. |
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| More smiles. |
This outlook is at the top, whereas the Brazilian viewpoint is toward the bottom. Here, on the Argentinian side, the roar of the water is somehow louder and the mist is enveloping. I think I have expressed this thought earlier in the trip: experiences like this make me feel simultaneously larger than life ("I'm here, look at the marvel of humans for making this experience possible!") and also infinitesimally small ("Wow, humans are really nothing in the scheme of the universe and the earth; we could we washed away like a drop of rain over these falls.")
In addition to the falls, we had the good luck to stay at a lovely resort, El Pueblito. This is outside of the small town, which is a disadvantage. Without a car, we were essentially stranded. The bad news on this is that the hotel restaurant was unimpressive. Some of the dinner dishes were quite good but the service was mostly very slow (bad when eating late with tired, small children) and 50% of the time the food was badly overcooked. On the other hand, the hotel is also a small zoo of sorts. The kids barely remembered it had a pool when faced with the joys of a butterfly house, an assortment of snakes and even an alligator. Did I mention the warthog?
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